LIFE IS A BEACH: A Non-Fort Trip Report

[Teamubr]

'Bon Secour' means "Safe Harbor" in lazy French) .

That's some seriously lazy French. It translates to Good help or assistance.

In the past, the grand prize was a free weekend in a beach condo; but this year, the winner must be satisfied with a 65" Samsung SmartTV.

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Either entries were down or sponsors were. That seems like a big drop from a weekend in a condo to $400 TV. Still a nice prize, but probably a surprise to prior runners.

j

 

[bama_ed]

That's some seriously lazy French. It translates to Good help or assistance.

Either entries were down or sponsors were. That seems like a big drop from a weekend in a condo to $400 TV. Still a nice prize, but probably a surprise to prior runners.

j

Jim, I don't attend this event annually so I don't know if this is the first year of the change (although it is the first since I've been here last). But I do know there are sponsor pressures as some long-term 5k/10k/HalfM/M races in my local area either have ceased or announced they will cease going forward. Races that have occurred for over three decades will not occur in the future.

I am grateful for the good times we spent today with good folks.

Ed

PS - oh and the guy who won the drawing for the grand prize of a Samsung SmartTv 65" tv in the box was FLYING home to Detroit tomorrow. I should have made him an offer but I only had $24 in my wallet.

 

[bama_ed]

Great report as usual... a standard that I will never be able to live up to. Thank you for taking the time, Ed... first rate and fun pictures to go with your great descriptions...

We are not worthy (but we are grateful).

Hey, YOU!

Our kids are grown and gone (although they still come around looking for food. ). Once it's just you and DW, you will find all KINDS of free time to rhapsodize about your various trips.

Your time will come.

Ed

 

[Stratman50th]

Great trip report Ed! I need to get a closer look at that puzzle table. It must be a lot bigger than it looks. My wife wants to know what you do with your puzzles after you complete them. We seem to be running out of storage space in our house.

 

[bama_ed]

My wife wants to know what you do with your puzzles after you complete them. We seem to be running out of storage space in our house.
View attachment 809831

Well, that's an easy answer, Don.

Puzzles aren't a "one-and-done" for me. After I put the last piece of the puzzle in and it is complete (as I'll update next), I take a picture of it and then pull it apart, put the pieces into a gallon zip lock bag, and box it back up so that I can put it together again in the future (usually a year or more).

I did Modge Podge one steam train puzzle (from the Ohio Central Railroad) and frame it but that was a special case.

Ed

 

[bama_ed]

That's some seriously lazy French. It translates to Good help or assistance.

Yeah, Jim, maybe it was my brain that was lazy.

It translates locally as "good refuge" and my lazy brain knew that the community were fisherman on boats in the Gulf and I naturally assumed they thought of their home base/docks/bay as a safe place.

Probably going to cook that red snapper from Billy's tomorrow night.

Ed

 

[bama_ed]

What a difference a day makes!

After church this Sunday morning and brief stop on the way at Wal-Mart, today was puzzle day, DIS Meet day, and blue sky day.

I mentioned yesterday that the puzzle had come into turn 4 (to use a Kentucky Derby phrase). That meant it was all downhill to the finish today.



Funny aside is that while working on the puzzle the past 3 days, at times a gust of wind would blow piece off the table which I would retrieve. Today I put the last piece of the puzzle in the place but I still had one hole empty (meaning I had missed retrieving one piece). I searched on the ground literally on my hands and knees (it could be gray if it were upside down) and finally found it and snapped it into place. BTW this puzzle is named "Well Stocked Shelves".

That last piece happened a few minutes after I got honked at as our own DIS member, @tripleb , rolled into the campground on the way to his spot. So we will be having a mini-DIS Meet here this week. He and DW have never been to GSP and they are on Gator Road across from the lake. A dinner date is in the plans.

They brought with them some beautiful weather here today (finally) with lower humidity, blue sky among wispy clouds. It only got up to the low 70s today and tonight should be in the high 50s (no bugs during cooking outside tonight).



