Two great roadhouses, Lulu's and the Florabama

While in the Pensacola area we actually stayed at an area called Perdido Bay and at an RV park called the the Playa del Rio RV Park. The park is a fine, small park and consistently has been getting good reviews over at www.RVParkReviews.com so I can't add much to that except to say that if you have a big rig you might want to get in before the sun sets. We had a devil of a time getting into the park and situated, never mind that we were originally assigned a space suitable for a smaller RV. Once settled in, however, the place was great.

Perdido Key has, like much of the Florida coastline, been "enjoying" tremendous development. Whereas the legendary Florabama oyster bar and grill (conveniently a 1/2 mile walk from the RV park) used to be out in the middle of Nothing only a few years ago now it's surrounded by high-rise condos on both sides. If high-rise condos are your thing then you'll be right at home but if you are looking for an area where tourist dollars don't have such a major impact on the local economies and locals and travelers enjoy the same restaurants and bars then perhaps "progress" has passed Perdido Key by. Let's just say that other than the Waffle House across the street from the Florabama all of the dining that we enjoyed on Perdido Key was excellent if pricey, but was more refined then what most of us would think of as being fun.

And fun is where it's at these days. right?

On the other hand Gulf Shores, Alabama, home to Jimmy Buffett's "crazy sista's" place LuLu's, is a bit of a hidden gem. Just a few miles west of Perdido Bay they have plenty of tourists there, alright, but the Plague of the Giant Condo hasn't set in quite as massively. Gulf Shores still has plenty of funky little shops (want a genuine hippy tattoo? - well, this is your place then Mon) as well as plenty of Mom and Pop restaurants that don't cost a fortune to feed a couple and their brood.


So far we are a week into this trip and our schedule is nothing like what we had originally planned, so I'm a bit reluctant to make predictions, but I wouldn't be too surprised if we return to this area and hang out at Gulf Shores a bit more.



The Florabama is arguably the #1 all-American roadhouse. Sitting squarely on the Florida and Alabama state lines, the Florabama was pretty much destroyed by the hurricane of a few years ago. Reconstruction has consisted mainly of shoveling the sand out of the dance hall, bringing in two 48 ft. beer trailers to act as giant coolers, righting the blue ISO container that you see in front of the place (that has been there for years but got blown over and knocked around during the Big Storm), and adding a souvenir trailer and a few other portable structures. If the place looks makeshift then you are right - it was a rambling collection of poorly-constructed buildings before the hurricane and that theme continues. The word is that, after 3 years, the local government still hasn't gotten around to issuing all of the permits necessary for a permanent reconstruction anyway. No problem Mon - the party continues!




If you doubt the kind of traffic that this place generates, notice that not only is there a Waffle House directly across the street, but that the Florabama rates it's own stoplight. This is one popular saloon, and I am happy to report that they are once again going strong.





Like I said, this was all rural not too many years ago. The Florabama is opposite from the Waffle House, although it's tough to tell from this shot:

This is pretty much what greets you at the Florabama these days. You walk between the motorcycle parking and a souvenir trailer, past a row of temporary toilets, past the two large trailers being used as beer coolers, and there is what is left of the two-story bar and dance hall.

Perhaps just as the Florabama struggles to retain it's image as a bar where (almost) anything goes in the face of an onslaught of civilization, Lulu's place is surprisingly family-oriented. Lulu's closes at a civilized hour (10PM most nights and, as we have discovered from previous trips, don't even think about dropping in during Turkey Day or X-mas) and has playgrounds for the children.

Quite a surprise in my mind considering LuLu Buffett's reputation as Jimmy's wild sister.

Lulu's has some excellent food and imaginative mixed drinks. And just like the Florabama Lulu's is building quite a reputation from the numerous and excellent performers that drop by to play live.

As a fan of what one author termed "mobile architecture" I have always enjoyed simple building structures and the building that houses Lulu's has long been one of my favorites. In essence her restaurant is an open-span steel building with garage doors on each end; with the doors rolled up the building is basically wide open. Wiring and HVAC runs are completely exposed and, indeed, are painted bright colors to make the various building components stand out.

