Thursday night forty-nine people from Escapees Rainbow Plantation went to the Acapulco Grill in Foley, Alabama for a Mexican meal. It took the staff nearly two hours to serve everyone, but none of us was in a hurry. We are all retired. Linda got her sewing machine out of storage in the basement of the motorhome and has been practicing her hobby this week. We have had warm days and cool nights. The southern Alabama area is flat and sandy with pecan orchards and cotton fields covering much of the land. During World War II the U.S. Navy built several runways in the area of the campground where we are staying. Here they trained pilots and after the war the airstrips reverted to farmland and one became a landfill.

Nearby Pensacola, Florida has a long naval history. The National Naval Air Museum located on the Pensacola Naval Base has many interesting airplanes, helicopters and other displays pertaining to naval history. Best of all, it is free. For a small fee there is an IMAX theater showing breathtaking and entertaining films. The museum is so large it takes all day to see and study the displays. You can take a tour on your own or join a group guided by a former naval pilot which is recommended.

Norm spent four years in the U.S. Air Force and has studied U.S. history his entire life, but there was one airplane, actually a flying boat, that he and most people have never heard of. The airplane made history then was overshadowed by later events and was forgotten. In 1919, not too many years after the Wright brother's famous Kitty Hawk flight, the Navy built four humongous seaplanes simply dubbed NC-1, NC-2, NC-3 and NC-4. Each plane contained four 400 horsepower engines, three pullers and one pusher. They were bi-planes with fat bellies that floated. The wingspread was about the same as the Boeing 727's of today. NC-1 was salvaged with the parts used in the other three planes. The Navy wanted to prove their air superiority by making the first trans-Atlantic crossing by an airplane. On May 8, 1919, the three planes flew up the northeastern coast of the United States and finally to Newfoundland, making several stops along the way. In 1919 there were no navigation systems and the Navy not wanting to fell, came up with an expensive by workable system. They stationed a ship every fifty miles across the Atlantic to send up flares for the planes to follow. In the very front of each plane there was a waist high open air observation stand where the navigator would stand looking for the ships and flares.

During the longest leg of the crossing, from Newfoundland to the Azores, a thick fog arose. It was so thick the navigator reported he could not see the tail of the plane. The three planes had been flying in tight formation, but decided they should separate so they would not crash into each other. NC-2 and NC-3 lost altitude and crashed into the ocean. The crew of NC-2 was rescued by a ship, but NC-3's commander refused to let his crew leave the airplane. They floated their plane
with the engines driving them all the way to Portugal several days later. NC-4 successfully made it to the Azores and waited four days for the weather to break. The final leg of over 800 miles took them to Portugal on May 27 for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airplane. After much celebrating NC-4 flew to England where the plane was disassembled, put aboard a ship and returned to the United States. NC-4 is on display at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola. In 1927, eight years after the historic flight, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop solo across the Atlantic and he became a national hero. NC-4 was forgotten. If you get a chance to visit the museum give the NC-4 a salute, it deserves its rightful place in history.

During our stay at Escapees Rainbow Plantation campground, Summerdale, Alabama, we met many new friends and had lots of fun. We try to stay off interstate highways and don't eat in franchise restaurants. The campground has daily get-to-togethers, ice cream socials, Saturday morning breakfasts, crafts, games, potluck suppers and many other activities. We pick the brains of others trying to find the unique things to do. "Lambert's - Home of the Throwed Rolls," located on highway 59 in Foley, Alabama is a unique restaurant. When the barker yells, "Hot Rolls," you had better duck because a hot roll may go sailing by your ear. Their rolls are delicious and when you want another one just hold up your hand and a roll will be thrown in your direction. The decor is benches and an assortment of old tables and chairs that could have been picked up at yard sales. The food is good and reasonably priced. Several times during our meal servers stopped at our table offering additional food items which they piled on our plates. Two full meals, iced tea, coffee and tip was $27.04.

