It's a tough gig, but someone has to do it

We are taking a little bit of a break and fishin' in the general vacinity of Flagler Beach, FL at an RV park that is, as you can see, right on the water.

I know. Tough gig.

I'm a bit sunburnt already and this place isn't nearly as full as we would have expected. I suspect that the fuel crisis and general economic malaise has dropped attendance down a bit. We have been looking into some other ocean-front RV parks and planning to hang out a bit this summer but this place (Beverly Beach RV Resort) is one of our favorites. If they would give us a break on weekly rates we might conduct our Jacksonville-based business from here for the next few months.

We did have an opportunity to drop by and see Mark, a/k/a the Tiki Tender ( http://www.tikitender.com/ ) last night at Flagler's Golden Lion, which is one of the better beachfront bar and restaurants around.

Later tonight we hope to see Jim Morris, one of the absolutely best of the tropic rock musicians, play nearby. You can check out Jim at http://www.jim-morris.com/home.htm

The last few weeks have been very exciting, even if I haven't had much of an opportunity to update the blog or otherwise write much online. While we were traveling we incorporated a new business and have been putting a ton of effort into that. In addition, the never-ending upgrades to the venerable Bluebird Wanderlodge continue, with a bizness telephone system and satellite television with multiple LCD monitors being recently installed, and some dents pounded out following a little "clash" that we had in Mississippi. But that last point is classified so let's not talk about that one. The co-pilot claims that the little "oops!" was caused by driver error but the pilot wants to argue that point.

My novel, a tale of lewdness, UFOs, 100-year old Nazis, bars and bar maids, mentally-unstable geriatric Internet stalkers, natural disasters, corporate corruption, , clown-phobic Texans, ex-cons, truckers, life, death, hookers, and the other things that make living worthwhile, continues. I recently noted that a well known author took an advance from his publisher on a novel that he promises to finish within the next 6-7 years. I can relate. For those of you who aspire to write, all that I can say is that you have to start somewhere but it's a frickin' slow project.

There are a number of things from our New Orleans trip that I hope to show y'all in the next few weeks, but, alas, I haven't had an opportunity to organize my photos yet. We took a drive down into Plaquemines Parish, roughly 100 miles south of New Orleans and basically Ground Zero for Hurricane Katrina. As much as I feel that we as a nation have let New Orleans and parts of Mississippi down when we should be helping them to rebuild, the residents of Plaquemines Parish appear to have been totally forgotten while the oil company interests down there are looking awfully healthy. The contrast between the haves and the have nots is stark indeed. In comparison, New Orleans has at least gotten some relief funding.

And then there's the subject of casinos. Ah yes ... casinos. The retirement home for many of us baby boomers. As much fun as I found the casinos in Mississippi to be I still find it strange that I have reached that age when a casino with a good buffet and a nice RV park is looking mighty appealing.

Speaking of buffet(t)s ... for you Parrotheads have you heard that Jimmy Buffett is involved in not one, not two, but now three Margaritaville Casino projects? Count 'em - Biloxi, the Mohegan Casino in Connecticut, and now some group has just announced that they are buying one of Donald Trump's Atlantic City properties and will be redeveloping it in conjunction with Margaritaville, Inc.

What is this world coming to?

Oh, and to totally skip around this planet and to see how quickly things are changing, check out CCTV-9, or English Language Chinese Central Television. We can pick CCTV-9 up on Dish System satellite TV on Channel 265, although I think that you have to request it at no add'l charge. DirectTV surely has it somewhere. Rural China reminds me of rural Mexico or, for that matter, rural Kentucky from the time of my birth - pretty backward. But the major cities - WOW! Very pretty. Very modern. And very much the economic powerhouses of the next generation. I hate to say it, but it kinda makes me think that we here in the USA have been asleep at the wheel (or perhaps our government has been concentrating on the wrong things) when China looks so modern, most of Europe can supply their citizens with retirement and health care and still have a currency that is increasing in value as compared to ours, and Mexico can be building new universities left and right and still have diesel at $2.27/gallon (diesel is about $4.29/gallon here in Floriduh as I write this).

As many of us olde phartes like to point out the Little Johnny of today often cannot read, and here in Florida neither he nor Little Jill seemingly can drive worth a damn, but they do have their rap songs memorized. I am not optimistic with their abilities to compete with the Euro and Chinese kids that I meet who have excellent math skills.

