Feb. 5, 2011 Opp, Alabama Dancing Under the Stars

This day was beautiful....a gift for which we took full advantage.  The sun made it's full glory around noon.  We were on our way to Andalusia, Alabama to find the WalMart.  By the time I had started and finished a text to my brother, Bill, we were there.  I felt as if I had finally discovered civilization.  Life was good again.  No rain.  Sun shining brightly; gorgeous blue skies.  And a WalMart. We made our purchases plus some.  Jack had to use the bathroom  and heading to the check out I  realized that we had walked in to some kind of southern hell.  I thought a book on  politeness and manners had been passed out at birth to the Southerners.  Well, some of the people I ran in to at WalMart today must have been born at home because they certainly missed the course on " being a nice person."  Whatever, I said to myself.  After two full days of gloom and doom rain, I refused to let ANYONE rain on my bright, sunny, parade today.

After WalMart we stopped for lunch at O'Bradys Sports Pub in Andalusia.   Made some calls; talked to our sons (the day was getting better and better): Jack made a few calls to some friends.  Staff was low and service slow so after all phone calls were made, still no food,  we talked to each other.  We did have our beer so we weren't THAT upset about the staff having to pluck the feathers off of the chickens before serving our wings.   My gosh, could it get any better? 

Made our way back to the RV after finding the post office in Opp.  The day had made a turn towards beautiful so we decided to take the walk we have been talking about since coming to Opp's state park.  Before we hit the first foot bridge I heard a rattle.  As the good Lord is my witness I heard a rattle.  Jack heard it too, but in his way of trying to keep me from hysteria, he said, "Oh, I heard it too.  But it's probably a bird."  A bird, my a@#!!  Since when do birds carry rattles?   I knew what I heard but on we go.  "Trust me," Jack says, "it'll be okay."  Famous last words fools hear all of the time. And then we see these:

Okay.  I've seen enough.  I'm ready to go back.  "Jack," I yell out, (he and Sydney are always ahead of us) "Tanner and I are going back!"  "Oh come on.   It'll be fine.  Trust me."  A fool....a fool....so I keep following, explaining to him that 1) I have my cell phone turned off so if he needs to call for help he has to turn it on first and 2) if I get bitten by anything lethal and die I will come back to haunt him for the rest of his natural life. 

Another warning sign.  Jack stopped to read this and commented, "Well, I'm glad we had our Tequila BEFORE we started this hike."   At this point I could have had all of the Tequila in the world but it still wouldn't have stopped my slow but steady  incline to hyperventilation.  So the "trust me" man, the fool and the two dogs who do not have a say in the matter keep on going across yet another foot bridge to an island.  An island!!!!  Here are some of those pics:

You can see the second foot bridge in the distance.

A picture of Jack and Sydney on the island.

Part of the island

So.....we made it around the island in one piece with no bite marks.  We start walking across the first foot bridge, back to safety,  with Lord only knows what lurking underneath the bridge and our feet.

Jack has been trying to give the dogs more freedom.  They've always been confined to our back yard in Warsaw so they had no real sense of what it's like to run.  Lately, when we are by ourselves with no one in sight and he feels it's relatively safe for them, he'll let them off of their leashes.  Sydney won't go far and always, always stops to make sure we are following close behind.  Tanner, on the other hand, takes off like a little idiot dog.  Sydney listens and will come when Jack yells for her.  Tanner, not so much. 

Sydney returning to Jack when he calls for her. 

 But do you see Tanner anywhere????????????????????????   NO....Guess where Tanner is?  He decided to take a short cut back to us.................through the water...Can you say "gator bait?"  I was freaking out so bad I couldn't even take a picture of him.  Jack took off running and I just stood frozen with my eyes closed.  Tanner has never even been in a lake before so what possessed him to take off swimming like he did totally came out of left field.  He finally listened to Jack and got out of the water.  Wet but safe.  I don't think Jack or I either one spoke for a minute or two.  We couldn't believe what had just happened.

We returned to camp and Jack started a fire.  What a beautiful day and it was still a stunning evening.  Here are a few pictures we took of the evening:

Me texting AGAIN!!

My little uni-bomber

Uni-bomber's wife

We had a few shots of Tequila, enjoyed the fire, listened to music and danced under the stars to Etta James' At Last.  Since hearing that song, for the first time at Matt & Jen's wedding (friends of our son's & ours as well)  some years ago, that song has been our favorite song to dance to together.  So, thanks for that Jen and Matt.

 As the fire grew dim we gathered up our things and headed in to the RV.  It was indeed a beautiful day.
One more picture of the view from our campsite:

 

 As a final wonderful part of the day.... Jack, wondered about my Aunt Marilyn and her friend Jack. So he called her and the 3 of us chatted for a bit.  What a beautiful woman she is....

Until tomorrow..................