Long Overdue Update

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. Back in April, I mentioned that Julie and I had learned of a new Conservation Community that we were interested in. After much research, we finally made an offer on one of the five estate lots that was available. Our offer was accepted, and we hope to close sometime within the next month.

DauerWalden is located about 16 miles from downtown Mobile (as the crow flies) between Spanish Fort and Bay Minette, along Whitehouse Fork Road (County Rd. 40), which bisects the community. The community also fronts Hurricane Road (County Rd. 138), and thus abuts the two primary routes into Bay Minette from the south and west. The current commute to downtown Mobile is slightly less than ½ hour, which is actually quicker than the time it takes us to get to downtown from our current home.

Each community member who purchases a home site receives a membership in the DauerWalden Conservation Association which will, in cooperation with existing owners, manage the common property. When the conservation project is completed, the commons of DauerWalden will include about 1000 acres of undeveloped farm and forest land, the timber, all the necessary equipment to manage the estate, and common improvements: miles of fencing, land improvements such as forest roads, bridges, and trails, pastures, a picnic area, the restored farm house (slated to be the farm manager's residence), several barns, outbuildings, and equestrian facilities.

The lot we chose is over 24 acres, and several springs as well as Whitehouse Fork Creek, the western tributary of upper Bay Minette Creek, which flows into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta just north of Spanish Fort, disect it. You can see a panoramic image of the lot that was taken on August 3rd, on the home page of my website.

We are excited and looking forward to beginning work with our architect. Though I am sure we will be having a busy couple of years with the design and building process, we are looking forward to the challenge.

Halls Motorsports Thursday Night Dinner Rides

I have neglected to write posts regarding the Thursday night dinner rides I have been attending. Every other Thursday evening, Halls Motorsports hosts a dinner ride. Typically a nice loop route is chosen to ultimately end up at a restaurant.

I attended the March 27th ride. It was a blast. We headed down D.I.P. over the Dog River bridge, down Rangeline Road, back to D.I.P. and down to AL 188. On AL 188 at the end of Bellingrath Road is Mary’s Place. Mary’s Place was a nice little “country family style” restaurant. I am not sure of their typical menu, as we all opted for the buffet, which consisted of fried fish, fried shrimp, grits and various other good old country style items. Not the best place i have ever eaten, but not too bad for a buffet either.

Last night was a lot of fun. Steve, the sales manager from Halls was attempting to give me and Randy (another Burgman 650 rider, directions for the loop we would take. As he was describing the route, he decided that Randy and I had a better idea of the route and that we should lead out the ride.

I figured that most of the group would eventually pass us, as the sport bikes typically like to do a little “hot rodding”. Amazingly though, the whole group stuck together. We took HWY 90 all the way to Grand Bay and then north on AL 188/Grand Bay Wilmer Road to Airport Blvd, and then east to Schillinger Road where we ate at Hacienda San Miguel Restaurant.

I have to say I was very impressed with the service last night. Not only did 20 people show up at one time unannounced, but the service was fast as well. They set us up out on the patio. The server was truly amazing. He took all 20 orders at the same time, without even writing the orders down. As far as I know, he didn’t mix up a single order. The next thing that really impressed me was that he had a separate ticket for each person or couple. Most restaurants would require one ticket for a party that large.

Steve has asked me to come up with the route and restaurant for the next dinner ride, as I am familiar with so many dining establishments as well as knowing all of the nice scenic roads from my years of road cycling. The pressure is on now!

Property Search

Julie and I have been searching for some land to build a home on for a little while now. We had narrowed it down to a couple of parcels.

One is off of HWY 225 about 6 miles south of I-65, between the HWY and the Tensaw River. It is over 12 acres in a subdivision. The subdivision actually is a single road that dead-ends at the river. The end of the road has a neighborhood park with river access and dock. This property is about 18 miles from the lodge Julie manages, so it would be a much easier commute for her when she needs to go to the lodge.

The second parcel is 11 acres in Stapleton, AL. One drawback to it is that it is not in an actual development, so some of the property around it could be developed in the future into who knows what. One advantage to this property though is that if you go through the construction entrance (the back gate) to Steelwood Country Club, it is only 2.5 miles to the lodge Julie manages.

In the first paragraph, you may remember that I stated that "we had narrowed it down to a couple of parcels." "Had" because since then, Julie learned through one of her clients of a community being developed near Bay Binette, AL. Dauerwalden is a Conservation Community.

We visited for a tour last weekend and will be visiting again this weekend. The tough thing for Julie and me is that each parcel looks great and has unique features. There is a 24 acre plot that would be one of the most secluded choices. Then there is a beautiful 5 acre plot that has no other connected property, it is totally surrounded by community common property, some of which has already been turned into a conservation easement that can never be developed. Because of the wide variety of the available plots, we will be taking an architect out with us in the next week of so to get his professional guidance on potential parcel choice. It is a pretty interesting concept. So far, I rank this new development at the top of the list.

