Alabama – Stark Adventures

4/7/24 Riding at Minooka Park

April 7, 2024April 8, 2024karenstark

Sunday, April 7, 2024:

Spending the second night at: Minooka Park Campground near Jemison Alabama
Weather- clear and mild: Hi 80, low 54, Humidity Hi 87%, low 30.

Today was a nice leisurely sleep-in day. We had to run our little electric heaters last night cuz it got chilly willy! Tonight will be warmer so maybe no heaters or coolers will be necessary. Our plan today was to do some trail riding since there’s probably a good couple hours worth of trails for us to tootle around on. I picked this place because I figured Kenny would want to do some “less serious” riding to check Kawi out for the season.

We were given this map when we checked in yesterday and weren’t sure what the colors on the map meant. As we rode around, we discovered the colors didn’t have anything to do with difficulty, it was just a way to designate the various trails out in the woods. The trails were well marked and matched up to this side of the map pretty well.

4/6/24 On to Alabama

April 6, 2024April 7, 2024karenstark

Saturday, April 6, 2024:

Spending the night at: Minooka Park Campground near Jemison Alabama, with OHV trails!!

$23.50/night plus $25 OHV riding fee for the whole length of stay, plus tax = $76.78 for two nights. Site B on the passenger’s side has 50 amp power, water, and took a bit of jockeying to get backed into since the pad is only about 12’ wide. It is a beautiful clean campground and site with enough parking for Nitro, Henry and Kawi, and enough cell signal to send pictures.
Weather- clear and mild: Hi 71, low 45, Humidity Hi 99%, low 32 – a lil muggy for sleeping with the windows open.

Today was a much nicer commute! We traveled about 340 miles, and the first 140 were on I-10 which at times was a ghost freeway. So nice!

March 21, 2023 On to Mississippi

March 21, 2023March 29, 2023karenstark

Tuesday-It takes two days for us to get out of Florida, and one hour to get through Alabama. At least that is true while driving along the Gulf. We made it to Alabama by 11:30.

Day 4,5: Alabippi and Texiana

March 6, 2022March 8, 2022karenstark

3/5/22- Today was nearly a 400 mile day, so we got going before 9:00. We’ve learned that camping people don’t break camp at the crack of dawn like boaters do, so we don’t want to disturb the peace too early. Besides, if we get to our destination too early, our spot might not be open, so we are slowly learning this land way of life. We did have to pull out of our spot and completely block the road to get Kawi loaded. Wouldn’t you know it, a truck came into the campground and had to wait for us. I think it was probably somebody from the campground like me yesterday, who just bopped over to the visitor’s center to get cave tour tickets. Anyway, we quickly loaded Kawi up and only put on the back tie-down straps and closed the back door to get out of the way. Then we pulled around to a wide spot in the road, opened the trailer back up again and finished strapping him in. We use two straps in back, two in front, plus over-tire straps on the front tires. Kenny likes the tire straps to take the most load so that Kawi’s suspension isn’t smashed flat all the time. It’s probably overkill, but at least we know he isn’t jumping around and having a dance party back there while we drive down the highway. And it’s good that we have some kinda procedure and can do things sorta quick in a pinch if we have to. So out of Florida, and we were into Alabama by 11:00.

Day 205- Gulf Shores! Salt Air!

October 10, 2021October 11, 2021karenstark

Sunday, October 10, 2021
Temp: 84/65, Humidity: 54/94%, Top Wind: SE10 mph, Precip: bright & sunny, Miles Traveled: 42

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It is so strange and I cannot even begin to explain it. Today feels like we’re home. Or at least almost. Both of us feel a huge psychological difference being on the salt water. We saw dolphins, seagulls, and Island Girl sits higher in the water and lifts better when we go fast. She likes it. We like it. And we are seriously only like ONE WEEK of travel days away from really being HOME! That is crazy!! And we’re ready.

Neither of us slept very well last night. It was really warm and humid, and we were right on the port shipping channel, so we were rocked a lot!. But it was worth it to be here in Mobile and be done with the rivers, and have those miles behind us. You can barely tell in this picture, but just below the red pointer indicating where we were docked, Interstate 10 goes right under the river! So we were docked almost on top of the freeway. That’s weird.

