Day 5 Gulf State Park
Up at 6:00 – windy so I took in the awning. The temp finally warmed up a bit and was bearable. Took the dogs for a walk and finally had time to start writing down our journey. Made coffee using my dad’s old trick – put warm water in the cups first to get them warm so the coffee doesn’t get cold from the cup. gina got up about 8:30. She made breakfast, a couple of eggs (twins again! – I wonder what those amish are feeding the chickens up there in PA? with avocado. The smoke alarm went off and remi started shaking like a leaf again. Took us awhile to get him back inside which was mandatory, because gina and I were going for a bike ride….. without the dogs.
We started out on the bikes in suspect weather, one guy sitting outside his RV said to us “I hope you all are fixin to get wet”. Well we continued anyway and gina commented on how nice our new bikes were and how fast they were. We stopped at park signs for directions - It is worth mentioning that all of the bike paths at GSP are very well marked at every fork and with a map, which we didn’t have, you can’t get lost. We did fix the map thing later – thanks iphone! Anyway, gina was set on finding the Lodge at GSP so we headed down a boardwork and hauled ass on our new bikes. We crossed a small section of the lake and ended up near the dog park. There was a crosswalk that went over the street so we climbed up it and crossed the street with ease. Down the other side we continued west and ended up at the pier, but we forgot our “free” pier passes. We rode up to the entrance and took a few pics. Gina saw the lodge and said lets go check it out. It was then that she realized our new bikes were not as fast as she thought. We were now heading straight into the 30mph wind that was pushing us the first 2 miles. OUCH! We were barely moving, but made it to the lodge. Now let me tell you that this lodge is pretty nice. We learned that it is actually a Hilton Inn. It was destroyed completely in Hurricane Ivan and was redone in a completely eco friendly manner. This is there first year open. We rode up to the entrance and the bellhop asked us if we wanted to park our bikes and take a look around – sure! They actually have a pretty impressive storage “closet” for bikes – no need to lock them up as he would be watching. We went in and found a very clean and chic looking open space. To the left was a coffee bar so we naturally had to have one – a coffee and peppermint schnapps for gina and an irish coffee for me. We sat and played around with Instagram pics until we decided to go. Then gina wanted lunch, well it was 11:30 and I will eat anytime so sure, I had a speck flatbread and gina had the tacos. I learned that speck was actually pork belly. We couldn’t eat it all so we took some of the pork belly back to the dogs for treats. Oh yes, I did have a session IPA with my lunch.
We tipped the bellhop, got on our bikes and headed back. I gave gina two options – the way we came or go around the lake. I estimated the former at 1 ½ miles, the latter at 5 miles…. Of course she said lets go around the Lake! So we took off… downwind again with our really fast new bikes. But what a nice ride it turned out to be. The wind on the way back was blocked by some trees in many areas so we didn’t feel the full brunt. We actually took some detours that added a couple of miles more. We could have gone even longer but started to worry about the dogs so found a shortcut back to the RV (thanks again to signs and the map). We did manage to take one off road excursion on a mild trail calld Armadillo Way. The whole rest of the way was on paved trails or boardwalks. We got back to the RV about 1:30 and woke the dogs up… They definitely were not worried about us.
Once back home we decided to head to Walmart and get a few supplies. We needed a sewer line support, battery, and some miscellaneous kitchen supplies. We also went to Rousso’s market to buy some food for gina to cook dinner, then to the liquor store for some whiskey for hot toddys! When we got back to the RV I hooked up the sewer stand and decided to tackle the broken scissor jack from the Wine ding way wreck! After getting the old jack off I realized that some new bolts were needed as the old ones were bent…. Mapquest Paris Ace Hardware and off I go with Remi in the back. The hardware stores in Alabama, at least this one, are completely different from those back home in Jupiter. In this one, a guy greeted me in the isle and asked what I needed. Nuts and bolts – boom got em, a connector for the battery – boom got it, a lock pin for the trailer hitch – boom in hand… out the store in 10 minutes. In Jupiter it would take me 10 minutes to find a clerk, then when I would ask for bolts – I get the answer “isle 20” and spend 10 minutes looking for the bolts, the other two items, forget about it. Anyway, back at the RV the scissor jack was fixed, not without some complications that I needed gina’s help, but it was done.
We then took the dogs for a long walk through places we didn’t even know existed, while gina had dinner in the insta pot – a great cooker for RV use cause it is quick and easy. She cooked a Keto dinner of turkey sausage, spaghetti squash, sautéed kale and pickled beets. MMM good. We both took a hot shower, jumped in bed, did some reading and lights out by 10:00.