Sunday, June 10, 2007

Vacation part 1

Driving to Dauphin Island was more than a long ride. It was more like a roller coaster rider. Don't get me wrong, Chuck is an excellent driver. But when you are on a 2 lane interstate and you have one trying to outslow the other, we have a problem. Chuck wanted around them BADLY! So he got around one, trying to push the other down the road. He gets them to move, go around and nearly gets closed in. He zoomed around the one, flies up on another, nearly gets closed in and doing 110 zooms into the other lane. I am holding on for dear life, about to lose the Cracker Barrel breakfast I had about 2 hours ago. I survived, I think, until we go to the last Walmart at the end of the earth.
OK that was a little much to call that Walmart the end of the earth. But when it is the last Walmart before you get to Dauphin Island, Pensacola, Pascagoula and Gulf Shores, it is close enough to the end of the earth. So don't you know that place was packed out! I will never complain about my little hometown Walmart again! It was THAT bad. People from all over the US were there, not including the people from the area. And then there were the people on food stamps, it was the first of the month. I had to hold PJ's hand the entire time. People weren't looking, they were just running everyone over. Especially the ones that are considered handicapped and they are in the motorized wheelchair.
Thankfully we got out of there alive! Got on our way, crossed over these bridges, long bridges, very high bridges, and some places not very far above the water. I just sat back and dealt with the spinning, swirling water. OK, it wasn't doing that, but I don't like to be on bridges.
We finally got to our destination, early, but we got there.
The maids were still cleaning.

But they let us in the house to put up the stuff that needed to be cold. Chuck and I made our lunches, and PJ's first words were, "Can I play in the sand?"



The sand that was right in front of the house. The sand that the house sits on too. There is a berm, a man made sand dune, but no walkover! Got a little frustrated to know that there wasn't a walkover and that there wasn't much to do there. No restaurants to eat at either.
OK, so we have dinner, now what. No grill. Called the Family Dollar and ended up driving about 45 minutes to get to the Family Dollar. Got the grill and charcoal in a bag. Found a little local chain grocery store, next time, go there and not that horrible Walmart. Nice little store, they had everything that we needed.
Drove through this little town, Bayou La Batre, Forrest Gump's home town. It is not pronounced like it it spelled. More like Bye La Batrey. Found that out from the old man that lived in the house in front of us.
Got more frustrated, need a parking permit. Had to find the Police station for that. Chuck and Eric go out to get that. Two patrol cars for the area, glad to know they don't have any problems there. And they operate out of a double wide. Chuck asked about the streets and the officer got hateful. Found out the streets are in ABC order. We didn't know! Granted we found our house, but to find anything else, we didn't know what to do
It was so windy, why you may ask..... Tropical Storm Barry was in the Gulf. Great! It was moving to Florida. They told us not to go over the berm, how was I supposed to get over the thing anyway? No walkover! Plus it is a $500 fine if caught walking over it.
Let the fun begin. Tried to get the cheap grill going with the wind blowing like it was, 30 mph winds. Yeah, that wasn't gonna work. Tried to cook hotdogs in a storm. They got done, but it took forever to get done. I do believe at this time, Chuck was about to pack up and go to Destin.
The oil rigs are unsightly,

the wind blows constantly, people are not nice at all to tourist, and we were tired.....
More to follow!

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