Today we went to GreenCoast 2008, a Green Expo at the Mobile Convention Center. The expo highlighted sustainable products and services for the green build market. We saw plenty of interesting building concepts that we hope to implement into the home we build.

Another Landscaping Weekend

I decided to order more sod and finish off the back-yard. The two pallets I used a few weeks ago only covered half of the yard. It has begun to take root, except the few spots the dogs have tried to dig up, and looks great compared to the rest of the yard.

I really want to ride this weekend, but this is really important. If I wait too long to complete these tasks, then it will be too hot. I'll make sure to post pictures on our website.

Landscaping

Last week I decided it was about time to landscape the back-yard. Considering the drought we have been through and the fact that we have four dogs that play pretty hard, most of the grass has been long gone.

The weekend forecast was looking pretty good, so I figured I should take advantage of the fair weather and take care of this project before it gets too hot. Granted, I would rather be out riding my bike than digging in the dirt, but it had to be done.

I ordered two pallets of sod and took Friday of from work to get a head start. As you can see from the pictures, I also decided to remove the old brick patio and get rid of the non-functioning and unsightly ditch that the former home-owner put in.

It took me all of Friday to remove the brick and landscaping blocks, remove the ditch walls and till and grade the soil. Friday evening I hurt in places that I didn't know existed.

Saturday, my best friend Brian came over and helped me lay the sod, so we were able to finish up before 3pm. I took him to breakfast at Waffle House and to dinner at Newk's Express Cafe to show my appreciation for his assistance.

Since I was able to finish on Saturday due to Brian's help, I was able to lead my usual Sunday morning beginner's road ride. I sure didn't want to go...I was so sore from the prior two days work. But it ended up that the ride was the best thing I could have done. I really think it helped loosen me up. After the ride, I was no longer sore and I felt great the rest of the day.

New Best Burger in Mobile

Would the Butch Burger please step aside. There is a new best burger in town. Now I won't say I will never go to Butch Cassidy's Cafe for their Butch Burger ($7.95), because it is still a great burger, but I have now had a burger that beats it on taste.

I have written about Noell B's before. Julie and I still enjoy dining there, especially on colder evenings so we can warm up with their fantastic soups. Wednesday night we headed down to Noell B's and when we arrived they told us they now had a burger ($8.99) available. I am always up for trying a burger, and with the quality of their other menu items I figured I couldn't go wrong in trying it.

Since I was trying a new entree, I opted to go all out and try a different appetizer as well. I have to tell you, the wings ($8.99) were the best I have ever had in my life. They are available prepared in several different ways. We choose the BBQ. I look forward to trying the other flavors out on our next visits.

Last weekend, on Friday night, we went to Bilotti's Italian Cafe for dinner. Until recently, we hadn't gone there in years. Since we have started dining there, we have really enjoyed it. One of my favorite menu items is a BLT pizza ($7.95 individual size) which I had Friday night. They have an interesting appetizer as well. Medallions ($6.95) are Italian sausage wrapped in a pastry and cut into 1/2" think slices and then covered with honey. Very tasty! Julie had Baked Ziti ($14.95) for her entree. Their entrees are served with a delisious house salad tossed with a vinaigrette and feta cheese.

Our server, Jacqui, was the first to suggest we try their gelato ($2.95) for dessert. I had never had a gelato before, so she let us sample the different flavors. I think they had six flavors that night. I went for the Peanut Butter Cup and Julie had Pound Cake.

It was so good that when we were deciding on where to eat on Saturday night, we went back again. Julie had Baked Ziti again and I had their fish special of the day, as well as following that up with Gelato! They had some different flavors on Saturday night and I almost changed to the Raspberry, but I stuck with the Peanut Butter Cup.

Mobile Mardi Gras - 2008 Comic Cowboys Float Signs

2008 Comic Cowboys Parade Floats

Enjoy the 2008 Comic Cowboys float signs. If you are a local you will find most of these pretty humorous. If you are not from here, some of the items are based on local news events and politics, so you may not see the humor in them that I do. Click on the image to the left to see them all.

Cousins - February 2008

From Left to Right: Jon Jeffress, Jennifer Clark, Roger Hanna, Michele Harrigar and Michael Hanna

We all gathered at my twin sister's (Jennifer) house on Saturday February 9th for food and fun. It was great getting caught up on each others lives. Michael is in the Air Force and lives in Navarre, FL which is nearby. Roger works with the elderly and lives in Crestview, FL. Michele is also in the Air Force and is stationed in Arkansas. She happened to be training nearby at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, so she was able to come over and join us for the evening.