We are back folks.

 Writing this January 21st 2023.

We arrived at the Gulf Shores area of Alabama on Saturday 17th December with the plan being to stay our usual two weeks but very sadly John's Dad, Joe, died on Christmas Day at the fantastic age of 99. We were unsure when the funeral in the UK would be as everything was delayed with the holidays and we were due to leave Alabama and drive to Louisiana on New Years Eve. The next two stops would have been State campgrounds that were more remote and with little facilities and we would be unsure of safety for me or access to an airport for John so we decided to extend our stay on the Gulf until the end of January.

While it was the best decision for us it has felt long, a bit boring and we cannot wait to hit the road again.

I won't mention the campground yet as we are still here but will in a later post. After spending time in State campgrounds in forests and lakes it felt strange to come to a busy area that is focused on snowbirds in the Winter, young adults on Spring Break and families on beach vacations in the Summer. Lots of t-shirt shops, crazy golf and amusement areas.

The beach is beautiful but we did not realize there are no dogs allowed on any of it. We have been to beaches in the past that will either have sections that no dogs are allowed or have designated dog beaches but here it's no dogs anywhere even when we drove along the coast into Florida.

The short boardwalk was the nearest we got to the beach

The country had another Arctic Blast with bitterly cold temperatures leading up to and including the Christmas weekend so we did not go too far for the first week.

I brought along a few of my vintage decorations and gnomes

 On Christmas Eve we drove to Fort Morgan. Construction for the Fort  began in 1819 for protection against English invasions. It took nearly 15 years to complete. Labor for the project resulted in a slave lease contract between the U.S, Government and slave owners in the region. These men, women and children manufactured over 30,000,000 bricks and mortar for the construction. At it's height over 200 enslaved persons labored either on Mobile Point or at the brick yards and mortar kilns along the bay.

https://ahc.alabama.gov/properties/ftmorgan/ftmorgan.aspx

We enjoyed walking around and was extra cool as dogs were allowed, even in the visitor center. We almost had the Fort to ourselves due to it being Christmas Eve and the frigid Arctic weather.

I see no ships