Alabama is an interesting state, especially the more rural parts, and we explored many of them. In Al’s quest for genealogical tidbits we visited libraries, county courthouses, cemeteries, and distant cousins in places like Camden, Monroeville, and Greenville. Karen’s personal favorite was a visit to the library in Haneyville. We walked in the front door and were shocked to see a totally untidy place with a lady asleep in a chair at the desk inside. Another lady helped us, and an elderly lady with her coat and hat on (the librarian we think) came in and dug out a book on bride/groom lists from a desk drawer. She was as helpful as can be under the circumstances, but we went over to the courthouse and found the document Al was looking for. Karen suggested he stop back at the library and tell our very helpful librian about his success, and she gave him a homemade muffin. You just can’t beat Southern hospitality!!!
We had a little incident with our RV brakes in Montgomery…they locked up. We ended up at Airport Trailer where they mostly work on horse trailers, but fortunately they knew trailer brakes. It turned out a nut had come off inside and had been clunking around(Camping World put new brakes on last year) and the brake was shot. The great group at Airport had a new brake on in no time.
One thing we won’t miss about the South — the tornado watches. We went through 3 of them, and there was no where to run or hide at two parks.
Al finished his research in AL and we had two weeks until we had to be in Georgia for the RV Rally in Perry, so Karen suggested we head south to the Florida Panhandle for some sun and warm weather (we didn’t get far enough south for that though) and new territory. All the State Parks Karen put on the list were booked, so Al did his homework and found Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola which is a voted “best” State Park a couple of times, and we agree. It has lots of boardwalk trails through the wetlands, picnic pavillions and waterfront on the big lagoon. 
It turned out to be a great find.
Just around the corner we found the Naval Air Museum on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Base (which is just a couple of miles from the campground). We weren’t expecting much but the museum exceeded all expectations. We took an outside tour led by Dave the retired Marine who was a hoot. He drove an old trolley they had bought from town for $1. He had stories to tell about the planes…especially interesting was the plane that Bush had landed on the carrier after the invasion of Iraq was there, having been retired from service two weeks later due to age!! Inside there were planes everywhere, hanging from the ceiling, on the floor and coming out of walls. We had lunch in a re-creation of a club used by pilots in Subic Bay, Phillipines which was a museum in itself (and the food was great). Al took a simulator ride (he said once was enough). And since Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels, there were four hanging in formation. 
Across the lagoon from us was Perdito Key which is one of Dr. Beach’s top 10. It is beautiful with white sand and expansive beach area, but the weather did not warm up enough to really enjoy it all.
We spent time in Panama City, Mexico Beach (where it rained so hard we woke up with the RV surrounded by water, and Destin. We pretty much checked out the whole Florida Panhandle. Our biggest problem right now is the price of Diesel is out of sight. When we left Denver the price was $3.20 and we’ve had to pay as much at $3.92 recently. Is there no end in sight to the escalating prices?
Now it’s on to Perry, Georgia for the annual RV Rally. We are volunteers so we go in early and then help park all the RV’s that show up.