January 9, 2013. I remember sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 9, 2013.  Gulf Shores, Alabama.  I remember sunshine.  Even, after a week of not seeing the sun, I remember sunshine.  We arrived at Gulf Shores around noon today and found ourselves socked in by fog.  We also found the third Lambert's Restaurant in the United States.  The original is in Sikeston, Missouri.  The second is in Ozark, MO.  The third is in Foley, AL, a few miles up the road from Gulf Shores.  The lunch crowd was light, so we got all the "throwed rolls" we could eat. 

 

The first picture above is one I copied from Wikipedia.  The second is one that Annie took out the window as we drove past the USS Alabama, a decorated destroyer active during WWII.  It is now docked in Mobile, Alabama.  No, we didn't stop.  We never stop.

 

Tonight, we are in Gulf State Park, with the largest campground I have seen.  There are about 500 camp sites here, 75% of which are filled.  We biked around in the fog and discovered that vehicles from Michigan, Illinois and Iowa are the most numerous.  There are a few other travelers from Missouri, but not many. 

 

The Gulf of Mexico is across the road and the land behind the park is low-lying swamp land.  The map of the park cautions against feeding the alligators and that they may be "dangerous."  Annie pointed that out to me as though I might not know that alligators could bite.  Well, I did know that.  I am not as stupid as I look.  That's a good thing. 

 

The trees here that survived the hurricanes are bereft of limbs.  They stand as tall observers of a parade of RVs toting snowbirds from colder climes.  Oh, there is one common trait among the snowbirds.  They are all retirement age or older.  Annie and I are the young people here. 

 

We are five miles from Florida and 25 miles from Pensacola.  We will be here two nights, departing Friday for Fort Walton Beach, FL.  The rest of the trip will be in Florida.  An exhaustive study of Weather.com convinced me that if we want warm weather and sunshine we need to be in Florida, the Sunshine State.  We may drop the portion of the trip that would take us to Key West.  We're not sure that the excitement of Key West justifies the additional mileage.  If we drop Key West, we will spend more time in Sanibel, one of our favorite places.  There, there are seashells down by the seashore.  Sally sells 'em.