Friday, December 4, 2015

Sadly, it was time to leave Rainbow Plantation.  We met a lot of very nice folks during our month long stay and look forward to visiting them again someday.  The move to Fort Pickens was a pleasant 58-mile trip (75,681.8 miles total) nearly all of it on US Highway 98.

Mrs. Kravitz was a permanent resident in this coach!  This may be my favorite Christmas decoration so far.

Thanks to Andy for the heads up on the best diesel price in the area. We were able to fill up at $2.059/gallon - our lowest ever price and almost exactly half of the highest price we had ever paid!

The Fort Pickens campground on Gulf Islands National Seashore was more than four miles from the last developed property in Pensacola Beach.  At times we were just sure the road was below water level.  It was a bit unnerving!

We had arrived early enough to make a run to Fort Pickens for a quick look around before dinner.

The park buildings closed at sunset so Volunteer Ranger, Stuart, lowering the flag was our signal it was time to go.

Thursday, December 3, 2015, Foley Model Railroad

We finally stopped at the Foley Train Museum when the Model Railroad was operating.  I highly recommend it to anyone in the area! It was an absolute gem.

The display was huge (20 feet by 60 feet) and there was more than 1/4 mile of track!  I forgot how many trains were operating, but let's just say there was always something moving.

The club members clearly enjoyed their hobby.  One invited Joani down in the working pit so she could get closer to the action.

The Union Station was modeled after the station in Nashville, TN. Having spent some time there, I can say it looked pretty good. Across from the station, in the town square, I noticed a small train engine with an engineer riding atop the locomotive while kids were seated behind in open cars.  I thought it would be over the top if it also moved.  One of the club members flipped a switch and away it went.  I think he said it was an N-gauge track and train.  I was blown away.  I pretty much forgot about the trains at that point as I searched the layout for more of their unique whimsy.

The scenery was, by far, the most intricate I had ever seen in model railroading.  The circus was in town complete with three rings under the big top, elephants in a side tent and a working Ferris wheel.  To the right of the circus, you can see the drive-in movie theater was showing a triple feature (they had a DVD playing through a 10 inch diagonal LCD panel).

In the hobo camp off to the side of the tracks, you could see a policeman had just apprehended an escaped convict.  I suspect he had slipped away from the chain gang working on the road on the other side of town.

In the firehouse, an alarm sounds, the door rolls up, a fireman slides down the pole and the truck pulls out of the building.

The work shed was hand built by one of the members.  The motor on the right turned an overhead spindle that, in turn, drove all of the tools. Out of the picture to the left, a random blinking LED did a good job of looking like the sparks from some arc welding work.

A fire at the Fireworks factory of all places! The lights were flashing on every truck and the poor woman on the third floor, who was in the shower, had to be rescued naked.

These guys had a tough job painting the trestle iron. I'm sure they would rather have been at the fish camp on the lake far below them.

High in the hills moonshiners tended to the still while their pet bear treed a revenuer who had come to investigate.

To give us a better idea of just how many lights were in the little town they turned the room lights off - very impressive!

We arrived at the Foley Model Train exhibit thinking we would spend a few minutes looking it over. After more than an hour we reluctantly left, but only because we had other commitments. Be sure you make time to see this if you are ever in the area!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

The Fairhope History museum was on our "to-do" list and today we finally made it when they were open.  It was our opportunity to learn more about this pleasant little town.

A nice looking fountain was home to a sculpture entitled "Mullet Run". It was surrounded with custom fired brickwork walkways.  I really liked the variety of colors.

To the left of the main entrance doors was a full-scale sculpture of Craig Turner Sheldon. Who was Craig Turner Sheldon you ask, (at least I did) - as it happens, he was one of the town's more famous and interesting folks. He was Fairhope's Master Wood Carver.

Some of the strangest, most imaginative sculptures we have ever seen were on display upstairs. The wall was filled with accolades to the life and works of Mr. Sheldon.  Two display cases were filled with some of his fantastic works of art. 

Fairhope was founded with the radical idea of minimizing taxes.  The Single Tax Corporation still owns some 4,400 acres that are leased to residents for 99 years.  One of the museum docents tried to explain how the taxes worked on her leased land.  I can't say I understood it, but she, at least, thought the taxes were pretty reasonable.

No longer single tax because Federal must now get their cut, but at the time it was a unique idea proposed by economist Henry George.