Then again, who from our generation would have ever thought that Jerry Rubin would have gone from being a Yippie to being a yuppie and would have become a big promoter of multi-level marketing, right?

But we do have great bar-b-que, I'll give you that. The USA leads the world in good pork bar-b-que.

And football.

But not Formula 1.

Did anyone watch the race in Monaco last weekend? No traction control on the new cars and it rained - yikes! It was looking like Ferrari was going to run out of body parts for their cars before they stopped the race a few laps short. Now that was exciting, even if the new F1 cars have so many wings and tabs and aerodynamic surfaces that you halfway expect the cars to start flapping and fly away on the start/finish line. NASCAR it ain't.

As I said, times change. Ya gotta roll with the punches, and keep on smiling.

A great billboard slogan that I saw a few months ago: "If you don't have dreams, then all you have in your life are your worries." So true.

Pursue your dreams. Whether they involve travel or doing something positive for you, your family, or the planet, pursue your dreams. If there is one thing that isn't in short supply in this universe it's negative people, and that's such a pity since there are indeed "so many nice things happenin' out there," to quote a lyric from a Buffett song.

We're baaaaaaaaaaack! And the state of the hurricane ravaged areas

Got into our workshop space around Noon on Tuesday, actually. Just been too frickin' busy to write regularly. Or too laid back. Or something along those lines. Sorry 'bout that.

A few quick observations:

We were gone for three weeks and had a great time, but no matter how you slice things it's always great to be back among friends and familiar surroundings.

We stopped in Panama City, Florida, the area around the Florida and Alabama lines on the coast, journeyed over to the casinos at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and then headed over to the KOA Campground in Kenner, Louisiana for a week. Kenner is a convenient jumping off point to downtown New Orleans and I have stayed there many a' time over the last several years.

We considered continuing our trip for another few weeks and heading down toward the Tex/Mex border but a combination of illness, Land Rover maintenance, and business obligations scuttled that plan.

Several folks have written and asked how the rebuilding is going in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina.

Honestly, in my opinion, it's going pretty piss poor in many places.

The French Quarter and the other touristy areas around New Orleans has largely recovered. Remember, the French Quarter was above sea level and suffered little damage from Katrina flooding.

The casinos in Mississippi have been rapidly rebuilt and expanded since our last visit 15 months ago; however, residential properties and small businesses have, in most cases, not rebuilt if they received more than minor damage.

This is a small modular home that was built as a permanent replacement for a FEMA trailer. Notice that it's not very large. Also notice that it's REALLY high off the ground in order to meet the local Waveland, MS codes. These things are springing up left and right as replacements for the fancier traditional beachfront resort properties that have not been rebuilt:

Vast parts of New Orleans remain largely uninhabited and local businesses are all gone. Hardest hit that we saw were East New Orleans along the I-10 corridor coming in from Slidell and downtown along Rt. 90 as you get within sight of the Superdome and downtown. Both of those areas range from being largely devastated to completely trashed for blocks and blocks.

In our discussions with local folks and small business owners the consensus was as close to unanimous as could be - business was down from pre-Katrina levels, and for many small business owners keeping the doors open was a daily struggle.

Largely overlooked by the media would seem to be Plaquemines Parish, which is the southernmost tip of Louisiana and extends over 100 miles south of New Orleans. The town of Buras was reportedly the first town hit by Katrina and possibly received Cat. 4 winds as Katrina impacted southern Louisiana (in contrast Katrina was "only" a Cat. 3 when she hit NO). While the petroleum industry would appear to have rebuilt quickly, most housing in those towns in Plaquemines has yet to be rebuilt. What were once prosperous small towns are now ruins as groceries, restaurants, and so forth have not been rebuilt. Far and away the most prevalent form of housing out there is the travel trailer, and you can see those suckers for miles and miles, scattered out along what is otherwise a relatively rural area.

While we were in Kenner one of the local parishes was pushing to get the FEMA trailers out by the end of May. Don't let that fool you into thinking that things are fine; FEMA was acknowledging that they still have quite a few folks in trailers whose applications to rebuild their properties had not been reviewed three years after Katrina struck. NO, Mississippi, and Louisiana still have vast communities comprised of nothing but FEMA trailers tucked in and slightly out of sight. And, perhaps most shocking of all, New Orleans is developing a large community of folks who are living in tents - if they can afford a tent - underneath the highway overpasses.

There were some sobering sights during this trip. But for the grace of God go you or I.

That's funny. I would have sworn that I turned those lights off ...

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!