At a Saturday morning sausage biscuit breakfast at Plantation we met Tom and Tinka Dooley. They are lot owners at Plantation and Tinka teaches crafts. Tom is a retired Navy navigator who served fourteen of his twenty years aboard ships. He planned to go to a country music event that night and asked us to join him. David Parker built a small music barn behind his house four years ago and since then people have been congregating at the barn for a Saturday night country music fest. The band has seven members who all enjoy just picking and singing together. They claim they are amateurs, but their music rivals most professionals. If you enjoy modern country music or rock-a-billy, don't go. David and the band play and sing the old original classics by Hank Williams, Senior, instrumentals such as Harbor Lights and Ghost Riders in the Sky, with a little Bluegrass and gospel music thrown in.

The music began at 7:30 and continued until 9:00 when the audience and band broke for a potluck supper. After everyone's belly was full the music started again and continued until after 11:00. David is multi-talented and plays all string instruments, but most of all he is a very nice person. We talked to the members of the band before the music started and during the break and gave David a handshake and big thanks when the night was over. We highly recommend visiting David's country music barn if you are in the area on a Saturday night. The price is right, it's free, but donations are gladly accepted. We took many back roads from Summerdale to get there, but there is a simple way. From I-10 take Alabama exit 53 and go east on county road 64 about 1 3/4 miles. Turn right on Patterson Road and go 2 1/2 miles to Ernest Patterson Road. There you will find David Parker's house and country music barn.

Needing a haircut Norm sought advice from new friend Tom Dooley. Tom also needed a haircut and he knew a combination barber / preacher who could do the job. There is no reason to fear a new barber, hair will always grow back out. Between cotton fields on Baldwin County road 32 we found Charlie's Barber Shop beside Charlie's house. A honk of the horn brought Charlie out of his house and to the barber shop where he greeted us with handshakes. His shop is in a pressboard building eight by fourteen feet. Charlie is seventy-two years old and plans to barber until he is one hundred and six. The haircut cost $7.00 (including tip) and the stories he told were worth the price.

We tried our luck at two casinos in Biloxi, Mississippi - Casino Magic and Club Beau Rivage. Forty-nine people from the campground took a bus to Biloxi. The cost was $3.00 per person which included coffee, donuts and the bus ride. The first casino treated us to a delicious buffet lunch and five dollars cash. The second casino gave each of us ten dollars. After a full day of slots and eating we ended up spending twenty dollars between the two of us. It was a very enjoyable day.

Norm was able to use some of his limited computer skills in helping neighbors Bob and Charlotte Balik get their computer running while Linda attended a craft class. Wednesday, November 10, we received Great News. Our Realtor called and said he had a firm bid on our house. We spent most of the day on the phone and sending and receiving faxes.

Rainbow Plantation is a nice park with some of the friendliest people in the world, but we bought the motorhome to travel so it was time to hit the road again after sixteen days in Plantation. Our refrigerator would not run on gas, electricity only, so we stopped at Leisure Tyme RV in Pensacola, Florida and got it repaired. The service department at Leisure Tyme was very friendly and efficient. We highly recommend anyone needing repair work to stop at Leisure Tyme. (The next day the refrigerator failed again.)

We drove across the bridge at Pensacola Bay and down the shoreline to Destin, Florida. Our campsite in Holiday Travel Park on the beach cost $11 a day through our discount with Coast to Coast Resorts. Our neighbors were paying $39 a day so we kept quiet. Imagine, a condo on the beach for $11 a day. Life is Great. Norm was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlbert Field, 1964-1967, and lived in Ft. Walton Beach and Mary Esther. In those years Mary Esther was just a spot on the road and consisted of one small combination office building and one service station. Today the town has many houses, condos and shopping malls. Where there used to be dirt roads there are now four lane highways. Destin use to be a little sleepy fishing village with deep sea fishing available for ten dollars a day.
Today there are so many high rise apartments, condos and hotels you can not see the beach. We both love seafood so we selected the Back Porch restaurant in Destin for a big meal. The restaurant overlooks the Gulf on a street named Restaurant Row. We dined on crab legs, shrimp, twice baked potatoes, broccoli, and key lime pie. A very good meal.