Simple yet sturdy.

Sturdy enough that when the hurricanes hit a few years ago Lulu's suffered so little damage that it became a center for disaster relief as the community recovered.

Incidentally, the full name for the joint is "Lulu's At Homeport Marina." Homeport is a well-equipped marina that had a handful of large cruising boats in dock when we were there so if you are a sailor this would be a perfect stop on your way up or down the Ditch. Look for Lulu's directly underneath the Intracoastal Waterway Bridge on Rt. 98.

Yes, tow boats really do get this close to the bar:

A view across the other side of the indoor bar at Lulu's:

The details of the building are tough to see in these photos, but as I said this is actually a very simple yet high quality steel structure. With all of those garage doors it can be opened wide or sealed tight in minutes - perfect for these tropical climes.



Lulu's and the Florabama - two of the best party spots in the country.

As I write this we have been in Bay St. Louis, MS for several days, spending way too much time in casinos and equally too much time with realtors. On one hand we see quite a bit of potential for parts of this area but on the other hand the pace of reconstruction has been agonizingly slow since the hurricane and since our last visit almost 2 years ago. We are trying to figure out how much of the delay in rebuilding are things that we can correct vs. things that we cannot change, such as issuance of building permits, before we invest anything. But stay tuned - we have been debating about whether we need to return to Jacksonville at all. Life is funny that way sometimes.

This whole casino/gambling thing is a bit of a mystery to me; frankly, I'd just as soon go into the bar, pay for my drinks, and watch the television rather than sit at a slot machine and get served free drinks. But so far the tally is something like this: Casino A comp'd our RV spot for 5 nights when Casino B promised 2 nights in their RV park. I have lost maybe a total of $7 during 3-4 days of half-hearted gambling. Deb lost $20 one night, nothing another night, and then snuck across town last night to Casino B where she won about $365.

Our RV spot is literally on the ocean, incidentally. Beautiful views in the AM.

For one of the few times in my life I don't feel an urgency to stay on schedule ;)

Will chat with y'all again in a day or two.

Pensacola, and Lower Alabama

So much to see, so little time to see it.

So little time, in fact, that we are considering returning to this area on our way back and exploring some more. We only got to hit maybe 50% of the places that we originally planned to see.

A few highlights:

The drive into Pensacola along Rt. 98, the road that runs parallel to the coast, is a pleasant change from coming into town along the Interstate. Just be aware that it's VERY easy to get lost right after you get off the bridge and to get on small downtown streets if you miss your turn (ask me how I know - at the RV park the manager was telling me that a common error in most GPS routing programs was sending their cutomers down the wrong streets).

Dig the bridge across the bay. The old, abandoned bridge off to the right is so rusty that it's barely standing. Yikes!

From what we saw Pensacola has an interesting downtown that has been partially restored to it's previous glory, a la places like Savannah and Charleston. We simply weren't in a position to stop and sightsee as we meandered through those narrow streets in a bus pulling a trailer.

Pensacola is home of the National Museum of Naval Aviation, which must rank right up there with free government cheese as a bargain for those who get it. Because there is no cost to enter and view the exhibits. And if you are an old plane freak like myself (as opposed to just being a plain old freak like some folks that I know online) then you will feel like a kid in the proverbial candy store.

More of Pensacola and LA (Lower Alabama) in the next blog post, pholks!

Panama City, FL

We have arrived!

Actually, by the time that you see this we will have also left, but that's beside the point. I'm having a little trouble with the new, fancy upgrade to the software where I host my photos and that's causing me to run a bit behind.

Our primo reason for hitting Panama City wasn't to hang with the Spring Breakers or anything like that, but to visit Jimmy Buffett's latest Margaritaville Cafe, which had opened a few weeks previously.

The campground that we stayed at (Pineglen RV Park) was heavily forested (important during the summer months here in Floriduh), very clean, and very convenient to the Pier Park Development where Margaritaville is located.

Love it or hate it, Pier Park is a massive shopping complex, designed to look like small individual stores but in sorta an artsy-fartsy manner. It would appear that all of that part of Panama City is falling victim to the developer, with tremendous high-rise condo complexes displacing smaller motels and hotels. I guesss that if development is unstoppable at least Pier Park appears to be entertaining.



