May 13, 2011
Mobile, Alabama

Alabama is a "tall" state. We drove almost the whole length from North to South today. Rick and Annette live near Huntsville and the border with Tennessee. Alyson goes to school at the University of South Alabama ("USA") in Mobile, on the Gulf. As far as the "downhill" part, we lost over 1,000 feet, but it took 340 miles to do so, so we really didn't notice.

It was an easy drive for the most part, US-431 to AL-77 to I-59 toward Birmingham. We looped around the South side on I-459 then took I-65 south through Montgomery to Mobile. The weather was cloudy for the most part, with a few sprinkles at times until we were about 50 miles out of Mobile. Then we ran into some sort of microburst storm that involved blinding rain and 40+ MPH winds. Well, that slowed things down! It was over in about 10 minutes (5 miles) and we continued on our way without further incident.

Unfortunately, Annette's father, Gerry, didn't fare as well. Everyone else was just a bit behind us (we all left Albertville at different times and travelled at varying speeds; we were surprised to be the first ones in since we're slowest), and Gerry got rear-ended just as they were getting off I-65. That's what he gets for stopping at a red light that locals just cruise through, I suppose. They were able to get a local body shop to pry open the trunk (luggage) and bungee/tape everything together so it was drivable. Ouch!

Dinner was a group party at a local seafood restaurant, Felix's Fish Camp. I think everyone had seafood, even though they had "landlubber" items on the menu. Geri had a stuffed Flounder and I had seared Ahi Tuna. I won.

We had a nice sunset and dinner (I'll get configured to copy pictures from the new phone next week), and everyone was ready to call it an early night. Big day tomorrow!