Having left the pristine forests of southern Alabama I now find myself in a sea of RVs and travel trailers at Gulf Shores State Park. From my campsite I can see off in the distance a high rise condo building.

Everybody has their own version of camping. Prior to buying my pop up, my version was always in a tent, no power, and water out of pumps that you had to walk to. This is another whole new experience for me.

The people that surround me now have Christmas lights strung, satelite dishes, big screen TVs, and outdoor living rooms with carpets, chairs and end tables.  And everywhere fly the flags of their sports allegiance.  Hawkeyes, Spartans, Vikings, Wolverines, Tigers, Bulldogs, and of course the ever present Crimson Tide.

Now before I sound just completely disparaging, this place has an energy to it that draws you in. Just because it doesn’t follow my historic path of camping doesn’t mean it has no appeal for me. I’m living for the next handful of days in a little village, actually it’s a big village, of people doing their version of small space living.  It’s kinda fascinating really.

This morning I went to church at St Thomas of the Sea.  And lo and behold I ran into my friends Donna and Tom Mahowald.  My Cursillo friends will know who they are.  Will wonders never cease.  Little doses of home make a heart sing.

After church I experienced my very first Waffle House. It was more like Mad House but well organized chaos. The man running the cooking was a giant who must have played tackle somewhere.  He was shouting instructions, laughing and encouraging his charges.  It was fun to watch and I think he made working there fun.  I don’t know, maybe this isn’t all that interesting to people, but I’m just taking it all in.  The world in front of me is my new favorite movie.

Right now I’m going to take in a bike ride.

I am well and hope y’all are too. 🙂

Today I’m leaving the woods and heading to the coast, Gulf Shores State Park.  Earlier in the week, here at Conecuh, I met Cindy and Jimmy. They live in Alabama, own a travel trailer, and camp all over the southeast.  Noting that I have a bike with me they told me I will love Gulf Shores SP because there are bike trails all over the area. So, I’m looking forward to seeing what Gulf Shores is all about.

Yesterday while heading to town to get some more ice I saw a chain gang working on the road. They weren’t actually chained together but they had the distinctive striped clothes on. There was a single guard standing outside a pickup with a rifle.

I wanted to take a picture just because this is such a novel site to us mid-Westerners. But the thought just felt inappropriate to me. During the afternoon, scenes from “Oh Brother, where art thou?” kept walking around in my head.  And the song from the scene with the Sirens. 🙂

I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to upload this post, but as I’m writing this it is a little after 7 AM on Friday morning and the sun has just cleared the tree tops. Today I’m already feeling like I’ve come back to life.

When thinking about posting in general, I’ve thought that I didn’t want to fall into the trap of always talking about what the weather is doing. But I gotta tell ya this is the first day since last Sunday that it hasn’t been overcast, windy, and rainy. Even the egret that presides over this little lake here seemed pissed off. Well, truth be told I don’t really know what a pissed off egret looks like, but you get the picture. Last night was only my second opportunity to have a fire. Right at the end of the day, across the water, the sun was shining on the opposite shore. I grabbed my chair and drove (not to waste precious moments) around to the other side. I was able to just sit in the sun for about 20 minutes before it dropped down below the trees. It was a soaring experience. Like going right from solitary to the exercise yard.

I’ve spent the time doing a lot of reading and each day at some point crawled into my cocoon for a nap. Shingles don’t let you sleep all that well so the naps have been important little pieces. Speaking of which, I’m on day 5 of 7 with the horse pills and the shingles do seem to be getting a little better. Again, for those of you who have expressed concerns and prayers about this, I am deeply grateful.

The little town of Florala has a couple of “antique” stores, so I’ve killed way more time than I would have the last couple of days studying the fine line between antiques and old junk. It also has an interesting old general store, but in a place like that if you just wander around looking at stuff they start to wonder what you’re up to.

Ok, I’m going to close up this laptop and get out of this camper and take a walk.

By the way, here’s something to put in the category of things you can do when you’re a man and camping by yourself:  When it’s the dead of night and pouring rain you can just open the camper door and pee out.

Ya didn’t see that comin’ did ya?

I was replaying in my head some of the people I’ve encountered.    We have to get over this Deliverance thing. This faulty perception that some have about the rural deep south is just bull_ _ _ _ movie stuff.

I’m a Yankee. I talk like a Yankee. I drive a foreign made truck. And no where on it does it say BAMA or Roll Tide. But the people I have encountered and engaged in conversation from Alabama can’t have been more friendly, accommodating, and helpful.

The other day in a small rural town I asked a man if he knew of anyone selling firewood. Now I hate to say it, but this guy looked like he was from the movie. Bib overalls, white sidewall haircut, missing front teeth. I kid you not. He’s scratchin’ his head trying to think of someone, and then pulls out his phone and calls his friend.  While he’s talking to his friend he says, “write this down” and recites a phone number to me.

He hangs up and calls the number. He confirms that the guy has wood and hands me the phone. Here’s the conversation;

“How much y’all want? I deliver for $5.”

“I don’t need a truck load, I just need a little for some camping.”

“Son, (he turned out to be younger than me) for $5 I’ll deliver a stick a wood.”  I don’t know if he was serious or not.

“Thanks, why don’t you just tell me where you are and I’ll come and pick some up.”

