The Inbetween Things

So what do we do when we are not hammering down the interstates?  We eat, read, update Quicken accounting software with our purchase receipts, so we can do our taxes.  Unlike in the UK where we have a “PAYE” system (Pay As You Earn) with a flat nation- wide tax rate paid at source by your employer, in the US, everyone, whether employed or self employed, has to file their own taxes, and there are Federal and individual State tax returns which have to be filled out – all of which takes a lot of prep work! We also cook, barbeque, chill, play computer games, surf the net, do trailer housework, take part in RV campsite social activities, shoot the breeze with our neighbouring RVers, and take the odd snooze!

Pretty much normal everyday things, really; we are, after all, not just touring, we are living our lives.  In fact, our previously eager desire to see everything of interest as soon as we arrived at a new destination has mellowed.  We are retired, not on holiday, and the pocket book has to be considered.  We cannot afford to eat out and pay exorbitant entry fees to venues every day.  When we began touring, Richard bought a special Seniors pass for National Parks that gives him and all passengers in the truck free entry to these stateside federally maintained places of interest, and these are usually the first sites we earmark for a visit.  And we do splurge out on a meal once a week.

Being in Florida, we had to try the seafood.  So in Niceville, we spent our last night at the, Dockside café   http://mydocksidecafe.com/, watching the sunset over the bay.

Richard had a fried seafood mix, but I am not that keen on having everything fried in one course, so opted for the Bayou Filet, an 8 oz. filet of chargrilled fish of the day, over Jambalaya topped with crawfish cream sauce served with garlic mash and steamed vegetables.  Mine was lovely.  Richard regretted overindulging – he says it was the side of fries that did it!

I should add the reason we stayed in Niceville – nice name but who has ever heard of it?- is that it has an RV site maintained by the US Military.  With Richard being a veteran, we can stay in Military RV sites.  They are usually near military bases, and, as they charge cheaper than average rates to active and retired military personnel, they offer a nice short stay alternative to us as we travel.  From Niceville, which sits on a lagoon type bay, we had to cross several bridges to get to the long spit of beach that fronts the Gulf of Mexico.  The very white sand was extremely fine, and had a similar feel to the gypsum sand at White Sands in New Mexico.  No waves to speak of, even though it was very breezy.

Pensacola was about another hour’s drive further west.  It is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags", due to the five governments that have ruled it during its modern history: the flags of Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. Other nicknames include "World's Whitest Beaches" (due to the white sand of the Florida panhandle), "Cradle of Naval Aviation" (due to it being the first US Naval Air Station in 1914), "Western Gate to the Sunshine State", (due it being at the very west of the Florida panhandle) "America's First Settlement", "Emerald Coast" (lots of pine trees), and "Redneck Riviera". I’ll let you work out why for yourselves. 

We thought we would go into the old town which holds historical tours, but never quite managed it, because we spent too long eating lunch and visiting Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, one of 4 forts strategically placed along the deep water channel leading from the Gulf to defend Pensacola Bay, and the city from invasion.  It was built in the early 1800’s, using slave labour (New Orleans slaves for their skill in masonry and carpentry, and Pensacola slaves as day labourers).  Wages for the workers were paid to their owners.

Fort Pickens saw action during both the war of independence, and the civil war.  It even incarcerated Geronimo for a year, alongside 15 other Apache “undesirables”, before he was finally moved to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.  I pointed out to Richard that we seem to have been following Geronimo’s footsteps, though our nomadic lives are by choice.

We splurged on lunch at the La Brisa restaurant in Gulf Breeze, http://labrisarestaurant.com/

Richard had calamari to start, I had cracker fried green tomatoes served over creamy meunière sauce and topped with crawfish Étouffée. 

For those not in the know, crawfish are not crayfish, they are more like small shrimp.  They are a staple food in the south where the low elevation leads to lots of standing water – you can see the tops of traps littering the flooded bayoux/countryside as soon as you hit Louisiana.

For main course, I had Gumbo Salad: Fried shrimp (that’s prawns in Scotland), oysters and okra. Richard had Shrimp Po’Boy: hand-breaded shrimp served on a sweet sour dough roll with house remoulade.

The food here was delicious.

Our second long stay was in Charleston.  Originally called Charles Town, it was named after King Charles II of England, who granted the Province of Carolina to a group of loyal friends, and it was a well established port by 1680.  Early settlers were often attached by the French, Spanish, American natives and pirates – including one Edward Teach – aka Blackbeard.  As a result, the heart of the old town was fortified.  Around 40% of the total 400,000 Africans transported and sold as slaves into North America are estimated to have landed at Sullivan's Island, just off the port of Charles Town.

By the mid-18th century, Charles Town had become a large and wealthy bustling trade center, the hub of the Atlantic trade for the southern colonies. By 1770, it was the fourth-largest port in the colonies, (after Boston, New York, and Philadelphia), with a population of 11,000—slightly more than half of them slaves. 

Charleston was a focal point in the American Revolution, and the taking of nearby Fort Sumter by Union troops signalled the beginning of the Civil War.  Yes, lots of history and not enough time to take it all in.  We could have spent much longer there, but we satisfied ourselves by gawping at the wonderful buildings – pre and post antebellum, and visiting Magnolia Gardens, a former plantation now famous for – yes you’ve guessed it, its gardens.  The tour of the house was well worth it, to get some interesting background on how the civil war and its legacy affected the plantation and the family. The house has belonged to the same family since it was built. The magnolias and azaleas were stunning but best of all were the alligators we encountered.  We kept our distance, of course.

Touring aside, the other thing we do when we are “resting”, is work on the Jet, our RV, and on Benny, our trusty truck.  Here is a lovely picture I took of the two at a state park in Georgia. 

Like any house and vehicle, they need regular maintenance, and this is generally Richard’s job.  I, however, work on the more aesthetic side of things.  Producing things of beauty, like this blog.  Or rearranging the small amounts of nick knacks we have and planning what photos will be placed where to brighten up our home.  I have been considering for a while on how to detract from the brown-ness of the décor the Jet came adorned with.  Here, for example, is the bathroom. 

When we first viewed the Jet, this appealed to me because of the small bath, and there was plenty of storage space.  However, I hadn’t considered that our bathroom paraphernalia stored within those 8 open shelves would be in full view every time I, or anyone else, used the lavy.

Baskets were the answer, but getting ones that fit the odd sizes of the cubby holes were a challenge. I finally found the very baskets I was looking for, $5.99 each at Target for the larger shelves.  I replaced the brown stripy shower curtain with a lovely yellow and grey flowery one, which was a steal at J T Maxx (T K Maxx in the UK).  Of course, the RV size bath and shower fitting are smaller than normal, which meant that the curtain was too long.  However, cloth Ikea storage baskets (brought over on our trip from the UK as they were lightweight and useful for organising our suitcase packing), covered with the left-over curtain material prove to be a wonderful way of hiding the junk and brightening up those smaller cubby holes on either side of the sink, don’t you think?

And wouldn’t you agree that stick on tile backsplash we found in Home Depot makes it look quite elegant? I was so taken with it that I decided to do the kitchen space too. My “less is more” maxim meant both areas were “tiled” for a mere $50.

On the whole, I am very pleased with my makeover efforts at retiree prices!!