January 27, 2020. One Last Ride, One Last Blog. The time winds down on our trip to Pensacola. Tomorrow is pack-up and load-up day. Wednesday, at the crack of dawn, we will turn our car north and drive into cold and brittle air we fled 30 days ago. Today, we took one final bike ride along the Gulf of Mexico. The bike path begins on the east side of Gulf Breeze and finishes where the National Seashore begins. There were opportunities to gain a glimpse of the green waters of the Gulf when the dunes parted.
The camera which took all the pictures that appear in this blog was a Canon Power Shot 950. I have had the camera more than 10 years. It is my go-to camera for walk-around pictures and road shots. Today, it fell from my jacket pocket, hit the asphalt, bounced twice and skidded to a halt. The view finder no longer works. I can point and shoot, but I don't know what I shot until I upload the pictures to the laptop.
This isn't the first time I've dropped the Canon. My best guess is that it has happened 6 or 7 times over the years. It is battle worn, scarred and blemished. Still, until today, it continued to produce some pretty fair pictures. To make matters worse, I just purchased a bunch of batteries for use in that camera.
So, tonight, I went to Ebay and found that I could replace it with the same, used, refurbished Power Shot for $35.00. That's right, $35.00. I didn't hesitate. I bought another. I will have it before the next trip so the blog can continue. Rejoice.
That's it for this trip. I don't know where the winds will blow us in the spring. But, I will share the sights, sounds and taste with you when it happens.
Goodnight and, for now, goodbye.
January 24, 2020. Cold, Then Nice Again. It has been cold for the past several days. The first picture above shows you how we've had to layer-up to take our walks. Annie looks like a refugee from Antarctica. Actually, I was wearing four layers, so I shouldn't poke fun at her.
Our outing yesterday was to Navarre Beach. While we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Dewey Destin's again. We were out of coffee so we stopped by a CVS. Why CVS you ask. Well, Annie Farkley is the world's best CVS shopper. She has a bar code on her key ring and discounts on her phone. Once inside the store, she goes directly to another machine and sticks her bar code in the slot. The machine just goes nuts. It begins spitting out paper like crazy. It is like a monkey playing with a roll of toilet paper. By the time it finally stopped, it curled down to the floor and down the aisle. It must have been 8-10 feet long.
Armed with her discounts she flies down the aisles. Before we left the store she had over $100 in products. When we checked out, she and the clerk decided we owed about $50. It was the darnedest thing I've ever seen. You would have been gobsmacked.
We walked the beach this afternoon. The temperature rose into the 60s and there were couples sunning. As we finished our walk, I saw a large kite-like object hovering over the beach. As we got closer I saw that a man was tethered to the kite and was trying to mount a big skateboard. The board had wheels on it the size of tricycle wheels. I watched him struggle with the kite and the skateboard. Have you ever tried to ride a tricycle in soft fine sand? I doubt you have, but you can imagine. The wheels were buried in the sand and the poor guy had traveled about three feet in ten minutes. I wonder whatever made him think that would work.
On that note,
Goodnight.
January 20, 2020. Another Movie, Shaggy's and Joe Patti's Fresh Seafood. No excuses. I have been too lazy to write. The weather has been nice until today. It has turned cold and will be below freezing tonight. The first picture above was taken from our condo looking out at the Gulf of Mexico. Did you notice how green the grass is?
We went to the AMC movie theater to see "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Overall, I thought it was good. It was slow in places and, like any Quentin Tarantino movie, had a lot of language and violence. Maybe the fact that the movie was set in the 1960s made it appealing to me. Annie wasn't wild about it. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt were superb, I thought. After the movie, we had an early dinner at Shaggy's Seafood restaurant.
We've been walking regularly. The houses and the cross are along Fort Pickens Road. The cross commemorates the first religious service in the area. It was conducted in 1559 by a Dominican Friar who accompanied explorer Tristan De Luna. Luna attempted to establish a colony in the Pensacola area. However, his supplies were lost in a hurricane and the colony failed.
On the drive down, I stopped for gas north of Pensacola. The guy on the other side of the pump was from Ames, IA. We struck up one of those over-the-pump conversations and I learned that he and his wife would be spending January camping along the coast. He is a retired farmer and his wife works at Iowa State University. He asked if we had been to Joe Patti's seafood store in Pensacola. I told him that we hadn't. We should go, he said. So, today, we did.
We bought a pound of fresh royal red shrimp, red potato salad, yellowfin tuna salad and a key lime pie. Oh, we also stopped at the beignet truck as we left the store. The dough was made fresh and fed through a small wringer - like the one on your great grandmother's electric clothes washer - and fried in seven-day-old vegetable oil. Actually, they were pretty tasty, stale oil notwithstanding. In fact, it may have been the stale oil which made them tasty.
How 'bout them Chiefs!
Goodnight.
January 16, 2020. The Fog Finally Lifts. We have been in a dense fog for nearly a week. Until today, we hadn't seen the sun since last Friday. "Sunshine State" my hind leg!
You can see the comparison in the pictures above. Those showing fog were taken yesterday during our sunset walk along the beach. Tonight's pictures show the fog gone. During its densest stage, the visibility here was less than the length of a football field. It was probably closer to fifty yards than a hundred. Last night, the visibility was so poor I wasn't sure I would be able to find the walking bridge over the sand dunes. We did find it, but I was concerned.
We thought we might take in some of the movies nominated for an Academy Award while we are here. Today we saw "1917" - movie set in WWI. The plot is that British soldiers are about to charge into a trap set by the Germans. Because the Germans cut the phone lines, two soldiers are sent to the front lines to tell the Brits not to attack. If they don't make it, 1600 of the British, including the brother of one of the messengers, will be massacred. There is natural and believable tension during the trek.
The cinematography is impressive. There are lots of scenes shot in one long take. I can't figure out how that was done. And, the scenery is pretty phenomenal. I won't spoil it for you, but I will tell you it is a good movie. It won the Best Motion Picture Award at the Golden Globe Awards. It is nominated for an Oscar in ten categories, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director, Sam Mendes.
We would also like to see "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Maybe tomorrow. The conundrum is that if the sun is out tomorrow, it would be a shame to miss it. I understand another storm is headed toward home. I would like to be able to brag about the sun here so my friends back home will be envious.
Goodnight.
January 14, 2020. To Gulf Shores, Gulf State Park and Doc's Seafood in the Fog. The storms moved out and the fog moved in. Fog notwithstanding, we drove to Gulf Shores yesterday. The drive takes a little over an hour. We wanted to revisit Gulf State Park, one of our favorites in previous trips. We also wanted to return to Doc's Seafood Shack in Orange Beach, next door to Gulf Shores.
Some of the pictures will look familiar to you. The gator and bear are road signs in the park. People in this area say that Mardi Gras started in Mobile, 40 miles north of the park. Some of the park residents decorate the animal signs with beads and other Mardi Gras trinkets.
Tomorrow is move day. The next time I write, it will be from across the parking lot. I hope I'll be more inspired looking at the Gulf than I have been looking at the bay. I know that's your hope, too.
Goodnight.
