The Plan: Retire & achieve "Needgreater" status (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru?)
("I love it when a plan comes together." Hannibal Smith, The"A" Team)

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Sweet Home Alabama!



Even though I’ve lived out in the desert southwest for many years, I originally grew up in Mobile, Alabama, down on the Gulf Coast. I like to get back from time to time to visit my mother, brother, sister, and many of my spiritual brothers & sisters that I’ve known since I was in elementary school.
After visiting friends and family, the number #1 priority is food.
A visit to the Waffle House is a must
Fresh raw oysters at Winchell's Oyster House

Being on the coast, the seafood in the markets and restaurants was swimming in the Gulf just a few hours before it hits your plate. I’m always game for some raw oysters on the half shell, a fried oyster & shrimp po’ boy sandwich, some gumbo and probably some red snapper and grouper. Top it off with mullet & grits for breakfast.


Shrimp Boil at my brother's house
Besides seafood, there is the cuisine that the rest of the country so quaintly likes to call “soul food”, but in the South, we just call “food”.
Collards, fried chicken, okra, pecan pie- throw in breakfast at the Waffle House, and maybe some beignets from a local café- it’s culinary overload.  Somehow it just doesn’t taste the same in Las Vegas.


Essential tableware
Beignet's with my mother & sister
My mother lives across Mobile in a small artsy-crafty town called Fairhope. Her house is only a couple of blocks from the bay, and it’s great to walk down in the evening and catch the sunset over the water.


Fresh beignet's at Panini Pete's

Funny how remnants of the war (the Civil War) are scattered about. At the mouth of Mobile Bay still sit the two forts (Gaines & Morgan) that guarded the entrance, but succumbed to the Yankee hordes at the battle of Mobile Bay.
Windy day at Fort Morgan
A few miles north of where my mother lives is the site of old Blakely, where the last skirmish of the war was said to be fought, and the Confederate earthworks still stand. Scattered about are gravestones from the 1840’s and 1850’s when yellow fever ravaged this region. There are still plenty of mosquitos around, along with multitudes of other insect life, but at least a bite won’t kill a person.
We were there during Thanksgiving week in November, a particularly good time when daytime temps are usually in the 60’s to 80’s, with very little humidity. After all these years in the desert, I know better than to go back in the summer when 90% humidity means you walk around soaking wet even when the sun is out.
Kingdom Hall in Foley, Alabama
3 congregations meet here
We made the usual rounds to see all the old friends. Funny how my teenage companions are all grandparents now. People from that region don’t tend to move much (I was one of the exceptions), so whenever I go back, it’s like a big reunion. Sadly the Mobile Convention Center where I got baptized when it was new in 1966 is scheduled to be torn down. We had assemblies there for a lot of years, but better facilities are used now.
The can of cane syrup went to Vegas in checked luggage, but the collards were fixed for that night's dinner.





The only drawback is that November is a little chilly for swimming in the Gulf, although usually the water is fairly warm up into October. So I’m thinking about a 2016 visit a little earlier in the year so I can really enjoy those white sand beaches and turquoise Gulf waters. (Yes the Alabama beaches are one of the best kept secrets in the country. We try not to spread it around too much to keep the crowds down.)

And as always....

ROLL TIDE!

Photos of Ft. Blakely, site of last battle of the Civil War:

  

Confederate fortifications still stand
Hiking trail along Mobile river
Boardwalk keeps hikers above the swamp
Facilities are top-notch
Historical graves are plentiful
Weird trees are everywhere

Mark & I have only known each other for more than 50 years

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