Last week was a great weather week in Gulf Shores. It was cool several mornings but warmed up later in the day so biking, hiking and walking on the beach were on the agenda each day. It was also Max’s birthday week so we had some good food and good times.
More camp cooking in our kitchen with a view
We had a beautiful full moon this week.
In addition to the alligator we see near Shelby Lake we saw this one near the Gulf Oak Ridge Trail.
Pelican party
We enjoyed a talk by the naturalists on carnivorous plants. We were familiar with the white pitcher plants that are common in south Alabama but also learned about some others as well. We went to the nature center to meet Archimedes, an eastern screech owl. Unfortunately, Archimedes was hit by a car when he was very young and lost vision in his right eye. As a result, he could never survive in the wild so he now lives at the nature center. While at the nature center, we also met Homer the box turtle. Homer is free to roam the building and seems to want to meet the visitors. He was very interested in Max’s camera. Max returned another day to attend a presentation on snakes that inhabit south Alabama. Anne decided to skip that presentation.
The naturalist gave a very informative carnivorous plant presentation and then took us outside to show us a few of them.
Insects inside a pitcher plant
The sundew is another species of carnivorous plant that grows in the park. It is about the size of a quarter and traps insects with a sticky substance on is spiny leaves.
Archimedes the eastern screech owl
Homer the resident box turtle
Homer homing in on the camera – or the finger holding it.
The cat at the nature center was very interested in the snakes. In fact, one time we saw it in the snake enclosure while the snake was out being shown to some kids.
There was a good group at the guided nature walk we attended.
The very interesting snake presentation was focused on teaching how to distinguish between venomous and non-venomous snakes …
… and ended with the feeding of a dead mouse to one of the snakes.
The very best days of the week were Saturday and Sunday because Donna and Barry came for a visit. We spent the time biking and hiking a lot of the trails in the park, walking on the beach and photographing the eagles, ospreys, alligators and any bird that would let us get a good picture. We also enjoyed some great seafood and sunsets but mostly we just enjoyed our time with dear friends. We miss Barry and Donna but hopefully we will be back through Blount County again soon.
We had lots of fun biking the trails with Donna and Barry
There are several new geocaches in the park so we logged a few of them while we were biking the trails.
This geocache has a resident guard.
This osprey was eating a fish on the nesting platform near the Nature Center.
This great egret on the beach …
… didn’t seem to mind having its picture taken.
Osprey in flight
We didn’t get to see an eagle shift change this week but Donna was still able to get some good pictures.
Sunset over Lake Shelby
Group picture on the beach
We enjoyed watching these two otters playing in Middle Lake this evening.
And we were also blessed to see this pelican flying through the sunset this evening at the beach.
WOW, it’s 2023. How many times will we now write 2022 in error? A bunch if previous years are an indication. We are still enjoying our time at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores. Since our NOMADS project for ECHO, a wonderful agency that teaches farming skills to small plot farmers worldwide, had to be canceled due the hurricane damage in the North Fort Myers area we have some extra time here. The weather has greatly improved and we are having much more normal temperatures. Tuesday we attended another naturalist presentation, this time on turtles. Of course, we shared with her our story of Aunt Jean’s box turtle who is now 51 years old. The park has one that is about the same age – they aren’t sure of his exact birthday, so they say it is between 50 and 60. Friday was a stormy day with heavy rain, but at least it was warm. We have been enjoying shrimp and other seafood, walks on the beach, hiking and biking along with some great sunsets. We also met some friends from Blount County while walking around the park, and we met another Blount County couple who saw our Blount tag and just stopped to chat. Today being January 1, the state park sponsored a “First Day Hike” which we joined. It was a two mile hike on a flat paved path but it was fun. We saw an alligator and birds and flora and fauna. Later while photographing the eagles, we met another couple originally from our area who have retired to Foley. Thanks for checking in on our ramblings. May God bless you and hold you close during 2023.
This was our campsite for the first 2 weeks here. Because in the winter so many of the campsites are designated for monthly (snowbird) rental it can be difficult to get one short term site for our whole stay. We have moved twice since we checked in.
The turtle presentation was very informative and entertaining.
This Great Blue Heron stayed in our campsite most of Tuesday.
The incoming storms made for a windy walk on the beach Thursday …
… and the wind-driven spray made it hard to see very far on the beach.
This is what most of Friday looked like.
We have been able to watch two “shift changes” at the bald eagle nest. Since there are eggs on the nest, one of the eagles is always there. Every few hours the other one returns and takes over.
Last sunset of 2022
The First Day Hike was well attended and the naturalists did a great job entertaining us.
Merry Christmas to all our family and friends and thank you all for following along on our journey this past year. We hope you have had a great Christmas season and remember the reason for the celebration. We have had a quiet but unusually cold Christmas in Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. While it’s been warmer than north Alabama and way warmer than our family and friends farther north, but it’s still been very cold for here. One night was a low of 18 and we have had pretty icicles at our water hydrants since we were told to leave the water dripping beginning last Thursday. We are glad the forecast for this week is a little warmer.
This is how the water faucets at the empty sites in the park looked.