The Maragaritaville itself was excellent. The food was somewhere between very good and great (Deb thinks it's a bit overpriced, but then again she has us scheduled to attend some sort of culinary school in New Orleans, so what can I say?).





For dinner we had the teriyaki steak and jerk chicken and both were excellent. The next day we went back for an extended lunch (bad weather, of the dangerously-high wind variety set in so we decided to hang out at Margaritaville rather than drive in a downpour) and we both ordered Cheeseburgers in Paradise. I must say that those were some of the better cheeseburgers that I've had for quite some time.



A word about beer: Maragaritaville Cafes have their own in-house brew on draft - Lone Palm Ale. It's excellent, right up there in taste with Bass Ale in my book. Why oh why don't they distribute that stuff a bit further, because it's great? And why, I ask to the Gods of Marketing, is Land Shark {gag} more sellable than Lone Palm?





Back to more questions that trouble me so ;)

Man, this is the life!

It's 7:30AM and I awaken, following a REALLY good night's sleep, to the sound of the generator running and coffee percolating. No 50% diesel truckstop coffee for this good ol' boy - this is gen-U-wine Columbian in the pot.

Radio Margaritaville is blaring from the stereo so it's time for some quick sausage and grits and then it's back on the road.

We'll be heading down the road shortly. We plan to add fuel at Marianna, Florida and then catch either lunch or dinner (or both!) at Jimmy Buffett's new Margaritaville in Panama City.

About the only fly in the proverbial ointment of this trip so far is that we forgot to add any water to our water tank so that limits our options until we can get to a campground. We hadn't really planned to find an RV park in the Panama City area but that's now subject to negotiations. Last night we showered at the truck stop and those showers were roughly equivalent to the 200 peso motel rooms in Mexico. In other words they weren't quite up to Ms. Deb's standards.

I think that the funniest moment of last night's stay here was when a highly modified and highly graphically decorated motorhome pulled into the truck stop and went back to the garage. The thing looked like a fairly standard Winnebego diesel pusher chassis but the body had an added side door for distributing product. The interior was more of an industrial cargo-hauler than a luxury RV, and there was a bevy of nymphettes aboard, which caught the attention of all the good ol' boys here at the truck stop.

What were the ladies giving away, you ask? Trojan Condoms, of course. That was a photo op that I am sorry that I missed, but the lighting simply wasn't right.

Oh well. There will be plenty of other opportunities for photos from the road as the next few weeks go by.

Stay tuned!

See y'all down the road!

We are on the road - so look out!

Caption the above photo "Daddy, why haven't we left yet?"

We finally got on the road tonight at about 5PM. Just in time to get mired in Jacksonville's rush hour.

After stopping to check our tire pressures at the old TA Truckstop in Baldwin, FL (still part of Jacksonville, believe it or not, although about 45 miles and a world apart culturally from where our workshops are at) we motored until sundown to another old-timey truckstop in Lee, Florida. The last time that I was here was about 20 years ago and I swear that the place hasn't been painted or spruced up since then.

At least the salad bar was serving remarkably fresh lettuce. There must be a story or two there - like a case of lettuce "fell off" of the back of someone's trailer on the way to the Publix and Winn Dixie warehouse.

Jeese, I am becoming such a cynic these days!

The Wanderlodge is running very well. I am sitting here at my computer desk, writing to my blog, connected to the 'net, running the generator and A/C, and drinking a frosty-cold 24.5 ounce "oilcan" of Foster's, Oz's best beer (someone will surely send me a nasty email over that comment), all from the comfort of the front row at a truckstop and I am thinking "man, things were never this pleasant when I ran trucks for a living!" Certainly the bohemian mobile lifestyle has improved quite a bit during that last several years.

Anywho, we expect to have lunch or dinner - or both - at Jimmy Buffett's new Margaritaville in Panama City, Florida tomorrow. Will keep y'all posted as we cruise along for the next week or three.

