April 2025
Southern Spring
Just the other day we got a message from one of you wondering what had happened to us and were we all right. Well, that got us thinking that it must be time for us to jot down a few notes and pass them along.
It has been a while since you’ve heard anything from us, but that’s only because we haven’t been out traveling. These past few months we’ve been enjoying ourselves here in southern Alabama, our winter ‘home’. We’ve had a lot of really nice spring weather, especially over the past month or so, and it is quite lovely around here
We had a four-generation gathering here in March with Rick’s daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson. We went to the local Alligator Alley attraction, as well as the model train exhibit in downtown Foley, both of which were actually pretty cool.
Jacob is six and he really enjoyed them both. We’d never gone to see the Alligators before so it was an adventure for all of us. We had a fun visit, and of course ate far too much.
We’ve been mostly healthy, certainly no big issues, but have had three separate bouts of cold, flu, covid stuff that combined to slow us down for a total of about eight weeks over the winter. Just cold-type symptoms and a lack of energy, but we did test positive for covid; the first time for us both. Still, we’ve continued going to the Y for senior yoga and pool exercises and have continued to lose weight — so far 25 lbs for me and 20 for Kathy — so no real complaints. We are really enjoying our time at the Y and it is certainly one of the things that tends to keep us here longer.
It was a pretty cold and wet winter for us down here; you will have seen our report on our January snow fall. Then for a long time it was just sort of ugly much of the time with rain and lots of cold, cloudy days. Finally though, Spring has sprung. There are lots of azaleas all around the area, big wild bushes covered in bloom, and we have some smaller ones of our own as well. They put on an amazing show of color for three or four weeks, but now they have come and gone.
However, there’s lots more to enjoy. The small tree on our lot has done its part by suddenly leafing out over the course of three or four days last week, the Pecan trees (and this is a big pecan growing area) are showing lots of leaves after their normal bare winter, and the Magnolia trees are bursting out in buds all around. Not to be left out, our two semi-resident rabbits have been coming by more frequently and of course ‘Kathy’s Diner’ continues to be a happy gathering spot for the local birds. It’s really nice down here in Spring.
We’re staying here longer than usual this year mostly just because we want to; we’re happy here. We decided early on not to go back to the west coast this summer but to plan a shorter trip around the central states and provinces; four months instead of six, fifteen states instead of twenty, and 6-7,000 miles instead of 11-12,000. This coming week we’re taking a car trip through Tennessee and North Carolina to visit family and friends. The coach will be in the shop for brake and exhaust work while we are gone, so the timing is good. In May we have two sets of friends coming through — some fellow RVers early in the month and then long time friends from San Luis Obispo a bit later.
Once we do start our summer travels our plans call for stops in Kentucky, Indiana, South Dakota, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, Utah, and of course our favorite hilltop in Wyoming. Current plans have us hitting the road just after Memorial Day.
On the annual work project front, Rick managed to paint the bathroom area earlier in the winter, but between our colds and the cold weather, the outside projects had to be on hold for a long while. Now that things have warmed up and we’ve both been feeling much better, he is currently working hard and finally making progress on the two major outside things that were on the winter schedule.
One of them is doing fiberglass repairs and paint touchup on the back of the coach — repairing one major dent (broken fiberglass) on one corner and filling in the mounting holes from the old RV ladder that he removed. That project is going well and just today we received the shipment of custom color matched spray cans that he’ll use to finish it up.
He’s also gotten started on the annual cleaning and polishing of the coach exterior. This time trying something new — for us — called Poli Glow, it’s a fiberglass restoration product made for boats and RVs. Last year he made a major effort at a more traditional polish and wax project using Meguire’s fiberglass products but was quite dissatisfied with the result. We have high hopes for the PG, but we’ll see. He also ordered and has installed a new backup camera system; so it has indeed been a busy winter, with most of the work getting done this past month once the weather finally began to cooperate.
Well, that brings you all up to date and should serve to reassure you that we are still alive and well — and busy. We’ll update you again when we’re finally out traveling. If you have travel plans of your own for the summer and think we might be able to meet up somewhere, please, please do let us know where you’ll be.
Be well and travel safe,
Rick & Kathy, oh, and the ever younger looking Slim Charles.