Our last entry left off with our return to Alabama from our Polar Bear Photography trip. The next morning we headed back to Johnston, South Carolina to Randy and Debra’s house. We did a quick change out from Beyond Blessed (van), back into Fred (Class A) and on Saturday drove to Gaffney, SC to Freightliner for Fred’s annual service. Fortunately, all the work was routine and no problems were found so we were back in Johnston Monday afternoon. We had a great Thanksgiving week with Randy, Debra and their family. It was also great to see nieces and nephews and their children who were able to come visit while we were there. We made a quick trip back to Red Bay, AL to get other work done to Fred and then returned to Johnston to begin a deck project. Randy and Debra have a large deck on the back of their house and we helped them get started on rebuilding it with Trex. We had several “weather days” when we couldn’t work outside so we had time for some games, puzzles, cooking, and just enjoying our time together. We also celebrated Anne’s birthday with Randy and Debra and of course it included some yummy ice cream.
The new decking was delivered while we were in Red Bay.
The “almost” before picture. We had only removed a few boards before we thought to take a picture.
Removing the old wooden decking
With most of the decking removed we could see how much of the framing needed replacing.
Some of the new framing
Anne and Debra preparing for the new decking.
This is how the deck looked when we left. Randy and Debra have added a few more boards since then.
Anne’s birthday treat
We have now been in Gulf Shores for a week. After getting settled in here we finally got out our Christmas decorations. They may have to stay up later this year since we just got them up. We have enjoyed the many trails in the park when the weather allowed. We spotted an alligator at one of the usual places they hang out and went to a good raptor presentation by one of the naturalists. The past three days we have been inside a lot due to the strong winds and cold temps. Next week will hopefully be better and we can get our bikes out. We will let you know. Stay safe and warm everyone!
We went to see the sunset on the beach our first evening in the park.
Enjoying the sunshine
We walked out to see one of the resident eagle nests. It was cold and windy so the eagle kept its head down. We saw the other eagle flying around but it never returned to the nest while we were there.
This barred owl has a damaged wing so is now used for education at the park such as the presentation we attended.
We only carry a 3 piece nativity so we used available actors for the camel, wise man and sheep.
Wednesday morning (November 16th) we awoke in Churchill to a heavy overnight snow. It was cold and windy. Very cold and very windy. When we met Barry and Donna in the lobby for breakfast we met some local construction workers who were working on our hotel roof. We don’t know how they were up on that roof in the extreme temperatures. When Max said something to one of the men he said, “It’s ok. We have gloves.” When we looked up on the tin roof when we returned from breakfast – he didn’t have any gloves on his hands. The people of Churchill are certainly hardier than the two of us.
Roof worker in 3°F
The schedule for our last day was busy. We toured a little more of the town, first visiting Churchill Rocket Research Range. While no longer active this was the location from which rockets were launched to study the upper atmosphere off and on from 1954 to 1985, including studies of the aurora. It is now a National Historic Site of Canada.
Touring Churchill on Wednesday
Driving by Hudson Bay
The landscape around Churchill. The trees are called “flag trees” because the prevailing winds cause most of the limbs to grow on one side of the trunk.
Churchill Rocket Research Range. The tall structure is the launch tower.
Rocket at the entrance of the Research Station
One of the murals at the research station
A different kind of mural in Churchill
We also visited the Itsanitaq Museum, a museum dedicated to the Inuit culture. It was very well done and very informative on the people, animals, region and culture. It’s in a small space but is packed with displays and information. We weren’t expecting to see wildlife this day but saw another fox perched on a large pile of snow. Next we went to the Parks Canada Visitor’s Center where there were other great displays. We were also very glad to find two geocaches located at the Visitor’s center. The multicache was buried in the snow outside the visitor’s center. The ranger offered us a snow shovel and then went outside with us and dug it out for us. He was so excited we were looking for the cache because he had hidden it. We had a good conversation with the young ranger. We asked him about working in such a remote and isolated place. He had only been assigned to Churchill a few months but said it was his dream location. He was so excited to be there.
Inside the Itsanitaq museum
One of many displays at the Itsanitaq museum
Our big event for the way was dog sledding. We visited the kennels, got to pet the dogs and then go sledding – so much fun and a very different experience sledding out through the woods. Very different from the tundra and ice.
We really enjoyed our first ever dog sled ride ..
… but it still cold!
After our dog sled ride one of the owners gave an interesting talk on the Métis people. The Métis are one of the indigenous people of Canada with a mixed French and indigenous ancestry.
We had lunch and time for a little souvenir shopping and then were supposed to head to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. However, the weather took over and changed our plans. It began snowing very hard during lunch. Our original flight was cancelled and we had a later charter flight which meant we remained in Churchill for supper. The snow was very heavy when we finally arrived at the airport. It took a long time to deice the plane and then we headed to Winnipeg. It probably wasn’t a blizzard but it sure was to these Alabama natives. It was still snowing when we landed in Winnipeg a few hours later. We turned in all our -40° gear, got a good night’s sleep and returned to Birmingham on Thursday. The polar bear photography tour was a wonderful, exciting, beautiful experience. A once in a lifetime adventure that we feel so blessed to have been able to experience.
Strolling around Churchill
The province posts this polar bear report on their office door.
RVing With a Purpose 