The Bucket List and the $2,600 Land Rover

Went to see The Bucket List last night at the Pot Belly Cinemas in St. Augustine.

First of all, I would highly recommend this flick directed by Rob Reiner, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, as two terminally ill men who set out on a road trip to see and experience a wish list of things before they die.

Suspend belief temporarily in that Morgan Freeman's newfound pal (Nicholson) has enough money to fund their round the world trip on a private jet whereas most of the new friends that most of us will ever meet have to be back to work on Monday and are lucky to be able to afford an extra round of drinks at the local pub. With that caveat you have a really thoughtful film that asks what priorities a person would set if they only had a few months to live. Not quite a chick flick and not quite a guy's weekend out flick, this movie straddles a fine line and is suitable for taking a date to yet Us Guys won't fall asleep watching the show. Make her think that you are really a sensitive dude, even if you do make her ride in the back of the pickup truck (and the huntin' dog rides up front, of course) on the way to the theater.

Secondly, if you get a chance to visit Florida seriously consider spending a day or two around St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. Founded by the Spanish in 1565 St. Augustine retains considerable Spanish influence and has grown into a quaint tourist mecca of cobblestone streets, narrow lanes, bed and breakfasts, and unique architecture. And did I mention St. Augustine's reputation for being the most haunted city in Florida? Quite a fun place.

And if you stay in St. Augustine and if you feel the urge to see a movie, I always suggest hitting Pot Belly's Cinema Plus at 36 Granada St., (904) 829-3101, a quick walk from the heart of touristy St. Augustine. At Pot Belly's the service is indifferent, the upholstery is worn and torn, and the place never has a large crowd. And they never advertise their movies. So what's the big attraction? They serve beer and decent sandwiches and always have first run flicks, so you can sit there and watch recent releases just like you are in the comfort of your own home or neighborhood pub. It's a very pleasant, laid-back atmosphere and we drive down from Jacksonville to watch movies there rather than put up with the herds at the mega-cinemas.

~~~

The steady reader of this blog will no doubt be asking "Aren't you guys supposed to be on the way to New Orleans?"

Well ... uh ... yeah. That was the plan. Or the second plan actually. We had originally planned to leave during Good Friday, which was about 2 weeks ago. We are now on our 3rd rescheduling of our vacation. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm.

This time we actually have reservations. So we'll be heading out Thursday night, fer shure [crossing fingers]

We've had a number of delays. Both of us have had career issues that have held us captive.

And then there is the story of my Land Rover Discover II. Oy vey!

First of all, I really love Land Rovers. Once upon a time WIHM (When I Had Money) Yours Truly simultaneously owned a Porsche Carrera, an S-Class Mercedes sedan, and a Range Rover. And I don't mind saying that while they all were great vehicles that the Range Rover was the one that I'd keep if I had to get rid of the others (and, in fact, I still have the old Range Rover in storage).

But as much fun as they are to drive, Land Rovers are quirky and high maintenance, to be kind about it. They aren't for the weak of heart.

Flash forward a few years. I bought a slightly-used-by-a-soccer-mom Discovery (a/k/a Disco) mainly to carry on the trailer behind the motorhome.

Well, I had had some odd noises for almost a year that I couldn't quite track down and had assumed that I had a belt slipping somewhere.

Wrong!

I was driving some small tools over to a job site and just as I was getting off of a ramp on our future I-295 there was a loud BANG! and a loss of forward motion.

Diagnosis: The universal joint at the front driveshaft failed, which is evidently a very common occurrence on this model. But my truck, wanting to be special, put the flailing end of the drive shaft into the transmission case and destroyed the tranny.

Ouch.

So long story short, after several delays for parts and $2,600 later, the Disco wasn't ready for the previously scheduled trip either but we finally picked her up late last week. Following a road trip into deepest, darkest central Georgia on Friday towing a 3,000 lb. trailer she's quite ready to make the trip to New Orleans. Finally.

~~~

Speaking of Land Rovers, I have been lobbying with Ms. Deborah to approve purchase of one of these things. I figure that would be the perfect tool for exploring Central American jungles and parts of Alaska where the bahrs (bears) roam free. After we replace that canvas top with a proper hard top, of course.

