11/13/18 Tuesday: We had planned for this to be a day that we would not travel along the waterway, expecting it to be rainy and windy. We were right. It was that. And cold. Our first mission of the day was to go get a rental car. Hertz was cheaper than Enterprise this time, and they would come pick us up at the marina. YAY! However, one thing we have learned about renting cars – don’t be in a hurry or on a schedule. It is a very slow process. Good thing we didn’t have a flight to catch or anything! We got our car and stopped at Publix for some groceries. It certainly is not the least expensive option for groceries, but they have a good stuff – including a good deli and bakery. We took our haul back to the boat, then went to meet up with our ‘Bay Boats’ at Lulu’s for lunch.
We crossed the city border from Orange Beach to Gulf Shores. Both towns are oober-touristy towns, with lots of fun things to do, and lots of vacations condos. We saw all kinds of mini-golf and go-carts and fun things to do. Although when it is raining and the temperatures are in the 50’s, there is not much going on! All the tourists stay hunkered down in their warm condos!
We got to Lulu’s right at noon, and we were the only people in the humongous restaurant. The place looks like it would be a hoppin blast in nice summery weather! They had a huge sandy playground and los of outdoor seating.
In the marina where our buddies were docked, they found Island Girl’s momma – or at least her most sophisticated twin sister… a Bayliner 3988 named Island Lady!
By the time we got our beverages, there were more people showing up for lunchtime. We had a great time with Parrot Bay, Houligan Again (we haven’t seen them since Colonial Beach on the Potomac River!!), and Bay Tripper. We made some plans for the next few days and beyond.
After lunch, we headed east on the beach road toward Florida. It has plenty of touristy beachy stores and places to eat and drink. But everything was pretty quiet, and hard to tell if establishments were even open!
The road follows right along the dunes. I can see how this road could get buried in sand during a storm!
We found the border line between Alabama and Florida, and stepped into Florida. And right here on the border is the Flora-Bama bar. The legendary bar that Kenny Chesney sings about in a song by the same name:
Sitting here at the Flora-Bama
Bout to open up a big old can of
Good times, unwind
Fall in and out of love in the same night
This place is a crazy mish-mash of buildings and added-on sections! I think it has four stages for live music. We were here once before, but we’ve never been here on a weekend or in sunny hot weather, so we don’t know what it’s really like when running full-tilt!
This shows a tiny glimpse of some of the levels and buildings that are randomly joined together.
They have top shelf liquor on tap, and it all flows to the zillion bar locations around the property from this tap room. Look! – they have Maker’s Mark and Crown Royal – on tap!
And look at this! The Flora-Bama has an Island Girl drink!! I think this is perfectly acceptable as a signature drink aboard our vessel!
The place is so big, and not a full line-up of activity at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. We weren’t sure where to belly up to a bar to get the essence of the place. So we found our way into the big top tent where there was free bingo going on. Sure – why not?! We might win a drink or something.
We got there in between sessions, and there was maybe 30 people sitting about the room ready for the next session. We played two games on one card, and Kenny won one of them! He got a free Bushwacker (an adult chocolatey milkshake) AND a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant down the road. Sweet! Then we played three games on the next card, and I won the blackout one! I got a free Bushwacker and my choice from a table full of junky stuff like frisbees, totebags, stickers, etc. It was silly and fun and during happy hour, so the drinks weren’t terribly expensive.
They told us at Bingo that there was music upstairs at a lounge stage, so we headed up there. This was a great surprise! It was a nice cozy setting, and the room was packed with people. Apparently there was a Songwriters Festival going on in the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area, and the Flora-Bama was one of the venues. There was an open mic session going on, so we got to hear several artists perform their own songs that they brought for the Festival. It was the 34th annual 11-day festival, featuring over 200 artists from around the world, performing in over two dozen venues in the area.
We enjoyed at least an hour in the lounge, then we went out to the big main stage where things can get loud and rowdy. As they explained to us – this room was built to take a beating from hurricanes, dancing on tables, and all around good times. It wasn’t rowdy on this Tuesday, and we had a great time! This band was Tony T-bone Montgomery, with – I think he said – the Sandbillies. Tony is from Muscle Shoals, which wouldn’t have meant anything to us just a month or so ago – but now I have an understanding of those musical roots! He was good and we enjoyed them. Then he opened the mic and invited several different musicians to come up and play. Each artist played a few of their own original songs – songs that the Sandbillies had never heard. And the Sandbillies played with them! THAT was truly amazing to watch and listen to! These three were just great “session” players. They would listen and watch to pick up the key, the tempo, the groove, and then play along and fill in with riffs like they had played the song as a group before! We really, really enjoyed this! Having played in our church praise band for years, both Kenny and Wayne had a lot of respect and awe for this talent! We could have stayed all night, but we decided we better get a move on.
We drove down to the restaurant to use Kenny’s $25 certificate. It was the Crab Trap, which was a decent size restaurant right on the beach. We were the ONLY people there at about 7:30pm. Seriously! Not a soul but the staff. So we ordered a few things, got full of fried seafood, then headed back to return the rental car and get an Uber ride back to the boat.
We have been watching the weather for the possible Gulf crossing. Saturday is still looking promising: waves less than 2 feet, and wind less than 15 mph. We have to look at a large section of the Gulf – all the way from Apalachicola to Clearwater. This is just one of the weather compilations that we’ve been watching. We need good conditions for nearly 24 hours – from 1:00pm day one, to 1:00pm on day two. And we want to have good conditions for 12 hours before and after that window as security. So far, Saturday is still looking good! We’ll keep watching. We need to assume that Saturday is the day, so we need to get moving to Apalachicola which is over 200 miles away. Tomorrow we will go 70-ish miles to Fort Walton. The next day another 70-ish miles to Panama City. Then another 70-ish miles to Apalachicola on Friday. Then we’ll be ready! 😳 Right?
We are planning to travel with Parrot Bay and Bay Tripper from here on, all the way to Clearwater. We can all travel comfortably at the same speed, and it it will be great to have buddies for this section. I just hope the wind, rain, and cold get over themselves and let the sun come back out! After all, we’re moving on into Florida, RIGHT?!?