There are two roads that take you from Destin to Panama City, the old U.S. 98 and the new U.S. 98. Do not take the new road unless you want to see straight pavement and lots of pine trees. We drove the old road along the Gulf beach which is very scenic. Located on the beach a few miles east of Destin is a planned community named Seaside. The town looked so unique we stopped and walked the streets. The town has a shopping district with many one of a kind shops and there is a post office and a school. The houses, condos and cottages are all of different designs and colors with narrow brick streets. Tropical plants line the streets and surround the buildings. It looks like every square inch of the town was planned. In the town's grocery store the shelves of food are fourteen feet high which makes shopping slow. We purchased some Christmas presents before continuing down old U.S. 98. If you are in the area we recommend you visit the town of Seaside.

The weather was beautiful the week we stayed in Destin, warm days and cool nights. On leaving Destin, Florida we decided to tour the northern Gulf coast. It has been several weeks since we traveled on an interstate highway and we plan to keep it that way. It was an interesting drive down U.S. Highway 98 through Panama City, Mexico Beach and by the paper mills of Port St. Joe. Along much of the coast the Gulf of Mexico is so shallow a person can walk a great distance with the water reaching only waist high. The largest industry in the area is forestry with paper mills every few miles. The mills emit a smell that is not pleasant. We continued through Apalachicola and Carrabelle and turned the bend heading south out of the panhandle of Florida. At Perry, Florida we stayed three days at Southern Oaks RV Campground, a very nice campground with big pull through sites. Our neighbors were Clarence and Nellie, great-grandparents who have traveled for twenty years. We attended a pot-luck dinner and Nellie fixed Grandma Brown's baked beans. They are canned in only one place, Mexico, New York. After we returned to our motorhome Nellie brought us a can of the beans.

At Citizens Bank of Perry we had some documents notarized for the sale of our house. The bank would not charge for their service. At our old bank, PNC Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, we were charged anytime we went inside the bank. Life is different in small towns.

About one hour south of Perry we stayed three days at The Original Suwannee River Campground located on the bank of the Suwannee River at Old Town, Florida. Our site was under moss covered trees overlooking the river and there were trees everywhere. When we left we had to back the motorhome out of the campground between trees, but the scenery from the motorhome made it worthwhile. With such a beautiful view we never closed the curtains our entire stay. Linda even learned to enjoy the lizards that were everywhere.

From Old Town we took a thirty minute drive down county road 349 to the fishing village of  Suwannee. It is another of those unique towns that can not be described, it has to been seen. The town has one lane streets. The streets are two-way, but there is so little traffic one lane suffices. However, the streets are not needed because most houses are located on canals that cris-cross the town. Most houses have lifts for boats so we saw many boats hanging by houses. To go
somewhere, which is usually fishing, the residents lower their boats, jump aboard, and cruise the canal system. We found an interesting restaurant in Suwannee - the Salt River Shellfish Co. Restaurant. We feasted on boiled shrimp. The areas we have been visiting and the roads we have been driving are reminisce of the Florida of old. Mom and Pop motels dot the roads and there are no high rise buildings or condos to be found.

Continuing on down the Florida Gulf coast we stopped at Nature's Resort Campground and Marina at Homosassa Springs. It is a large campground with lots of trees. We enjoyed our stay and got out in the nick of time. The four day Thanksgiving weekend was arriving and campers and tenters were filling the park. The weekend campers usually have one thing in common - they try to keep fires burning day and night, usually with wet wood. Smoke fills the campground so thick it enters our motorhome no matter how tight we buckle the hatch. Our neighbors were typical weekenders. They brought a nice sized load of firewood in a pickup truck, then a another truck arrived pulling a small trailer full of wood. They had enough wood to keep a Kentucky cabin warm all winter. They started their four-day weekend fire and then it started raining. To keep it going they added more wood which continued to get wet in the intermittent rain. Our neighbor's tents were only 10-15 feet from this large smoking, stinking, more smoke than fire. The weekend campers think this is fun. It's our pet peeve. Luckily we left the morning after they
arrived.

