The Old Proverb

As they say, All Good Things Must Come to an End - and thus ends our Wonderful, Spectacular, Warm, Inviting and a bunch of other superlatives Alabama Vacation.
We are now back in Maine, where the temperature is about 50 degrees colder than it was for us last week. So the shorts are put away, the bikes are stored and the chammy shirts are pulled out and tucked in.
So now we wait for the Maine summer to start as we plan for another trip next year.
Hope you enjoyed our blog as much as we did putting it together.
So for now - so long, farewell, adieu, aloha Good Bye.

Savannah Touring and Mrs Wilkes Chicken

Went to Savannah to eat at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding house - they serve 80 at a time and are open for brunch from 11-2PM - it is served sit down buffet style with all the fixings on the table when you're seated with 6 others. Then you pass the various bowls of stuff - the list would take way too long to list everything but the hit of the meal were the chicken. It was the best we've ever eaten - and plenty of it. 

After the meal, we waddled out and then did the El Tourista thang and hopped aboard the tour bus for the city - 15 stops and hop on and off at any of them. So we spent the afternoon playing as Bobbie Gump (see below) and ice creams to ward off the heat (93) and the coldest beers we could find. Quite a city Savannah!

Some of the line waiting to get into Mrs Wilke's

View of the altar at the catheral

Some of the dishes that were offered - they are all different 

ONe of the many backyard gardens 

The wait staff at Mrs Wilkes - man are they right!

One of the other tables - note all the dishes

BOBBIE GUMP

One of the many streets with overhanging oaks

ONe of the tankers that were heading down the Savannah River - almost close enough to touch

Super Savannah

This is a wonderful city we again realized as we wandered about last evening.  City squares with dancing fountains, live bands (Sunday night? Com'on) but unfortunately the 2 best places for Southern Fried Chicken (Paula Deens and Mrs Wilkes)) were closed. So we're back touring today.
After a bar side dinner last night, we strolled about the waterfront and downtown in mid 70's weather with only a balmy breeze to accompany us.
We plan to spend some time with a real estate agent this afternoon so that we can buy a place and move here. Should make a great place for everyone to come visit.

King size margarita

What's left of Terrys dinner

Beautiful scene at the waterfront in Savannah - sorry about the poor quality

Now in Savannah

The drive to Savannah was pretty much uneventful with one exception - the GPS had plotted a course that would avoid going onto Route 95 (which is generally horrid when snowbirds are leaving Florida) so when I went cruising by the turn at 80MPH off from Route 10 eastbound to catch that new route it was a little upsetting - especially considering one of the witches had done 95 on Saturday and she said it was a slow moving parking lot.
Just catch the next exit and go back - right? Wrong - the next exit turned out to be about 15 miles away which would have meant a 30 mile detour - instead we decided (I did) to give 95 a try and hope for the best.
It was practically empty - we slowed to 65 once but the rest of the time were being run over when we were only doing 80. So we made it to Savannah with time to spare.
As we were driving around Jacksonville however, the thermometer in the van registered 91 degrees - it has now settled back to a svelte 84.
We had also expected to have a tough time finding a place to bed for a couple days but the first place we tried (AMERICA'S BEST VALUE) not only had rooms but at a reasonable price.
So now we play in Savannah tomorrow (perhaps tonight also) and then on to Crofton on Tuesday.

Good bye Gulf Shores

Well into packing now - spent a couple hours on the beach though as the sun came out and into a cloudless sky. The beach patrol police (additions to the life guards) stopped by on their 4 wheeler to ask if  "YOU GUYS STILL HERE?" They were super friendly and when they found out we fished told about patrolling the fishing pier yesterday and seeing 3 rods get broken from guys trying to reel in Spanish Mackerel. WE know there was a school of huge fish in the area as a new state record for them was caught on Friday - 68 pounds and about 5' long - and they are tough!  See below for the picture of the fish
Anyhow, will get the rest of our stuff packed and into the van today so that we can leave at a decent hour tomorrow..

Here's a picture of the 68# Spanish Mackerel caught by the kid in the yellow shirt

Last Saturday morning

Well packing has begun and we're in the thunderstorms - very mild but a fitting so long to Gulf Shores. Expect that by the time noon rolls around the sun will be out and it should be very warm - probably 80 by mid afternoon.
Went back to Cobalt for their very impressive and abundant  buffet - Biscuits and gravy to die for. Will find something to do until mid afternoon
Not sure how we accumulated all this stuff but we did. Hope it will all fit. If it does, there won't be any room for things to move around.

Terry in the mouth of the souvenir  shop

Another nice day

Upper 70s and lowering humidity - what more could you ask for. Well to start with, a lot less weed then we were faced with this morning -there was so much that we broke the lines trying to get the stuff reeled in. So we quit and began the job of finding a place for all the new treasures that we're bringing back. I have a couple of really nice garden ornaments - wonder if they will last longer then the gnome?
Then we had the biggest disappointment of the trip - as we were getting things moved about the van to begin loading, we realized the zip lock baggie with some  old coins that I kept on the console was gone. Apparently while we were enjoying the area, someone decided to take them. Left all kinds of other stuff - GPS, fillet knife, kites etc which lead us to believe it was probably kids and the coins were more use then the other stuff.
Oh well.
So fishing equipment and bikes are all loaded and ready to go - this will give us a couple days of around town driving to make sure they are all buttoned down snuggly and don't create a bothersome rattle.
Had to have a huge ice cream this afternoon to feel better though.

Here's the mouse that roared - entire dunes protected just for them

Terry waiting for  a bite

My goodness, it's cooling off - good thing we're leaving.