World United States Alabama Demopolis

Penny and Bob's Great Adventure 2008 - 2010

OTRA - AL - Demopolis Jun 15, 2010

6/15/10

Wow, talk about “out of the frying pan and into the fire”, today it felt like we did it…literally. The temps in Gulf Shores have been in the high 90’s, hitting about 101° in the shade some afternoons. Needless to say, we do most of our moving around outdoors in the evening!!

Anyway, today we left our beloved Gulf Shores, heading our way slowly up to Indiana where we will be replacing our sofa with 2 recliners. Today our goal was the Foscue Corps of Engineers Park in Demopolis, AL. Left Gulf Shores around 11:00 a.m. and had an easy 4-hour drive, arriving at the campground around 3:00 p.m. For some reason, though, we really had a problem with the truck running rather hot. We didn’t have any hills to climb but it constantly ran with the needle close to the top of the “safe” zone. In fact, one time, we did get into the red but luckily we were in an area where I could just let it roll along at a slower speed and the needle worked its way back.

We used to have trouble with a “delayed pick up” when stopped at red lights or a stop sign or something so I took it to the Dodge dealer in Gulf Shores and he replaced some wiring harness or something. Anyway, we gained the power back but now it seems to be shifting into 4th gear later than normal….and sometimes, it seems to miss it altogether. The truck used to run at 60 mph/1800 rpm but it took 2000 rpm just to keep it at 50 mph today. And it was really hard to get it into overdrive. That poor engine just sounded like it was trying so hard and not getting anywhere. I’m wondering if maybe we’re looking at a new transmission in our future?

Okay, enough mechanical stuff. As I said, we got to the Foscue Creek Campground around 3:00 p.m. The first thing we did was put up the awning so we’d have some shade to work in while setting up. About 10 minutes later, I glanced at our outdoor thermometer and it was showing 110°…IN THE SHADE!!! Came in, wet a washcloth, and put it in the freezer. When I took it out about 5 minutes later, that surely did feel good!

This is a nice park located on the Demopolis Lake/Tombigbee River. There’s a river lock about a mile down the road so we’ll go check that out. We’re here for 6 nights, I think, so we’ll do some exploring and some geocaching in this area…in the evening, of course, since it’s just as hot here as further down south!

6/17/10

Just a little blurb for today. Drove down to see the locks today but nothing was happening so that was sort of disappointing. We did go geocaching this evening but started out too late and one of our serches lead us down an almost-dark scary dirt road (well, it didn’t bother Bob but I was scared!). Anyway, as we drove along this dirt road, what do we see but…..2 peacocks! Well, actually a peacock and a peahen….just walking along the side of the road. Now we know these things don’t live “wild”…at least not in Alabama so I got out of the truck to see if I could catch one. Hah! They may not “live” wild in this area but they surely didn’t want to be caught, LOL. As I was getting back in the truck, another truck came towards us. He stopped and I told him about the two peabirds….and he said, “Yes, I know about them; they’re mine.” Evidently, he had just gotten the young male a couple of weeks ago and he wasn’t totally acclimated to his new home so he decided to take a young female for a “walk in the countryside”. I asked the gentleman if he wanted help catching them but he said he’d just “walk” them back to his house about ½ mile up the road…which we figured out to mean he’d just sort of herd them along with his truck. So, we didn’t find a geocache but we did find 2 beautiful birds just walkin’ along a country road.

6/20/10

We are in “reverse hibernation”!! It is soooo hot and soooo humid during the day, we hibernate in the nice air conditioning don’t go “out and about” ‘til around 5:00 in the evening. Right now, at 4:15, it’s 102° in the shade.

We got 3 geocaches before it started to get dark last evening and one was at the Foscue-Whitfield House, an old Federal style house built in 1840 by Augustus Foscue. It was passed down through the family over the years and has remained in the Whitfield family to the present day. It’s 2 ½ stories high and was built with handmade brick. The lower floor has been turned into a beautiful restaurant and Bob said it doesn’t look like a thing has changed since it was originally built – all the furnishings and décor appear to be original.

Another cache search took us to the Jefferson Cemetery which has some of the oldest burials in the area. Most of the people buried here were born in the 1700s. It’s hard to imagine that a lot of these gravesites are over 200 years old!

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving here and moving up to Elkmont, Alabama. We hope to visit the Alabama Space and Rocket Center and there are a few flea markets in that area that we hope have some fresh produce.