TRAVELS & MORE

Day 11

I apologize for not doing my usual nightly blog for day 11. I was just worn out. We had a busy but fun day.

Quick knee update, the swelling is down and I can put pressure on it. But, the brace was digging into the bottom of my knee. I have to keep it on until we get home and I have it checked out more. I have no pain just feel internal bruising. We decided to buy me some leggings to wear under the brace for the pressure points and that has helped.

Ok, enough about that’s. It was time to check out of the hotel and return to our TJ Shack. Our home on wheels. I actually feel more comfortable in it than the hotel. It’s our space. I believe, I mentioned we were going to Dauphin Island, Alabama. So, it was onward and eastbound. We headed out.

We got check into the campground. But, wanted to drive around the island some. This island is a narrow and long place of land that lies between Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. The island is 15 miles long and about 1.75 miles at the widest area. It has various areas of vegetation, along with beaches, dunes, forest areas, and marshes. There are several beach houses on the island, condominiums and only 2 campgrounds.

We decided to grab some lunch at a place called Pirates Bar and Grill. The food was good but the building was little worn out looking. Not very inviting. I guess, it saying “Pirate” in the name I was looking for more of that theme in the restaurant. We were greeted by this guy at the door.

After lunch, we decided to walk out to a beach area. This time Jacob walked Jaxon and I walked Dean. The beach has beautiful white sands. But, it was windy and cold. So, we did not stay there long. I told Jacob “my face is so cold and tight feeling. It feels like I have had Botox all over it.” Ha ha!

Later on we decided to visit the Alabama Aquarium on the Island. It is across the street from the campground. We used this as a way to warm up some and be indoors. But, still have some fun.

I have never been to an aquarium before so it was fascinating to me. I know, this one is small compared to others. But, it was still nice. It has a variety of turtles, fish (Lionfish, Red Shapper, Gag Grouper, Porkfish, Common Snook, Porkfish,Red Drum, Rock Hind, Tripletail, Permits, Whitespoted Soapfish and many more) some stingrays, little hammerhead sharks, and seahorses. That was just a few names of the creatures there.

There is a type of crab called the Horseshoe Crab. It is very strange looking.It has blue blood. Their blood is harvested and used in some injectable medicines for example vaccines. It ensures the vaccines or anything implanted in the body is free from contaminates. It has a compound in its blood that will clot the presence of endotoxins,microbial byproducts that can be harmful. The gentleman educated me some on it.

There was also a cool interactive touch screen of the earth. Jacob and I played with it some. It had various point of interests on it.

We were worn out by the time we got back to the campground. I needed to elevate my knee. We just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow, we leave to Panama City in Florida. I have a friend that recently moved there. She knows we are on a trip. Though, I had to block her from seeing any blogs and facebook posts. We are going to surprise her. We looked at prices for the KOA not far from her. But, once we compared it and the cost of a Airbnb. It would be less expensive to stay in the Airbnb I found. Also, it’s closer to her. The other advantage or that is we would not have to break down the camper and leave the dogs in it to go somewhere. We can now leave them at the Airbnb and have full range of a house.