What do you think?

Send those emails of support to .......... For some odd reason Ms. Deborah remains skeptical of our "need" for such a vehicle.

Isn't that just the way things are with wimmen?

~~~

I am sure that everyone reading this blog is familiar with the infamous Nigerian scams. Well, She Who Must Be Obey'd received a "Cashier's Check" (sic) from an overseas gentleman as a deposit on some property that she was renting.

Now, for a variety of reasons SWMBO'd was already suspicious of this guy. So when the check arrived she requested an inspection by the #1 person that she could think of who was familiar with faked documents, a certain Pirate who shall remain nameless. Said Pirate didn't even bother to put on his reading glasses before pronouncing this instrument as most likely a fraud.

The next day the local bank agreed.

Well, the guy has emailed back one time so far. She (ever see the movie "She?") did tell him that the bank wouldn't accept the instrument, but if he would send the monies to her confidentially via Western Union that's She'd see what She could do.

Those of you who are savvy about these things can already see the joke, since Western Union is the scammers' #1 favorite conduit of untraceable funds. Once you pay for something through WU pretty much anyone anywhere could be withdrawing your money.

At any rate, we haven't heard back from this clown since that exchange.

Moral of the story: if you eBay or Craigslist *ANYTHING* these days be wary of those scam artists. They are genuinely out there.

And if you get a hold of one of the inept ones, feel free to have a little fun with them at their expense.

Whereas Ol' John is generally extremely positive about the human condition, every so often one sees examples of the flotsam and jetsam of our society. Scammers like these clowns and bitter people that wouldn't know a good time if it bit them in the ass come to my mind quickly.

So does the office politician that stakes out their tiny little useless bit of office territory, to everyone else's detriment. We have all seen that type, and we all know that the Day Job isn't what is really important in life.

Retirees who were never successful nor happy when they were younger and who are now insanely jealous because they have let life slip through their fingers are another group that I am seeing more often. Perhaps I am more aware of the issues of retirees and older folks now that I have gotten older, but mental illness, depression, and downright negativity are practically at epidemic levels among older folks, which I find to be as sad as someone even desperate enough to trying to commit a Nigerian scam.

In a way, Nicholson's character in The Bucket List fits into that range. He was successful in business, but never achieved happiness. That's more than a Hollywood cliche - many of us know folks like that who could never divorce themselves from their careers and who eventually find the career to be a dead end road. Most of us aren't sure what the meaning of life is, but the proverbial gold watch (which employers don't even give away any more) at the end of a 30 year career doesn't seem very satisfying when you haven't done anything else with your life.

Some people are examples of who to be; others are examples of who NOT to be.

Don't let the riff raff get you down, nor allow the naysayers to live your life. After all, 9 times out of 10 the advice-givers messed up their own lives, didn't they? It always seems like the persons with the most "advice" and the most criticism are also those with the least interpersonal skills and the fewest number of friends.

Here's to being reflective about these things, to listening and to filtering out what is useful and what is useless, and to sticking to your guns and knowing the difference between the good and the bad.

One of our local businesses has the following motto on their billboard, and it's so true:

"If you don't have dreams, then all you have in your life are your worries."

Go get 'em friends!

Bad influences from Jimmy Buffett

I am sitting here, working on the motorhome and typing away every so often, and listening to Radio Margaritaville. Jimmy Buffett is playing a small unannounced show at the annual Meeting of the Minds convention a few years ago. A show that I am proud to say that I was lucky enough to be in attendance at.

And Jimmy is telling his story of arriving in Key West, where he was now performing, years earlier. He claims that on his first day in Key West he found a gig at a small bar to play guitar at, got laid, and bought a bicycle. All in 24 hours. Suddenly, he realized that this was his kind of place.

Now he's there in Key West with a large band, a bodyguard or two, and the place is full of tourists.

Man, life was simpler back in those days, wasn't it?

Fun, too.

Kinda reminds me of a revelation that I had a few years ago. I saw some relatively bummy guy over in the little town of Mayport, FL with his fishing gear in a trailer that he was pulling behind his bicycle. And I remember thinking that, well ... except for wanting a better bicycle he was basically living my dream while I was working my ass off waiting to retire. I want to go fishing and bicycling in a coastal area when I retire. And he was doing it now.

OK, so life isn't quite that simple. I'd like to carry that bicycle on top of my 5 miles per gallon 40 ft. motorhome so that I can fish in some different places, and it takes a budget to do that. Still, I thought that this man of modest means wasn't doing badly at all.

Life is funny like that. Sometimes the simplest things are actually the best memories and bring the biggest smiles to your face.