“Y’all headin’ up toward Opp anyway?”

“No, I’m heading up 55 to the Conecuh National Forest.”

“Meet me at the Tom Thumb goin’ north on 331 out of Florala.”

This guy, Earl, (yup) was a biker driving an old Dodge Pickup full of wood. Full leathers, do rag, big Confederate flag on the back of his jacket. (you can’t make this stuff up)

“How ‘bout I take a couple dozen pieces and give you 20 bucks?”

“Nah, that’s too much. How about 10 for the wood and $5 to come meet ya.  All the way from Minnysota huh?  Damn sure gits cold up there.”  Earl struck me as a man who doesn’t do anything halfway.

The wood isn’t very dry and doesn’t burn all that well, but I don’t care.

Roll Tide!

Thank you to all of you who called, texted, or emailed me since I posted my suspicions about having shingles. It brought some real emotional warmth to my travels. Getting on the internet is in short supply where I am right now, so sorry I had to leave that kinda hangin’ out there.

I did in fact come down with shingles and everything you’ve probably ever heard about them is true. Don’t worry, I won’t be posting photos.

If the shingles don’t kill me, then certainly the horse pills they gave me to take for a week will.

Here’s the part of this I really want to tell you.  For me, it’s the best part of this little episode. Well, besides the emotional warmth thing.

Part of my daily reading habits is a devotional/meditative, whichever you like, book called Jesus Calling. It’s a relationship book and a gift for the trip from my dear friends Deb and Wayne. The day after I learned I have shingles, the first line of that day’s entry was;

“Give up the illusion that you deserve a problem-free life.”

I laughed out loud.

…… whining about the fact that winter just chased me right down here, but what the folks on the eastern seaboard are experiencing keeps my perspective in tact and my whining to a minimum.

Yesterday I spent some time thinking about the line between hardy and fool hardy.  It was 28 in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle last night.  That, and the fact that I need to see a doctor, caused me to retreat to the Econo Lodge.  I suspect I might have shingles and needed to stay in a place I could find an Urgent Care clinic.  I found one but it isn’t open until tomorrow.  I thought that was the better choice than a minute clinic.  I didn’t come all this way to sit in motels but what are ya gonna do?  I promised my kids I would always be making the sensible choices.

This morning I went to church at Our Lady of Victory in Crestview, FL.  Tomorrow I’ll see a doc and then hope to head up into the Conecuh National Forest just over the line in Alabama.  In the meantime I’ll get to see the conference championship football games that I didn’t think I’d be seeing.  I know, it’s not much of a silver lining.  So far it’s been snow, freezing rain, and wind chills in the lower 20s.  But the weather is threatening to go back to normal, so at some point I hope to post some pics of my home away from home.

The trip down was of course long but uneventful (thankfully).  I had visions, shall we call them nightmares, of an axel breaking on the other side of Hudson.  The trailer pulls fairly smoothly when the road is smooth but jerks me around a little on the bad pavement.  For those logistical geeks I’ve heard from, you know who you are, my mileage was just under 16 mph pulling the trailer.  A little lower than I thought it might be but it is what it is.  This is all new to me.

Right now I’m still trying to escape winter.  They were predicting snow for northern and central AL.  They closed all the schools at noon today in anticipation of an inch, MAYBE UP TO 2″!!! 🙂                    So I’m going to close up my laptop and resume heading south.  I’ll either run out of winter or out of real estate.

I’m going to try to catch up on emails and comments if I can find a signal tonight.  Your comments appear only if I “approve” them so I’m trying to figure that whole thing out.

Thanks to my great kids for one last dinner out before my departure.  I love you guys to the moon.

Answer, Birmingham Alabama.

    This is me after about 25 hours on the road.  About 4.5 of that was sleeping.  Parked amongst the towering 18 wheelers in some dark truck stop back lot. And yes, for those of you who saw me on Wednesday, those are the same clothes.

This is the river that sings. (the Tennessee outside of Muscle Shoals)    Many have asked me why Muscle Shoals.  My answer was always the same, music.  Watch the music documentary Muscle Shoals and you’ll understand better.  You can see it on Netflix but the whole thing is on Youtube as well.

If I had ten bucks for every time I’ve been asked some variation of that question just in the first two weeks ………                                               The phrase I’ve included in my answer most of the time is, “I’m in awe of it.”                                                                                                                                   I think that it’s because it so clearly feels like the reward for the long trail that has been my work life.  It has been countless days of trying to make the sale, working to land the new account, plowing new operational ground, problem solving, counseling, teaching, and occasionally stealing someone else’s best Customer Service person. 🙂

Now everything has a newness to it.  You get to reset all your possibilities.  The gift of time has a luster.  It is in fact the currency of retirement.  I’m confident I will treat it accordingly and I know I will thank God for it every day.

It seems like I’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about the slippery slopes of retirement.  You begin to face them almost immediately and they all have to do with choices and time.

I’m an early riser and to this point more than half of the days of my retirement have started with morning mass and then right to the Y for a workout.  Funny, those are the days that seem to turn out the best.

I could go on and on about some of this stuff but my sense is that there is such a thing as a post that’s too long.  Undoubtedly some of it will creep in to future posts.  In the meantime, you can be confident that the answer to the question is, … really, really keen.