October 30, 2013
Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama
We’ve been visiting Alabama for years. With family and
friends in Albertville and Birmingham, we’re honorary Alabamans. But, we’ve
never been to the Alabama Gulf Coast so we made plans to stop this year.
There isn’t a whole lot of coastline in LA (Lower Alabama),
but there are quite a few RV Parks in the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach-Foley area
to choose from. After some research, I selected Gulf State Park. Now, we don’t
often stay in state parks because of our size and power requirements, but this
place was super. Large sites, full utilities, excellent power; what more could
you ask for?
We left Destin West right on schedule, at the leisurely time
of 10:35 AM. This wasn’t actually late, since we only had 71 miles to drive! We
stayed on US-98 to and through Pensacola, then FL-295/FL-292 along the coast to
the Alabama line. From there, AL-182 brought us to Gulf State Park. After
consulting with the office staff, we picked a nice spot and were soon parked.
We had a huge back-in site with a large paved patio. Taking
advantage of the space (and realizing that we’d have had more afternoon shade
if we’d have parked facing the other way), we even deployed our “EZ-up” canopy
in addition to the outdoor kitchen gear.
The next few days are a bit of a blur. Our friends Linda and
Wendell were down from Birmingham, visiting their friends Pat and Clarence who
recently moved to Foley.
We headed to Foley Saturday and had a great day and evening.
Pat and Clarence had their friends Mary and Jack over as well, so we had a
crowd. Brunch and Bloody Marys, catching up, a round of Redneck Horseshoes
(bean bag toss), a road trip and a fantastic dinner (with wine, of course) made
for a full day! Merlin and Maya Lynn came along and had fun wandering around
the house and yard, and making new friends.
Our “road trip” was a mini bar crawl in the afternoon (you
have to wait until afternoon, right?) down along the beach. We started at “The
Flora-Bama Lounge and Package”, sometimes called “Americas Last Great
Roadhouse”. It’s built right on the Florida-Alabama state line. Duh. We opted
for beer instead of the famous Bushwacker ice cream cocktails and enjoyed the
“ambiance” for a spell. After a bit, we continued on to “Happy Harbor Tiki Bar
& Pizzeria” for another round calling it a day.
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| From the Flora-Bama deck, you can look straight across the Gulf to Cancun. At least part way... |
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| No need for anyone else to buy a lottery ticket after Wendell picked the "winner". |
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| In honor of the regulars at The Rez Bar & Grill in CT... |
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| You know you're in a dive bar when... |
Sunday was beach day. We met up in Orange Beach, planted
umbrellas, and hung out for a while, until everyone deemed it “done”. We then
retired back to Pat and Clarence’s for another dinner. We brought some wine,
Linda and Wendell really brought some wine, and another good day came to an
end.
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| Now THAT'S a bottle of Merlot! |
On Monday, we rested. While the rest of the crowd made
another beach run, Geri and I relaxed with the pups and got ready for hosting
the evening’s dinner. Linda and Wendell have been taking a sushi class, so they
brought some excellent rolls. We cooked and ate outside, and enjoyed some wine
and after-dinner drinks before wrapping up just at the 10:00 PM “quiet time”
start. There's a rumor that a group photo exists but, well, let's just say nobody's 100% sure...
Tuesday, we recovered. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Wednesday, we did our standard pre-departure tasks a bit
early, and then met Pat and Clarence at a local restaurant, Cosmo’s, known for
meal-sized appetizers and happy hour prices. Their reputation is well deserved!
We had shrimp, tuna and probably something else I don’t recall, along with a
couple of glasses of wine. It was nice to “hang” with Pat and Clarence and this
made for a good close to our visit to “LA”.
As always, please feel free to click on any picture to
enlarge it.
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