TOUR AMERICA 2019: SWEET HOME ALABAMA

Home Is Where We Park It: Sharon Johnston Park 

June 15, 2019

Temperature 84 Degrees Sunny

Happy Father’s Day

What a difference a couple of days can make.  Temperatures are back in the mid 80’s never dropping below the 70’s at night.  I’m still, however, keeping the blanket handy for a couple more days.

Tomorrow we’re moving north to Nashville.  We’re watching the weather real close and not liking what we’re seeing so far.  Every day we’re there they are calling for rain and thunderstorms.  Could we finally have used up our good day weather chip?

Tomorrow is Father’s Day so a special shout out to all Fathers and those who act in that capacity to all everywhere.  Since we’ll be on the road tomorrow for Father’s Day Barbara decided to treat me today.

This morning she treated me to breakfast at a special restaurant she discovered.

Open and waiting for us.

Inside we discovered a wonderful, inviting atmosphere.   This so speaks to  what Barbara and myself feel each day.  How grateful we are every day to the good Lord for the life we live together.

This is a simple but wonderful restaurant.

A nice touch on each table.

The staff was absolutely fantastic.  We could not have asked for better service.  We felt like we had come home to old friends.  Well, we placed our orders and while we were waiting we began talking to a couple behind us who had two wonderful children.  One was two and the other was seven months old.  One thing led to another and we spent some time playing with the kids and talking to their parents.  The best, though, is yet to come.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

Finally breakfast arrived.  We started off with Beignets.  We had wanted to try them in New Orleans but never got around to it.  This was our chance and we were not going to let it slip away.  Maybe some are wondering what they are (I didn’t know at first!) they are lightly fried pastries sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They are so yummy!

Here is our breakfast.  Barbara had the French Toast.  Not just regular French Toast but Apple Cinnamon French Toast.  She gave a big thumbs up on her choice.

I had one of my favorites which is Country Fried Steak, scrambled eggs, and Biscuits and Gravy.  We both had coffee and bacon to round things out.  I too gave a big thumbs up to my breakfast.  We both were members of the clean plate club.

The big surprise was yet to come.  Remember the young couple with the two young children?  Well, we said good-bye to them and wished them a good day as they prepared to leave.  We then loitered over our coffee for a few more minutes and finally asked for the check.  That’s when we found out our breakfast had been paid for by the young couple we had been talking with.  We were floored to put it mildly.   Now its our turn to find an opportunity to pay it forward.

Returning home it was time to finish up a few chores that needed doing.  I changed the oil filter on Graybeard.  I run synthetic oil in the engine which I change every 8.000 miles.  But I change the oil filter every 4,000 miles.  Just my way of doing things.  Next, I gave Graybeard a bath.  Top to bottom, front to back.  Looks so much better now.  I also checked the tire pressure since we’ll be on the road tomorrow.  Under the hood was the last chore and all looked good there.

While I was fussing around outside Barbara was inside making muffins, cleaning counters, doing dishes and putting things in order for our move tomorrow.

Now its time for me to get my stuff in order for Travel Day.  So I’m going to call it a night at this point.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  A busy day from beginning to end but filled with the kind of things we both like to do.

Thanks for checking in with us.  We always enjoy your company.  Catch you sometime tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!