Monday (tomorrow) should be similar to today so we will get out and about as much as we can because the forecast shows about 3" of rain on Tuesday.

Skies are clear and cool this evening.



Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

It's getting a bit cooler here on the Gulf Coast as the drizzle moved in today.

After attending morning mass, we relaxed at our campsite and I caught up on some small tasks around the trailer. Then we went on a long bike ride around Gulf SP which took us down to the beach highway and the camper beach where the campground road intersects.



Still a yellow flag although it was a little breezy today. I love the boardwalk approach to this little stretch of beach.





Looking west, the GSP fishing pier is in the pic which, as I mentioned early in this TR, closed yesterday for repairs because there is a missing section as a result of a hurricane in 2020.



Here is a close up of the missing section.



We took some selfies on the beach and although the beach appears deserted, we were not alone.



Did you see our little friend there?



We had lunch then DW wanted to walk through the Olde Pottery Store towards Foley (Christmas stuff in stock, of course, but bought nothing). Then it was time for a blessed nap which made us a little late for the appetizers and conversion at @tripleb 's campsite. They kicked us out a few hours later.

The drizzle has settled in (glad it's not a hard rain) and lows should be 58F tonight. I cooked the red snapper I had got at Billy's by pan frying it in parmesan cheese and panko crumbs after an egg wash. Paired that with the leftover asparagus and a small potato salad and white wine. Yummy!

Depending on the rain tomorrow it may be a "hunker down" day but @tripleb and DW have agreed to go to dinner with us at Desoto's so there is that to look forward to.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Well we woke up this morning and checked the weather and the wind advisories were for 20-30mph winds with 45 mph gust. DW didn't sleep much last night listening to the winds (which means I didn't get much sleep either ) and the Good Lord only knows how much she would have been up listening to the winds tonight. So we went home this morning (actually had sunshine and no rain in the central part of the state) although all the weather is supposed to get here tomorrow. But that was the plan - to make a leisurely drive home in the misty, constant drizzle before it became anything else.

I'll post a wrap up post tomorrow.

Bama Ed

PS - I apologized to @tripleb for bailing out on him but he and DW have a nice big sturdy 5th wheel. It's not the first time weather has sent us home early. Peace in my house is a priority, ya know.

 

[bama_ed]

We had a great trip along the Florida Panhandle which basically wraps up the visits to the Florida lighthouses that we started nearly 3 years ago. Again, the goal was to climb as many as possible which isn't always in the cards - some don't allow climbs, some are only open 1-2 days a month (when we weren't there), and some were closed when the volunteers who run the place decided to not show up. So be it. Whenever possible, we tried to buy a magnet as a souvenir for the top of our kitchen fridge.

Here are the three magnets from this last trip:



St. George was on the same island as our state park, San Blas was the one in Port St. Joe, and Crooked River was in Carrabelle. The Crooked River magnet doesn't look like the others (obviously) so here is a closeup of that well done memoir.



And now that I've completed this journey, I bought a FL lighthouse map to tell me where I've been.



It's a nice way to fill your bingo card as you travel around the great state of Florida.

We are home till mid-January 2024 when we roll the camper out again to Florida. Need to put some new tires on the Aliner in the mean time and make a few repairs. But it's nice to always have a trip coming up, isn't it?

Bama Ed

PS - go see a lighthouse in Florida and climb it if you can. It will remind you of a bygone era. Thanks for reading my thread. I'm signing off now.

 

[tripleb]

We really enjoyed our tiny Dismeet with you and your bride bama_ed. Once in a while, a blind hog will find an acorn referring to weather men ... oops, I mean weather forecasters. In this case, they were 100% correct with the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday at GSP. It was just plain miserable with rain, wind, and much cooler temps. But Laura and I made the best of it even though BamaEd decided to bail.

Maybe next time we will actually get to see what GSP is all about