The humming birds all left last week and are on their way south. Some stop along the coast, in places like New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, or some California cities. Some of the braver ones go on to Mexico and even further south, as most of them like the warmer weather.

This has been a strange year for the hummers and for a few weeks they didn’t even show up. Then we had one for several weeks and about when we had given up on them a whole flock came along. They all stayed until about two weeks ago and then we had one or two for each feeder. Then for about a week we had only a couple that were busy, and then they were gone. Several days after they all left one little fellow showed up early in the morning and sat on a limb in a close tree to see what was happening. He had probably come through here on his way north and was going back south and thought he remembered a meal or two here. Who knows?

Many of the residents of the northern states do just like the hummers — when the fall and winter weather comes along they start coming south. The motor home factory in Red Bay, Ala., has a big campground where RV owners can come for service. The rush starts in September when many come for service for their motor homes while on their way to Florida, or the coastline of one of the other states for the winter.

There are some really nice people who come every year and have made friends with the service people over the years. They all come back through in the springtime months and then go back to the Midwest or other northern states. Some even go to Canada, but they are like the hummers, they’ll be back. The people of this small town in northwest Alabama look forward to these yearly visitors and enjoy their presence for a few weeks.

Many people travel in an RV of some kind and many prefer the motor homes. We worked for the Allegro factory in Red Bay, and used motor homes for more than 20 years. Upon retirement we stayed in the Allegro for 18 months and traveled to more than 25 states, Canada and Mexico, before settling back in Bogalusa. Another place the northern folks liked to spend the winter months was Pharr, Texas. There were several big campgrounds there and it was always warmer than most places. It’s about 12 miles from Mexico, had a lot of orange trees and some big palm trees. The campground had a regular schedule of things for the visitors to do with some big bands on weekends and trips they sponsored. It was really interesting country. Some of the northern folks had been coming there for 15 or 20 years, and some of us even learned to play miniature golf or how to dance, with the wife’s insistence. All in all, a great place to spend the winter months.

People are a lot like the hummers: They go south for the winter but some like to go north for the warmer months. One such place is South Fork, Colo., so named because a branch of the Rio Grande River comes from the Continental Divide to join the main river through there. There is a big campground there that has a square dance hall where regular groups came every year. During World War II, the land had been a holding spot for a lot of Japanese people held there during the war. When the war ended they went back to California, and a Texan bought the place and made it a campground.

When the temperature went up in Texas the people came to South Fork where it would be 60 to 68 degrees compared to the Texas heat of 100 to 103. So it was a relief to many families, square dancers or not, and a really pretty place to visit.

We are blessed to live in a country where we can go and do as we please. Thanks for our many blessings. God bless you all.