| Rainbow Plantation
We arrived at Rainbow Plantation (Summerdale, Alabama) and set up the motorhome on Doug and Ann Craw's lot with full hookups and 50-amp electric. Then we immediately went to Darrell and Judy Patterson's fifthwheel and ate a delicious lasagne meal they had prepared especially for us. Thanks Judy and Darrell. The next evening Doug and Ann invited us over for a delicious meal - thanks Ann. What a life, eating home-cooked meals every night with friends and we didn't even have to wash the dishes. The next morning we jumped in the Honda CR-V and drove 636 miles to Louisville, KY to see my doctor. After checking in a hotel we found the temperature was 8 degrees and falling. The next day I had a check up and then we drove 636 miles back to Alabama arriving late at night. It took two days of relaxing to get over the effects of driving 1272 miles in two days and then I came down with a terrible head and chest cold that kept me in the motorhome two weeks. Activities were buzzing at Rainbow Plantation as they are every winter and Linda jumped right in teaching and learning new crafts. I gave a talk on solar panels, but I spent most of my time doing projects on the motorhome and washing and waxing it. My air card (internet access) had a weak signal so I built a remote antenna that extended higher than the motorhome and it can be dissembled and stored in the motorhome's basement. During the winter the park had a cook who prepared three meals a week. There was a light meal (more than we could eat) every Tuesday for $4 a person, a BIG meal every Thursday for $5 and a cooked breakfast every Saturday for $3. It was fun eating out with friends and Linda and I usually volunteered to help serve the meals. There was a big Mardi Gras meal (after the Mardi Gras parade), a Valentine's Day meal, an Easter meal and several other large events that drew 150-170 people packing the recreation hall. There were usually 6-10 planned daily activities and some activities out of the park like the bus trip we took to a casino in Biloxi, MS. We went with a group two times to the Road Kill Café in the town of Elberta. What a unique restaurant and their logo is "You kill it - we grill it." They serve a buffet type meal and the strange thing is they open at 11:00 a.m. and close when the food runs out which is usually around 12:30 p.m. Oh, that road kill sure tasted like fried chicken. We had a great time with friends at Rainbow Plantation and we always feel like the Plantation is "home." Don and Gloria (my sister) Martin joined us and parked on Craw's lot too, and Ken and Diane Dombroski invited us to a delicious meal in their home in town. Linda took quilting classes both in town and at the Plantation. We did so much it would take too long to write and much of it is in pictures below. Rainbow Plantation Events
Our Motorhome
Some Of The People We Met
USS Alabama We drove over to Mobile Bay and toured the USS Alabama (BB-60) with Darrell and Judy Patterson. The battleship is 680 feet long with a beam of 108 feet and has a fully loaded weight of 42,500 tons. A crew of over 2,300 served aboard and there are four engines producing 130,000 horsepower that drive the ship at 28 knots. The Alabama was launched in 1942 and had a storied WWII career in the Pacific Operations earning nine battle stars. Today the Alabama sits quietly in at USS Alabama Memorial Park at Mobile Bay and it is a museum with a self-guided tour. Darrell is an "old" Coast Guard man so he was like a kid in a candy store, running up and down between levels and bending to almost crawl through narrow passages. The next day he could hardy get out of bed and walk. Darrell, getting old is the pits isn't it? A large building houses aircraft from pre-WWII through the modern age. Exiting the aircraft building we walked to the USS Drum (SS-228), a WWII submarine. The Drum was commissioned in 1941 and served in the Pacific Operations until the war ended. It was a highly decorated submarine earning 12 Battle Stars for sinking 15 ships with a cumulative displacement of 80,580 tons. It is a rather large submarine with a length of 312, a breath of 27 feet and a crew of 72. USS Alabama and USS Drum
Louisville After two months in Alabama we spent a month in Louisville getting medical, dental and eye checkups. I had my first CT scan since cancer surgery last August and it showed no sign of cancer or any suspect growth areas. Thunder Over Louisville is one of the largest annual events in Louisville and it kicks off the Kentucky Derby three week long celebration. There is an air show that runs from early afternoon to after dark and that is followed by the nation's largest fireworks display. The event often draws a million people lining both sides of the Ohio River to view the eight hour long spectacular. This year it was cold with heavily overcast skies so the crowd was muted. The good thing was we could see most of it from the comfort of our motorhome and watch it up close on television. There were vintage aircraft to the latest bombers flying overhead with some combat helicopters and acrobatic planes flying formations. Many times fighter planes flew over our motorhome just under the speed of sound and they were so low it looked like they would clip the trees. I tried to make some pictures but my finger and camera were not fast enough to capture the planes and it was so dark pictures did not come out good anyway. After dark we stepped outside in our winter coats and hats to enjoy the fireworks and then returned to our warm and cozy motorhome. Darrell and Judy Patterson stopped for a short visit on their trip from Alabama to Michigan and we took them on a whirlwind driving tour of Louisville and southern Indiana. We ate at Kingfish restaurant on the Indiana side of the river with a beautiful view of the Louisville skyline. Our only sightseeing stop was at the reconstructed cabin of George Rogers Clark, a general during the Revolutionary War that defeated the British and secured the present day mid-west for the new struggling colonies. For his heroic service Gen. Clark was given a large plot of land on the north side of the Ohio River and today's town, Clarksville, was named in his honor. When Meriwether Lewis floated down the Ohio River he stopped at this cabin a few days and joined William Clark, Gen. Clark's younger brother, and the "nine young men from Kentucky" that became the core of the Corps of Discovery. After leaving this area in 1804 they went on to explore the new west all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Louisville
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