Mobile Bay and environs

It took only a few hours to get here from Tallahassee, a grueling 159 miles with a lunch break, two pee breaks and a gas stop. In fact, not much longer than it takes us to get out of a motel in the morning, which is two and a half hours. It doesn't matter what we do first: shower, eat, pack. It always takes two and a half hours. Our routine is to barely dress and walk the dogs. Then, depending what time complimentary breakfast is, we either shower and pack first, or shower and eat. Rain or shine, no matter when we get up, it's two and a half hours.

So we actually stayed in Fairhope, which is a small town on Mobile Bay. We got lucky with this lovely little town full of gracious homes and flowers. We also got lucky with a beautiful park on the bay for some exercise with the kids. It was muggy and overcast and very windy. This made the bay rough and not pretty but it's huge and interesting, and there was a super-long pier out into it for a refreshing break.





Also, Fairhope is full of flowers. We got Van O'White to pose with some.



These were ready for their close-up:



Next morning we just skirted Mobile but we can tell you it's HUGE: Bay, USS Alabama, gigantic buildings downtown, bridges, roadways. We had no idea. Take a look at this bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_%E2%80%93_Africatown_USA_Bridge

Joyce wants me to mention that this is our first trip with three bags of medicatons for us and the dogs. Used to be able to do it with one, but then, this is seven weeks. She also wants everyone to know that there are no security inspections or currency exchanges between the states, so we got through with two pistols, several knives, drugs and our vicious animals. Did I mention Joyce hates flying? Well, we both do.

And, we used every piece of luggage in the house except the huge garment bag for formal wear. We call this assortment our Polish luggage, because except for the four matching bags, nothing matches. This includes shopping bags, beach bags, two coolers, barracks bags, canvas shopping bags, three plastic bags full of poop containment bags, net bags, belly bags, complimentary vacation location bags and . . . no wonder it takes two and a half hours to pack the van. And we don't even unload a lot of it, because it's for our long stops.

Next blog will cover the Fairhope to Jackson, Mississippi leg. Don't hold your breath!