Fort Morgan beach

On Friday we drove to the Fort Morgan historical sit which lies about 20 miles west of Gulf Shores on highway 180.  It is on a long finger of land separating Mobile Bay from the Gulf of Mexico.   Highway 180 ends at a ferry dock at the fort. The ferry transports vehicles to Dauphine Island which in turn is connected to the mainland's western shore via a bridge over the bay.  All told, the fort is about 42 miles from where we call home near Summerdale.

On the trip to the point, we saw many houses like this one dotting the shores.

For all those under 12 years old, why would people build a house high off the ground like this?
Friday was a breezy day and the wind at the shoreline was no different.  Here at the ferry landing, we were surprised to find oil rigs dotting the bay.

And some of the rigs were miniatures and other things were not:

The fort's shore line was spectacular.  We strolled the broad, sandy beach and came across many shore fishermen.  Others were strolling and picking up had-to-have stones and shells.

I asked a fisherman what these discs were.  They were fairly numerous and buried just below the surface of the sand:

These are jellyfish which were washed ashore.  If they dry out before the tide rescues them, they perish.  On this same stretch of beach Donna spied fins in the water similar to what we believed sharks would look like.  Instead they were two pair of dolphins (look closely on the right for tail fins)

Sighting dolphins in the wild was a first for us and made the trip well worthwhile.

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in the RV park.  It was a beautiful sunny and 72 degree day.  Donna decided to put up our Christmas tree.

Even though she was exhausted after decorating it, we opted to celebrate Thanksgiving by eating dinner with about 200 other snow birds from all parts of the country.   We ate in the park's clubhouse:

 The meal was served family style with tables holding 10 to 12 people each.  And there were about 18 tables total.

We signed up for a table not knowing exactly what to expect.  Fortunately, we were not the first to sign for the table as they automatically became table hosts.  The hosts provided any decorations for the table and set the menu.  Each guest brought a dish to pass.  We were charged with making the mashed potatoes (Dave) and the cranberries (Donna),  Each guest was then charged $2.00 to cover the cost of the turkey and gravy supplied by the park.  It was a fairly well organized event and, of course, we each ate too  much.

The only negative we had was that we missed the second half of the Packer-Lion game.  But the Packers won with out us.  Go Packers.

Slow Days

This was a laid back sort of week.  Storms were threatening the early part of the week, but they missed us.  Tornadoes landed a couples hours north of us and rain was forecast for our area. We had light rain and no storms.

On Wednesday we had a late lunch at the Fish River Grill  about 5 miles northwest of us.  It reminded us a lot of the lobster pounds in Maine.  It is a small building with a walk up window.  The dining area is actually an enclosed, unheated porch. 

The place advertises various fried seafood and hamburgers.  I ordered the catfish plate and Donna had the Swamp River Hamburger.  The catfish was very good with a very thin breading.  Expecting the fish was locally caught, I was a bit disappointed when I learned it was farm raised from Mississippi.  The plate came with french fries, and home-made  cole slaw and both tartar sauce and shrimp sauce.  Everything was very good.  The  hamburger was a 1/2 pound hand pattied burger served with lettuce, tomato and onion.  Donna has been hungry for a hamburger for a couple of days and this filled the bill.  It too was excellent.  As we were dining in, our meal included a complementary cup of their Swamp Soup.  It was an excellent combination of collard greens and black eyed peas in a ham stock.  We devoured it. 

On Friday, after some prodding, I decided to wash the truck.  The weather looked dry for several days to come and it was pointed out to me that we probably had the dirties truck in the park.  So I washed and polished it to a nice shine.  Of course, before the end of the day, it rained and rained most of the day on Saturday.   It looked good for a couple of hours anyway. 

Fairhope, Alabama

About 15 miles northeast of us lies the city of Fairhope.  On the shores of Mobile Bay, Fairhope is a city of about  16 thousand people.  The city was founded in 1894 as a Utopian experiment.  Upton Sinclair (remember The Jungle about the deplorable state of the meat packing industry ?) used to winter here as did many other notables.  Fannie Flagg (if you don't know who she is, you're too young) and Jimmy Buffett are said to be from the area.

We spent a cloudy and rain-threatening  morning on its shore at the municipal pier.  The pier reaches about 0.25 miles into the bay and offers marina space, fishing from its concrete deck,  a seafood restaurant at mid-pier and other amenities:

 The pier was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  It was rebuilt and opened again in 2006.  While we were there, there were several fisherman trying to reel the big one from the waters.

One of the more interesting things to watch on the pier were the vast array of water birds doing their thing.  Here is a pelican with a bevy of small friends resting after a hard morning of  doing whatever they do:

The entrance to the pier offers a rose garden with fountain.  The roses were in prime or just past. 

AND as an extra added attraction was a statue of some old guy glued to the fountain wall:

If you would like to see a live shot of the pier, here is a web cam (be sure to take control of the camera and see the area):  webcam.  Note that sometimes the web camera seems to take a break and won't show.  Keep trying if you are interested.

We had a good time in the fair city of Fairhope.

Foley Alabama and its Heritage Harbor Days

Foley is a city of about 8000 only 10 miles from our campground.  We attended Heritage Harbor Days in the square downtown.  It was a mix of music, crafts, food and a celebration of their local farm and fishing heritage.  Everything from old tractors and wooden boats to sugar cane processing was on display.

The sellers were selling and some buyers were buying.

There were samples of various flavors of pork rinds to be had, kettle corn, BBQ, coconut shrimp on a stick,  deep fried candy bars, deep fried Oreos etc. etc.

We didn't succumb to the temptations.  We did find a very interesting exhibition of the historical processing of sugar cane.  This is the raw sugar cane:

The cane was then processed by squeezing out the cane juice:

The juice was funnelled into a bucket.  The foam is then skimmed off to processed as molasses.  The cane juice is a brown liquid tasting like sugar water.  Add a little grape flavoring and you have grape Kool Aid. 

We left feeling a little bit hungry after smelling all the concoctions for sale.  While walking back to where we had parked, we stumbled upon an old Stacey's Rexall Drug store and soda fountain.

 Walking in we felt we were back in the heydays of soda fountains.  Stacey's opened in 1929 and it is doubtful whether it has ever changed.  We ordered sandwiches (BBQ on a bun and Egg Salad) and drinks (chocolate malt and Sour Lemon).  It was a great spot to relax.

And, if you look closely in the upper left corner of the above photo, coffee is a whopping 10 cents.  But it is self service--drinkers need to get a cup and go  behind the counter to pour one themselves.   Stacey's is also a full service pharmacy which makes deliveries in a 1931 Model A! 

The good old days?

On The Road Again, Again

On Tuesday we drove down I55 from Effington to Madison, Mississippi, which is outside Jackson, the state capital.  It was a long drive of about 515 miles with much road construction.  Memphis had especially bad roads and bridges.  Starting in southern Missouri we saw cotton being harvested which was a first for us.

Wednesday was a shorter day of driving.  We drove through Jackson during the morning rush (not too bad) and took highway 49 to Hattiesburg.  From Hattiesburg we took highway 98 to Mobile, Alabama  (narrow with no shoulders) and then south on 181.  We landed at about 1:00 PM outside of Summerdale at the Rainbow Plantation (an Escappee Park).

The sites are level and shaded with live oaks.  We have two trees which provide morning and afternoon shade:

We are about 20 miles north of Gulf Shores on the Gulf of Mexico.   It was 78 when we arrived which is a bit on the warm side.  We'll suffer through it.