Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown

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Trip start
April 2, 2025
Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
Away We Go
April 2, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 73 °F
47 minutes behind schedule is not too bad. We don't have a schedule to keep or anything. But we are who we are. We have a scheduled departure time.

This is our shake down trip - our trial run for the season. We need to make sure we have everything and that everything works. It's a reasonably big deal this time - we have lots of changes.

First, meet Zilla, our new (to us) truck. We upgraded our truck from the GMC 2500 to a Ford F250 with the 7.3 liter Godzilla engine "Zilla". She is supposed to get better gas mileage, we will see. But we got her mostly because I wanted a nicer truck. My Lovely and I both got something in the deal. I got the nicer truck, and My Lovely got to do something sweet to spoil me.

I'll talk more about other changes in future posts, but for now - in this moment - we are driving south to Gulf State Park enjoying the new green peeking out if the trees, listening to our music and looking forward to some true down time.

We have almost no plans. Relax, watch the dogs, a couple of short rides, and peaceful togetherness.Read more
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
1st Ride
April 2, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F
Along with making sure the camper is good to go, we are also making sure the bikes are ready. Today we took a nine mile ride. Walked out on the pier....lots of wind, surf, and rip tides. Then we rode around Shelby Lake which was a lovely ride. This park has many paved walking/biking trails. It is obviously well known for them because almost every camper has bikes and there are rental, and free park bikes everywhere. Blaze and Nestor did great on the ride down (after chemo #2 the day before). We took them for a couple short walks before we rode and they happily chilled in the camper while we were gone. Thinking we will watch a Val Kilmer film tonight in his honor.Read more
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
2025 Shakedown
April 3, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 77 °F
This year the shakedown trip has a few more facets. We upgraded several things leading up to this trip.

We added an inverter and upgraded to LiFePo batteries with the hope that we could stay in state parks without electrical hookups or even boondock for a day or two.

We added Solar Panels to the roof to help replace power to the batteries.

We added DC to DC power (recharge the batteries on the camper from the truck alternator as we drive).

We upgraded the shower with a new shower valve.

We added a storage box up front for additional storage (we lost storage in the basement due to the power upgrade).

The results so far?

The shower upgrade was reviewed favorably by My Lovely.

The inverter and batteries work properly, However, the point was to be able to run at least 1 night of air conditioning off the batteries. Believe that we will be fine in the mountains, but in a hot environment, we may only get 6 hours run time.

The solar panels work. We always knew they would be a supplement only.

We will be checking out the DC to DC on the way home (we already had full batteries on the drive down). I expect a full recharge in 3 hours (which is faster than we need), so I expect us to be good there.

And, we got to add another state!! Alabama!Read more
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
If only wishes came true
April 4, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F
If only wishes came true.

Oh, but they do.

We were riding along and saw an "Alligator Crossing" sign. My Lovely said, "I wish we could see an alligator in the wild." Then, 30 seconds later, there she was, a momma gator and her baby, just chilling in the brackish water just off the side of the trail.

There was an older man hanging there. He pointed out the baby, or we would have never seen it.

Happy and Sad, and Happy again.

Loved seeing the alligator. We are so happy to have our bikes - we would never have had this opportunity (not available by car and too far out for a hike).

Sad because while talking to the man hanging out with the alligator, he told us a story that made me come to believe that he was alone (his wife, his travel partner, was gone). I suspect that he hangs out there with the alligator and talks to tourists as they check out the alligator (he mentioned that this was her spot - she is there often).

And finally, happy again. I was happy that we spent a few moments with the man. He told us a story and we told him one.

I love my partner, my friend, and my wife.

*Update! We saw another alligator in the wild! Just hanging out beside the trail! Pics added...Read more
TravelerWondering what story you shared. You probably made his day!
4/4/25Reply
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
♬ Over the hills and through the woods ♬
April 5, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F
We knew that bike riding was hoping to be the primary activity for this trip, but we told ourselves that we would only make 1 post on bike riding.

Well, we were wrong. First, before we even got on our bikes, we noticed the multitude of bikes here - at almost every campsite, then the e-bike rentals, and the free loaner bike stations. People come here to ride bikes.

Yes, the beach is just across the road and there are plenty of beach goers. And there are the people that fish. But the largest activity here seems to be the 28 miles of paved biking and walking trails. But that is not the reason for this post.

We got off the paved trails and took an "off-road" trail. The trail was not marked but it was obviously maintained for this purpose. One trail turned out to be more than a dozen trails - and we tried to hit them all.

The trails weave between trees and zig zag around. A little bumpy in some places and sandy in others. Sometimes you need to duck below the branches. It was an adventure. A very safe adventure to be sure. But My Lovely could not get enough. "Take this trail to the left" she'd say. She didn't actually giggle, but I could hear a giggle in everything she said.

The trip was better than we expected it would be; and it was better because the riding was better than we expected - and that was before we got into the woods.

The woods riding - the highlight to the trip.

My Lovely's excitement - the highlight to my life.

From Amy....Yes!! That was way too much fun! First time we've ever done any riding like that, We loved it! The videos don't really do it justice...the little dips and rolls and twists...so much fun!Read more
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
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More biking video...
April 5, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 77 °F
A couple more videos of the paved trails. It was so much better than we expected it to be. Beautiful, lovely weather, peaceful. We did about 49 miles over 3 days. It's been a great trip, but the weather back home has been terrible...severe storms, tornados, and flooding. Sounds like everyone is safe that we know.Read more
Traveler Beautiful day and beautiful scenery
4/6/25Reply
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Gulf St Pk AL-2025 Shakedown Traveler
The Wrap-Up, and a Surprise
April 6, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 68 °F
Wrap Up

I generally like to do a wrap-up post at the end of a trip, but this trip being so short and being a shakedown one is not really necessary. But I am the definition of verbose, so here she goes...

We had the Blaze and Nestor with us because they had chemo treatments the day before we left. The pups turned out to be easier than I expected. They behaved well.

My Lovely and I sat and relaxed more than we ever have before. I enjoyed the slower pace, and sleeping in was an interesting change, but I missed something - I'm just not sure what. I might have to work at a slower pace.

We both agreed that, for us (and yet one more thing on common), the sound of the surf and its breeze is the call of the beach but not the beach itself.

Of course, the bike riding was fun, and the overwhelming favorite activity - especially riding in the woods.

As I have mentioned on posts for previous trips, we do the Find Penguins for ourselves. My Lovely enjoys reliving these good times. I'm dropping in more videos of the ride she enjoyed the most.

And the surprise for the trip? We discovered a new snack! It is not that we snack a lot. Chips are not something for which we would normally reach. An apple would be much more common. But My Lovely picked up some Garlic Parmeasan Pretzel Crisps. Oh my!!

Well, I guess we are easy to impress indeed, but please pass the crisps.Read more
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Trip end
April 6, 2025