A natural phenomenon that seems a little sad.  A sudden lack of oxygen in the water drives the crabs and fish to clamor to the shore where they are easily scooped up.

The parade of flying mowers was a mystery until I learned one of the early factories in Fairhope manufactured the three-wheeled machines. They even had a self-propelled model which, I suspect, was ahead of its time.  They have long since gone out of business apparently due to safety issues with the design.

One of the museum docents, Larry, spent many years traveling in an RV and was happy to share some of his experiences.  He said he had retired in 1975 and it was much later that I did the math and realized he had been retired 41 years!  I suspect he "retired" very young and did not count work as he traveled to be a real job.  It was a real pleasure talking with Larry.

Larry was very nostalgic about the years he spent traveling the country in his motorhome as a consultant.

The town has a very impressive library across the street from the museum.  It looked like they had a lot of programs to engage with their patrons and they even had a couple racks of books by the door that were free for the taking.

Outside of the Eastern Shore Art Center was this sculpture that I found extremely intriguing. It looked different from every angle making it difficult to decide on my favorite perspective.

Larry had told us where to find, Sheldon Castle, the home Craig Turner Sheldon had built.  Next to it, he helped build a home for his daughter and son-in-law.  We were not sure if anyone was currently living in these homes, but I boldly snapped pictures while trying to maintain a respectable distance.  There was so much detail I would have liked to explore much closer but we will have to see if that might be possible next time.

 Craig Sheldon started building this house in 1946.  It grew over the years to accommodate a growing family.


It must be wonderful to grow up in a home that oozes whimsy.  So much so that Sheldon's daughter grew up and married a man (Dean Mosher) that...

...built her (Pagan Sheldon Mosher) an even larger castle (under his father-in-law's tutelage) on the same property.  The Mosher castle carries on the tradition of incorporating a wild imagination and whimsy.  What is life without whimsy!

Instead of trespassing, we deferred to the internet to see the back of the castle.

Now I will also be on the lookout for the artwork of Dean Mosher hanging in museums.

Wednesday nights a crew from the Escapee park head to the Foley Elks lodge for Trivia. Two weeks ago our team included Bob, Sondra, Paul, Lisa, Cecil, Maryann, Andy, Muffy, Connie and me. Tonight we had to pull four tables together for eighteen hopefuls (maybe more) thinking we might have a chance.

The serious looks lets you know that the last question was a toughie.

We made a respectable showing, but nobody ever beats the "Barflies" and tonight was no exception. I think we missed four of twenty questions while they missed only two. But it's not about winning or losing it's really just all about the fun.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The folks at the Rainbow Plantation Escapee park have a tradition each year they refer to as the Baby Blanket Blitz.  Several ladies shop the day after Thanksgiving for hundreds of yards of cloth (at Black Friday discount prices, of course).  Then they coordinate more than 100 volunteers in a blur of activity to turn the material into finished blankets for newborn babies.  The blankets and hundreds of knit caps are used to complete birthing kits that are delivered to new mothers in Africa.

The assembly line began with tables set up for cutting the raw cloth. Templates on tables (I believe there were five), rotary cutters, straight edges and teams of two to four volunteers made short work of cutting an estimated 50 bolts of cloth into precisely measured rectangles.

Runners took the cut cloth to ironing boards and then to the sewing tables.  We counted as many as 24 machines in operation at one time. After the edges were stitched each blanket was carefully inspected, folded and stacked on the finished table.

Joani and I collected the scraps from the cutting tables to keep them clear.  Joani's organizing skills were evidenced by the well-organized piles, sorted by color, neatly stored in bins.  Linda, one of the main drivers of the blitz, who will use the scraps later for quilting, was extremely impressed and appreciative of her efforts.

Around noon we all took a break for lunch.  Larry had Ham and Bean soup and Tortilla soup ready for the workers.  He also had grilled cheese and PB&J sandwiches and tea and coffee for all.  The timing was good for us since all of the cutting was finished, but some of the folks had to be pulled away from their work for the break!

Many of the residents had been knitting baby caps for the birthing kits yielding this colorful collection of welcome warmth for newborns.  

There were two ladies using what I guessed to be vintage Singer sewing machines, although they could have been new machines with a retro look.  They kept me too busy to ask either of them about the machines. 

After all of the scraps were sorted, Joani got the chance to sew a couple of blankets to round out the day's total of 424 blankets (a new record for their event).  By 2:00 the group of hard-working volunteers had restored order to the clubhouse and headed home for a well-earned nap.