October 22-24 From Smokies to Alabama to Florida

We left the campground in the Smokies about 8:00- have about 400 miles to go today.  It is windy and cold again but it was fun seeing the Smokies.  Would like to return sometime when it's not so crazy busy.  We still want to see North Carolina but ran out of time- some other trip!  We drove through Chattanooga (heavy truck traffic), then passed through a corner of GA before hitting Alabama.  We arrived at Sherling Lake Campground (another city property) in Greenville, AL about 3 p.m.  It was humid and 86 when we got there- after setting up we turned on the AC and Kirk and Joe washed the gunk and bugs off the campers while I walked the dogs.  Nice campground- grassy and lots of trees. Spacious pull thru sites, nice rest rooms but no extras.  It was about half full with people like us who were just passing through. It was a warm night- kept the windows open but still did not sleep well. I was surprised at how hilly and forested Alabama is.

On Friday we drove about 133 miles to Kevin's house in Mary Esther, FL.   We passed lots of cotton fields and truckloads of peanuts!  It was great to see the gulf when we got to Navarre. We emptied the frig's into Kevin's and prepared campers for storage- closed all drains and put lots of dryer sheets all over to repel bugs.  Kevin had to work from 4-7 so we drove over to Emerald Beach campground where we'll spend the month of January. It's about 10 minutes from Kevin's place.  Walked around- it's pretty small, between the gulf and a busy road.  Nice clean place with a beautiful beach and fishing pier.  We stopped at County Line Pub for a beer (mystery $2 beer night) and ended up staying for appetizers and then pizza. Kevin met us there after work. This is the bar where he comes to watch Packer games- sports caps and military stuff all over the place!

On Saturday after breakfast Kirk, Kevin and Joe took the campers over to Eglin AFB to store them. I walked the dogs and read by the pool while they were gone.  Joe left to go back to Cincinnati.  The three of us drove to Fort Walton Beach to eat dinner at Rick's Crab Trap- kind of a diner like place but the food was good.  I had grilled shrimp and Kirk had fried mullet.  We came back to Kevin's and watched a very interesting movie about Antarctica before crashing.

On Sunday 10/25 we left Kevin's about 6:15- it is 1270 miles to home.  We drove until 6 p.m. and stayed at a Fairfield Inn in Effingham, IL- dog friendly place.  Ate dinner at the local Cracker Barrel.  On Monday we drove 500 miles- stopped at Portage for lunch and fuel- and got back home by 2:20.  It was a great trip, although Kirk says we can't go away for so long in the fall when the leaves are falling!  It was great to see Kevin too and I'm sure he was happy to see Lexie. We'll be back in December!