10/03/2006
The adventure begins, but not without some trepidation. When you own your own business, and that business is a 24/7 operation, and you haven’t actually had a real vacation in many years, and you’re worried about something going wrong that would require your presence when you’re four states and 18 hours away…yep, that adds up to a little bit of worry creeping into the back of your head about whether or not leaving is a good idea after all.
Still, everyone needs a break now and then, and after this past year and a half, I could certainly use one. So, we headed west.
If you should ever find yourself going across the state of Florida for some reason – moving from point A to point B on your map – keep in mind that Florida is really, really flat. And that many parts of Florida, particularly if you are, say, moving west from Jacksonville toward the Panhandle, are still farm and pastureland.
There is a lot of this between here and our destination, all of which just served to whet my appetite for a piece of land somewhere.
A cow, a few chickens, a horse, lots of veggies….but I digress.
After stopping off in Tallahassee for some lunch – Chinese – we were back on the road to Alabama.
We wound our way to Mobile, searching out a restaurant recommended to us by a friend. You can’t miss it, he said. It’s right next to the battleship (the USS Alabama, as it happens). We missed it, having missed the turnoff, so had to backtrack. He couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, but lo and behold, there it was.
We arrived just as they were setting up for dinner, so there was almost no one in the restaurant. I’m so used to Florida, where smoking in restaurants is verboten, that I was caught offguard for a moment by the question about seating in a smoking area versus a nonsmoking area. In deference to mom, who continues to smoke despite all the nastiness associated with it, we chose the smoking area.
To start: drinks and some fried mushrooms.
Fried platter for Barb (left).
Hearts of palm salad and shrimp cocktail for Mom.
Fried catfish for me.
Since this was, as Barb put it, a culinary journey as much as anything else, we also had dessert: key lime pie and coffee.
All of this was served up by Jim, one of the fastest moving and nicest servers I’ve ever met.
As we left, I took some (non-moving) shots of the heavy gear outside.
We chased the sun as it set.
The sun was always a step ahead of us, beckoning us to follow.
Eventually, it led us into Mississippi.
And stayed with us for a bit more.
Before beginning its final descent.
And bidding us a farewell after a day’s work.
Our work was not yet done, and we continued to make our way toward Louisiana.
With the moon and stars as our guide now…
…we ended our own day’s journey in Baton Rouge.