Now back to our stay in the area. We visited Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park, a 166-acre park on the Homosassa River where animals, birds, fish and manatees native to Florida live in their natural habitat. The park is so natural no one, including rangers, are allowed in most of the park. We took a twenty minute boat ride on the river to the visitor's section. There we attended talks by rangers on snakes, alligators and manatees. Rangers always give interesting talks. After the snake program the ranger allowed Linda to rub a six-foot black snake. We watched the large manatees glide through water and went into an underwater observation room. Schools of large fish were so thick we could not see between the fish. This was at the headwater of Homosassa River where the spring emits millions of gallons of fresh clear water every hour. The wildlife park is very relaxing and informative.

One day during intermittent rain we decided to drive to the town of Crystal River to find a book store. Linda wanted a book about the different species of birds. During the drive we saw a beautiful rainbow, a complete semi-circle so bright we almost needed sunglasses to look at it. We stopped in a shopping center parking lot to view the spectacle. Suddenly, we realized we had the opportunity of a lifetime. The end of the rainbow appeared to be in a parking lot behind Fat Boy's Bar-B-Q restaurant, about two blocks away. We headed for Fat Boy's to collect the proverbial pot of gold always found at the end of a rainbow. The rainbow was so bright there surely was a large pot of gold waiting for us.

We started for Fat Boy's and one block later we saw a Schwan's truck. For those not familiar with Schwan's, they sell frozen foods and have the best skinless chicken breast in the world and since leaving Kentucky we had been wanting some of their chicken. Now we had a real dilemma, did we chase down the Schwan's truck or collect the pot of gold. Maybe we would have time for both. We caught the Schwan's truck in a bank parking lot and purchased a box of chicken breasts. Oh no, we were too late, the rainbow had disappeared - a missed opportunity. So we returned to the motorhome and had a delicious chicken dinner.

Thanksgiving Day morning we drove to Cosby-Woods Campground near Silver Springs, Florida. This was a Coast to Coast resort and since we are members we paid just $6.00 a day. We arrived shortly after noon and before setting up, we ate a Thanksgiving buffet at the campground's restaurant. Ate too much, but that's to be expected. Friday the rains were blowing over so we decided to drive to the Atlantic coast. In East Palatka we dined at a small family restaurant. We ate pork chop dinners with vegetables and cornbread for $4.50. Next door at a vegetable and fruit stand we bought ten grapefruits, five tomatoes, four bananas and a green pepper. Total including tax - $3.04.

Next we stopped at Crescent City where as a child Norm had visited relatives in the 1950's. The house where Uncle Frank and Aunt Rena had lived still stands, but the orange trees they had in their back yard are long gone. The house where Uncle David and Aunt L.E. lived still stands, but it is abandoned. Between their old house and the lake, the city has built a park. We drove highway A1A from Flagler Beach, through Daytona Beach, and to the end of the peninsula at Ponce Inlet, where there is a beautiful restored lighthouse. We arrived too late for a tour so we walked the grounds.
 
 

Thanksgiving Reflections from Norm:

When I was a child my Sunday School teachers always asked everyone in the classes what they were thankful for at Thanksgiving. I thought that was a silly question because the answers from every child were always the same - "I'm thankful for my parents, my friends, the food I eat, etc." There were no original answers so that is why I thought it silly. When my turn came I would say parents, friends and food, then wait for the next child to give the same answer. As I've matured into the age of AARP and grand-fatherhood my thoughts and answers have also matured. Yes, I am still thankful for parents, friends and food. I love my parents very much and miss visiting with them, but I try to keep in touch with phone calls and letters. I love the friends I left behind in Kentucky and love the new friends I've made while traveling. And I still love food except at my age it seems to accumulate around the middle.

I am thankful for my sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, but wish I could see them more often. I am thankful for the additional family I acquired when I married Linda. And speaking of Linda, I am thankful we met and married. She is not only a beautiful loving wife, she is my best friend. I am thankful I was able to retire early and fulfill a lifetime dream of traveling around the country with my best friend. There is one more thing I am especially thankful for this year. Ten years ago this week I had surgery for cancer in my lower left jawbone. The jawbone was removed and I have been cancer free for ten years. Yeah!!! It seems the more you mature the more you have to be thankful for.