Day 204- The end of the river section!

October 9, 2021October 10, 2021karenstark

Saturday, October 9, 2021
Temp: 85/64, Humidity: 47/95%, Top Wind: Ne6 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 122!!, Number of Locks: 1, – THE LAST ONE!!

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It was another early morning get up. We slept really good here on the dock at Bobby’s. No logs bonking our hull, we had air conditioning, it was very peaceful and dark outside. I should have gone out to look at the stars, but I’m always afraid of letting in too many skeeters that will consume all of Kenny’s blood. We had a beautiful morning pre-sunrise. There wasn’t any fog on the water. David had called the lock around 6:00, requesting a 7:00 lock through. The lockmaster didn’t answer the phone. Finally after several tries, he called on the radio. The lockmaster told him to call back at 6:30. Huh?🤔. That was weird. But, OK.

Day 203-97 miles down the rivah

October 8, 2021October 9, 2021karenstark

Friday, October 8, 2021
Temp: 84/61, Humidity: 48/100%, Top Wind: N6 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 97, Number of Locks: 1, which should have been a 40’ drop, but was really only about 25?!

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The most exciting thing that happened today was that we were the only two boats that stopped at Bobby’s Fish Camp, so we both got to be plugged in to power. YAY! But first, we we had a lock and some fog to go through. I was up at 5:45 to look outside. There was a bit of fog, but it didn’t look terrible. David texted at 6:00 to let us know that the lock was good for us to proceed for a 7:00 transit through. Alrighty then – let’s get with it! We untied and cast off at 6:40 to tootle our way the 2.5 miles down to the lock.

Day 202-The good, bad, and ugly

October 7, 2021October 10, 2021karenstark

Thursday, October 7, 2021
Temp: 82/65, Humidity: 57/100%, Top Wind: NE4 mph, Precip: FOG, cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 50, Number of Locks: none

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I actually slept pretty good last night. I woke up several times with bonks against the hull, but I didn’t stay awake long. Captain didn’t sleep quite as well, worrying about his ship and all. We were both awake at daybreak to see that there was plenty of fog outside. Grrr 😠 That’s not good because we won’t travel in fog unless we absolutely have to. The good thing was that we only had fifty miles to go today and no locks, so we didn’t have to. David called to see what we were thinking, and was relieved to hear that we were thinking about just sitting here awhile until it cleared up. We anticipated that it would get thicker as the sun came up, and then it would burn off, and that is exactly what it did.

Day 201- Plans A & B on Tombigbee

October 6, 2021October 7, 2021karenstark

Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Temp: 81/67, Humidity: 67/100%, Top Wind: E4 mph, Precip: cloudy, sunny, Miles Traveled: 70, Number of Locks: One more than planned! 3 total with a total drop of 91’ (27,27,36)

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The alarm was set for 5:45. I was up before 5:30 and checked the weather and the Lock Queue report. Things looked pretty good! As planned, David on She’s The One telephoned the lock. then he came over to tell me what he found out. Everything was cleared for take-off, so we got ourselves ready for a 7:00 departure. We were over achievers. Ha! Go figure! We left the dock at 6:42. 🤭 STO followed us out. They are going to follow us today, after a big long discussion about how to get better fuel economy. Plus, they’d like to follow us into what ever anchorage we go to today.

Day 246: Being touristy in Flor & Bama

November 13, 2018November 3, 2019karenstark

11/13/18 Tuesday: We had planned for this to be a day that we would not travel along the waterway, expecting it to be rainy and windy. We were right. It was that. And cold. Our first mission of the day was to go get a rental car. Hertz was cheaper than Enterprise this time, and they would come pick us up at the marina. YAY! However, one thing we have learned about renting cars – don’t be in a hurry or on a schedule. It is a very slow process. Good thing we didn’t have a flight to catch or anything! We got our car and stopped at Publix for some groceries. It certainly is not the least expensive option for groceries, but they have a good stuff – including a good deli and bakery. We took our haul back to the boat, then went to meet up with our ‘Bay Boats’ at Lulu’s for lunch.