~~~

I don't usually promote that much Jimmy Buffett stuff on my joke list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HumourList/) but for the last few weeks I have been plugging a site called MeetThePhlockers (http://www.meetthephlockers.com/). And I have to say that the response throughout the Parrothead Nation has been remarkable. The site went from somewhere around 200 members a few weeks ago to something over 1,500 as I am writing this.

Meet the Phlockers is a bit like MySpace meets Buffett fans. I could never get into MySpace but this is a social network that works for Parrotheads.

What amazes me the most are the old friends that I am seeing from the days 15-20 years ago when we first started to discover Jimmy Buffett, the Buffettesque lifestyle of sun, sand, sea, and (usually) respectable hedonism. Most of these folks haven't been online for years.

Another thing that amazes me is how many folks from that period have moved to tropical and/or resort sorts of locations. We are indeed pursuing our dreams.

~~~

Lately my dreams largely revolve around refurbishing our Bluebird Wanderlodge motorhome. Constantly blogging about the improvments that I have made would largely be about like blogging about grass growing - in total, a before and after discussion might be interesting but no one really cares that I changed out the side turn signals last week. Or my problems with new tail lights.

But the old girl has become immensely livable in the 2 years that we have owned her.

The old, ugly blue carpet left during the Turkey Day and X-mas holidays, to be replaced by a laminated hardwood floor up front, and an industrial cork floor in the bedroom and bath. Today I am finishing up the edges and cutting molding. And if I dare say so, it looks g-r-e-a-t. All of the flooring was laid at a 45 degree angle, and the look is pretty spectacular. Considering the number of compound curves around the bathroom, that wasn't exactly a small job.

As mentioned, I also replaced the tail lights and side turn signals with modern LED units. God willing, before the summer is out, I expect to have all of the marker lights replaced and the front end will undergo an extensive modernization as the old round sealed beam headlights get replaced with lower set European-style halogens. It will be interesting to see how close to a modern bus the old girl will look then.

And there's the CB radio that recently got hooked up, the gas heaters are now working and working well, the driver's seat has been replaced twice (now an ISRI seat of the type usually seen on high speed buses) and the passenger seat has been replaced once.

After lots of trial and error my computer center (two tower units, docking station for a Dell laptop, a Sony sub-micro, and a Fujitsu table computer, all networked together, mostly all controlled by one switchable keyboard and LED monitor, and connected to the Internet via a router running an EVDO card so I have high speed Internet just about anywhere that I can get a cell signal at) is at long last working well. This is all housed in a modified desk that was originally in the 'bird. Just spin the passenger seat around, unfold the end of the desk, and start typing. Sweet!

I have had some problems with computer emergency battery power supplies however. For some reason this setup has been eating them alive. I now have a super-fancy power supply designed for large networks and it seems to be working well, if you can believe the readouts. I should be able to work on the computers and run the entire Internet network connection for at least two hours if needed before the battery backup dies.

We've pushed back our Panama City (Florida), Lower Alabama, Mississippi, and New Orleans trip until the middle of next week, incidentally. Deb has been closing house sales left and right this week but a couple have been delayed. Once those are taken care of, however, we expect to be on the road and hopefully updating friends regularly.

So stay tuned!

Incidentally, we put 60 gallons of diesel in the Bluebird yesterday. We considered $4.03 a gallon to be a relative bargain for this part of the country and at 5 miles per gallon that should get us over to about Marianna, Florida where the fuel prices are supposed to be better. Ouch!

See y'all down the road!

New interior (under construction) and new tail lights: