Day 27, Jan 22
Today's drive to Frog City RV Park in Duson, LA (about 315 miles) was about half way to our destination in Gulf Shores, LA.  The roads were horrible....lots of potholes, rough pavement and construction, topped with 20mph winds made for a very stressful drive.  Saw lots of flooding and standing water.  A huge thunderstorm had gone through the night before and dumped inches of water.  Luckily it had bypassed us.    Frog City RV Park was an OK park.  It was conveniently located off the freeway, but the noise from the freeway, adjacent truck stop and nearby train made for a less-than-restful night's sleep.  Fortunately, we were only there for one night.

Day  28, Jan 23
Today was a long day.  The mileage to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, LA was 389 miles so we were up and gone by about 7am.  Luckily, the wind had died down.  We did experience more rough road, but also some absolutely beautiful scenery as we crossed bayous and waterways heading toward the gulf.  The Atchafalaya swamp went for miles.  Most of the road was built up on pilings.  Pretty cool.



Gulf State Park is located in a tourist beach town right across the road from a beautiful public white sand beach that stretches for miles.  We had a pull-thru site with full hookups.  The park was packed with snowbirds...many from Minnesota, Michigan and Canada.  We were the only folks we saw from the west coast.  Once we got hooked up, we headed out to find a good beachside cafe for dinner and a cold brew for chief pilot extraordinaire.  It was cold and very windy, so settled for sitting inside with a nice view and dinner.

Day 29, Jan 24
Gulf State Park had a wonderful trail system that connected the beach, campground, golf course, and retail district.  We decided today to take a cold, windy hike out to the beach.  Much of the trail out to the beach was an elevated boardwalk.  After walking a good distance, we came to the newly constructed bridge over the road that leads to the beach.  The entrance was boarded over, so we consulted our map and continued east down the boardwalk.

We walked a long way before we came to a place where we could access the road.   Because there were only certain places in the dunes that you could access the beach (restoration), we walked west on the road for quite a while before we could reach a public access point.  Once on the beach, it was really windy!!We saw lots of shore birds, seashells and people fishing.  Off in the far far distance, we could see the public pier, our destination to get back home.

                                                                                                            

As we got close to the pier, we stopped to watch a heron standing next to 2 fishermen.  The heron was trying to get their bait out of the bucket that they said they finally had to cover.  One of the fishermen said that if they didn't get their catch out of the water fast enough, the heron would steal it right off their line.  Sure enough.  A fish was caught and the heron raced to the waterline for dinner.  The fisherman was quicker.  Absolutely exhausted, we found our way back to the park.  When I checked my Fitbit, it said we'd walked over 7 miles! (hmm..that's exactly what my feet calculated too).  We did some sightseeing in the afternoon and stopped at a new planned retail/entertainment/housing development called the Wharf, located on the inter-coastal waterway.  Everything there was brand new and not fully occupied.  We had an early dinner at a very good Italian restaurant called Villagio.  Slept good.


Day 30, Jan 25
Today was a sightseeing day.  We started by heading west to the very end of the road to historic Fort Morgan where the ferry boards for the 40 minute trip across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island.  We didn't have time to visit Fort Morgan as we needed to be in line for the limited capacity ferry.

 

I have good sea legs, but couldn't sit in the car for this crossing.  There were very heavy winds, enough to send waves over the very low bow of the ferry.  A few unsuspecting folks got a bath.  The landing at Dauphin Island was a very manual process and 2 men tried to secure the ferry to the pier while the pilot moved back and forth and side to side trying to get aligned.  Not quite like the ferries at home.  We picked up Subway sandwiches and headed to Fort Gaines for a picnic (in the car again...cold and windy).

Fort Gaines was established in 1821 and is best known for its role in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War.  The fort included the original cannons used in the battle, 4 pre-Civil War brick buildings in the interior courtyard, operational blacksmith shop, kitchens, and tunnel systems to the corner bastions.  The fort was partially modernized for the Spanish-American War and is considered to be one of the nation's best-preserved Civil War era masonry forts.  Sitting right on Mobile Bay and exposed to hurricanes and tropical storms, the fort was recently designated as one of the Eleven Most Endangered Historic Sites in America due to the ongoing shoreline erosion.   

We continued our excursion north toward Mobile over the 3 mile bridge separating Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay and connecting the island to the mainland to the north.

Cute condos on Dauphin Island - marina behind

We took the scenic road along the waterfront into downtown Mobile.  The historic part of town looked like right out of New Orleans with the huge oak trees, wrap-around covered porches and ornate wrought iron railings....and they were all decorated for Mardi Gras (like we decorate for Christmas).

   

    

Rather than take I-10 across the bay, we took Hwy 98 along the water and then continued south on 98 toward Fairhope.  We went through all these little "townships" that had historic plaques, town halls and town squares.  Everything was really quaint and old.  We stopped in Fairhope and found a restaurant/bar on a pier out in the bay.  They had a outdoor patio that was fully enclosed in plastic shades and had propane heaters going full blast.  We had a beer sheltered from the wind.  We worked our way down the rest of Hwy 98 til we got to Foley, then headed home.



Day 31, Jan 26
Today was a puttering day.  Dropped Dave off at the State Park Golf Course and I went to get my hair cut and do some grocery shopping.  I went to a brand new Publix Grocery Store.  What a treat after being in San Antonio.  In San Antonio the only grocery stores were local Texas H-E-B stores and they were awful.  Outside of Walmart, I never saw a Safeway, Publix, WinDixie, Kroeger. etc.  They must know where the bodies are buried because they have a monopoly on the grocery market there.  Anyway, picked up Dave on the way home and spent a quiet night in.

Day 32, Jan 27
Another sightseeing day, but this time we went east to Pensacola and Pensacola Beach.  The town of Pensacola isn't much, but the drive across the first bridge south of town drops you right in the heart of a tourist area called Gulf Breeze.  Loaded with condos, hotels, shopping, restaurants and nightlife, this is the jumping off place to the next bridge that takes you to Pensacola Beach.  We didn't really have a plan for visiting this area, but right off the bridge we saw a sign for Gulf Island National Seashore and Fort Pickens.  Yay!  We could use our National Park Pass and get in for free.  Nobody at the gate.  Cruised right on through so nobody cared about our senior pass (that's the 2nd time this trip.  White Sands National Monument was having a free admittance day when we were there).  It was cold and windy (does this sound like a pattern?) and rain in the forecast, so not very good visibility.  We drove through the National Seashore to get to Fort Pickens.  We were going to stop at the museum first, but glad we didn't because we were able to step right into the beginning of a ranger-led tour of the fort.  He was excellent.  Young and full of enthusiasm, he told the story of Fort Pickens and it's people.  After the War of 1812, the United States decided to fortify all of its major ports.  Fort Pickens, a pentagonal fort on the western tip of San Rosa Island, was built between 1829 and 1834.  It was one of but a few forts constructed entirely from brick.  It was the largest of a group of fortifications designed to defend the island and entrance to Pensacola Harbor.  By the time of the American Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since shortly after the Mexican-American war, mostly due to a lack of funding and manpower.  The fort was in a dilapidated condition and  under the command of Lt. Adam Slemmer, who also had command of Fort Barrancas and Fort Mcree across the harbor.  Despite Fort Picken's condition, Lt. Slemmer decided it was the most defensible post in the area.  He made the decision to abandon Fort Barrancas on January 8, 1861 after it's guards defended the fort from a group of local civilians who intended to occupy the fort for the Confederacy.  Some historians claim that these were the first shots fired in the Civil War.  January 10, 1861, the day Florida declared its secession from the Union, Slemmer destroyed gunpowder and guns at Forts Barrancas and Fort Mcree and moved the 51 soldiers and 30 sailors to Fort Pickens.  Despite threats and demands from the Florida militia to surrender, Slemmer repeatedly refused and defended Fort Pickens with his rag-tag band of soldiers until he was reinforced and relieved in April 1861.  Fort Pickens was one of only three Southern forts to remain in Union hands throughout the war.

  

It started raining as we were finishing up the tour, so we didn't spend a whole lot more time wandering around.  

Front Entrance

Kenny Chesney

We retraced our steps back toward home.....but not before a compulsory stop at a local joint Dave heard about at the golf course....Flora-Bama.  This bar claims to be the most famous beach front bar in the country.  Located on the Florida/Alabama state line, it has long been a landmark of the Gulf Shores area.  Flora-Bama is open 365 days a year and has 5 stages of live music, featuring bands of country, rock, dance and beach music.  The day we were there, it was cold and raining and off-season too, so only 2 bands were playing at 2 in the afternoon.  The building looked like a compilation of multiple wood structures stacked together haphazardly top to bottom and side to side.  It's no wonder it gets hit hard during storms.

Back Porch

      

I looked up the story behind this unique tourist attraction and here's what I found:

In 1962, the State of Florida gave the State of Alabama two miles of beach front land in return for the construction of the Perdido Pass Bridge.  In 1964, the Tampary family decided to build a small bar and package store on the new State Line.  In the early days of Flora-Bama, the lounge was practically the only thing in the area.  As traffic began to increase along the new highway, business grew and the lounge grew to match it with new construction added piecemeal to accommodate the larger crowds.  At the time it was established, the Florida county in which it was located was "wet" and across the Alabama line was "dry".

Various owners over the years expanded on the daily live music and created calendar of events, making it the country's best beach bar.  Live music at the Flora-Bama consists of local favorites to Platinum selling recording artists.  The events range from chili cook-offs and fishing rodeos to big beachfront concerts.

The establishment is referred to by locals as simply "the Bama" and before its partial destruction by Hurricane Ivan, it boasted in the range of 20 bars on the grounds. In addition, up to 4 live bands could be playing simultaneously providing a wide array of music for visitors to enjoy. The bar is primarily outdoors, and before its destruction by Hurricane Ivan, offered a huge deck where one can eat and drink while having a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico. 

In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan directly hit the Flora-Bama, which caused catastrophic damage. The main building at the entrance was destroyed, and most of the other sections of the bar were either destroyed or heavily damaged. The Flora-Bama shut down for the first few days in over 40 years and reopened serving only coolers, ice and beer. The original Top Deck survived without significant damage, and the Stair Bar below, though sand-laden, remained intact. The stairs from the Deck Bar to the Top Deck remained, but the main stage area near the Deck Bar lost its roof, which has since been replaced with a tent-like canopy. From 2004 to 2010 the Flora-Bama operated out of tents, trailers, and plywood shacks until the main bar was rebuilt.  In 2010 reconstruction began to restore the Flora-Bama.  The main bar was rebuilt similarly to the old bar but elevated, to survive another storm.  The owners recycled materials from the original bar, including wooden walls and old bar tops.

The Bama serves a local favorite drink called the "Bushwacker".  I ordered one (just one).  Pretty darned tasty coffee milkshake, but loaded with 5 liquors!!!  Dave ordered a beer and we wandered through a few of the bars.  One small bar was featuring rock and roll.  Good music, but way too loud for such a small space.  We then wandered into a country bar and sat down to listen to a great trio that sang a variety of contemporary country tunes.  Really enjoyed that. 

We had torrential rain all night and heavy wind.  If you've never spent the night in an RV, you don't know what a really noisy night can be.

Day 33, Jan 28
Standing water and flooding everywhere, but the sun was out.  Not having internet in the park, we were behind on our internet time.  We headed to McDonalds for some WiFi only to find out that they had lousy service.  It was painfully slow.  We finally left and headed out for lunch at Bahama Bob's Beachside Grill.  Though it was still very windy, the patio was enclosed in plastic shades and it was plenty warm and cozy with an oceanside view.  Though windy, no rain so sleeping was much more pleasant.

Day 34, Jan 29
Golf day!  We played Orange Beach Golf Course, a City of Orange Beach Parks and Recreation Course.  It was a challenging 9-hole Par 3 course with lots of water and quite scenic.  The worst thing about this round was not the course, but the wind.  We had 20-30mph winds blowing every which direction.  No matter what club you used, it was the wrong one.  Exhausted, we went home to get ready for our trip to Panama City.

Day 35, Jan 30
Another sunny day for travel to St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, but the winds averaged about 20mph the whole day.  We followed I-98 all the way from Gulf Shores to Panama City Beach, so went through lots of cute, expensive beach towns.  Our space at St. Andrews was large, wooded, and faced the water.  There were only partial hookups (water/power, no sewer) at the park, so we had to conserve on the use of our black tank for the week.  Formerly a military installation, it was a very large park with nature trails, boat launch, beach, fishing, lots of small deer (that we saw), alligators (that we didn't see..thankfully) and shore birds of all varieties.  Very nice.....until (stay tuned).

  

Day 36, Jan 31
Today was a sunny day in the mid-50s (not summer quite yet) and very windy.  We decided to visit the historic town of St. Andrews, the first European settlement in the St. Andrews Bay area.  In the early 1800s it was once a vacation area known for the healthy sea baths and fishing.  The city grew and in the 1900s became a popular port on the coast.  Other towns grew up around it, one of those being Panama City.  In the 1980s commerce in St. Andrews took a nose dive as the business community left for the new Panama City Beach area.  The town soon realized that there was a need to revitalize St. Andrews.  In 1989, St. Andrews was designated as a Community Redevelopment Area.  In 1997, St. Andrews was added to the inaugural Waterfronts Florida Program.  That, and a variety of grants from the State of Florida in the form of cash and technical assistance, were used as tools for revitalizing St. Andrews into a sustainable waterfront community.

It was a cute little town, but going there during off-season, it was pretty quiet and some businesses were closed for the winter.  Anyway, we had planned to take a guided walking tour, but the tourist office was short staffed and wasn't offering the tour that day.  We walked around on our own and found an historic restaurant called Uncle Ernie's overlooking the marina for lunch.  Built in the late 1800's, Ernie's was the original home of  Ernie and Jessie Morris and is one of the oldest homes in St. Andrews.  Ernie and Jessie had four children and one of the surviving children bequeathed the home to preserve and convert into a restaurant so that it would serve as a landmark near the St. Andrews Marina where Uncle Ernie made his livelihood.  The restaurant was full of original pictures of the home and family.  We sat outside on their enclosed patio and had excellent Grouper sandwiches.
   

Day 37, Feb 01
Today was overcast, in the mid 60s.  Dave went golfing in the morning and I decided to start some of the sewing projects I'd brought along.  I got out the sewing machine and all my supplies.  I went to plug in the machine, only to discover that I'd left the power supply and foot pedal for the sewing machine at home.  Though frustrated from searching and mad because I could picture where the container was at home with the power supply, I decided all these projects were small so proceeded to do some hand sewing.  I'd no sooner started and it was time for lunch.  I grabbed an apple.  Once finished with the apple I opened one of the lower drawers to get a toothpick..........and then I saw it.....everything paper and plastic chewed to shreds.  I looked closer and realized this wasn't just a small mouse.  The droppings were much larger.  I looked in the drawer above and found more.  I looked in the other lower drawers and found the same....everything chewed and the signs of a rat!  Forget the sewing.  I now needed to clean up this mess and disinfect everything (I'd done this once before when we brought a mouse home from a trip to Eastern Washington and discovered he'd chewed his way through our drawers.  That was easier because I could use the dishwasher at home).  I filled the sink with hot soapy water with bleach.  Washed everything that could be washed.  Threw out stuff that couldn't.  It took me most of the day.  I'd just finished up when Dave got back from golfing.  We removed all the lower drawers and set 2 different types of traps.  Unfortunately, all we had were mouse traps, but figured mouse traps were better than nothing.  Dave said he thought he heard some scratching sounds the night before and Cassey (our cat) got down from the bed a number of times so she must have heard it too.  Traps set, we took a break and went out to dinner.  Came home, went to bed and we no sooner got in bed when we heard the trap under the TV cabinet go off.  We turned on all the lights, grabbed the flashlight and removed the drawers.  Sure enough, there was the rat, but we didn't catch him.  He'd snapped the trap, but was just laying in the corner of the cabinet.  Dave went out and got his pliers thinking that we'd killed him and he was going to grab him by the tail.  As soon as he reached for his tail he made a beeline for the hole created by the TV cables and he was gone.  We hoped he was just stunned and had left the way he came in.  We closed the drawers and decided we couldn't do anything until the next day.

Day 38, Feb 02
Today was a stormy day with 20mph winds.  Dave went to Home Depot twice in one day to get the rat trap.  The first one didn't work and he had to take it back, but we did finally get it set.  We were hoping we didn't need it, but after talking to the park rangers we discovered that they were aware of the rat problem in the park.  The weather had been too cold for the predators to return, so the rat problem was way worse than normal.  They had no solutions unless we wanted to catch the rat and they would release it elsewhere for us.  No critter noises and no traps sprung this night.

Day 39, Feb 03
We heard advertised that the city of St. Andrews was having a Mardi Gras Parade.  We'd never been to a Mardi Gras Parade before so thought this might be fun.  It was cold and blustery, so we put on our fleece and packed up our chairs (we're from the Northwest...parades are always in the cold).  We bought parking at a church lot, found good seats on the sidewalk, got lunch from the church BBQ fundraiser and waited for the festivities.  The people next to us were locals so they explained that this was a small town parade and it pretty much consisted of everyone throwing beads.  Sure enough, they were right.  Every "float" was loaded with beads that were thrown into the crowd.  Adults were knocking over kids to catch them.  I think the object was to see how many beads you could get.  Sometimes I'd turn around and find beads lying in the chair.  The young man with the family next to us kept catching beads and giving them to me (guess we weren't being aggressive enough).

 

Day 40, Feb 04
Superbowl Day!  Cloudy with a prediction of rain/thunderstorms throughout the day.  We headed out for breakfast at a nearby restaurant and no sooner got outside the park and it started pouring buckets.  There was no way to get out of the car without getting drenched.  We had a great breakfast and sloshed our way back to camp.  Water here pools up quickly, ditches overflow and roads are closed due to flooding....just from a brief thunderstorm.   Today was a sports day.  First was the Phoenix Open (golf) and then the Superbowl.  Good day to stay inside.

Day 41, Feb 05

Our last day in Panama City and we decided to go golfing.  We played Origins Golf Club just west of Panama City Beach, designed by Davis Love III.  The only one of this type in the country, the 1,800-yard, 6-hole regulation course also played as a 9-hole executive course and a 10-hole Par-3 through the use of alternate tee boxes and auxiliary greens...like the commonplace courses in Scotland.  As a signature design element, the 3rd hole featured a bunker in the middle of the green.  It was designed for families, beginners and casual golfers to experience the challenging game of golf.  We figured seniors fall in there somewhere.  It was an enjoyable little course, but quite slow on some holes due to the fact that you had to wait for someone else from a different tee-box to finish using your fairway/green.

Our drive home was along the beach road and took us through some quaint and very expensive towns.  Our first visit was Alys Beach.  Still being built, it was a planned development done in the style of Bermuda or perhaps the Caribbean islands, with all white stucco architecture...everything white.  Very expensive real estate with most homes in the millions.

      

    


Another beach town was Rosemary Beach.  Way cute....a master planned 105 acre community that included about 400 homes and a mixed use town center all designed with influences from the West Indies, New Orleans, Charleston and St. Augustine.  Narrow cobblestone streets with gas lanterns, walled gardens with courtyards, overhead patios and wrought iron decor reminded us of Europe or the New Orleans French Quarter.



    

  

Home to get ready for travel day to Orlando.  Walked in the coach and discovered we didn't scare off the rat, but killed him and he died in the coach somewhere.  The smell was strongest around the TV console/bathroom area.  We took the drawers out of the console and couldn't tell that the smell was any stronger there than outside the bathroom.  Dave debated about cutting a hole in the wall behind the TV, but we worried we might cut TV wires/cables.  We have a magazine rack in the bathroom that is screwed to the wall that backs up against the TV cabinet.  So late in the day, we couldn't take any action regarding removal until  Orlando, but the plan was upon arrival, we'd immediately go to Walmart or Home Depot and purchase a Dremel so we could cut a fine line in the bathroom wall behind the magazine rack to remove the paneling.  Taking a chance that the rat was in the wall there......stay tuned.