Day 36: Florida

Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season

From Mobile, I drove down the east side of Mobile Bay. For much of it, the bay was hidden behind houses.  Towns of Daphne, Fairhope and Point Clear.  I was probably halfway down Mobile Bay when I started to see piles of tree debris along the sides of the road. As I turned towards the bay trying to get a glimpse of the water, I came across down power lines and more debris.  From that point, all the way to my next stop near Pensacola all I saw was the remnants of Hurricane Sally that hit September 16.  It was brutal, blue tarps on roofs, houses destroyed and you will see in the picture below boats trashed.  If you look closely you can see one boat that somehow had a pylon going right through its center.

Bose Colleagues you’ll remember Julia, that picture is from her deck. She and her husband are living West of Pensacola while he is working on a contract nearby.  They were able to ride the storm out, and their Condo survived, but all around them is devastation.

With Julia I was able to check off one of my bucket list items, have a beer at the Floribama.  This bar is a legend in Country music.  We were there early, so I didn’t get to see it in full swing but it was fun to go.  The bartender was so impressed with my 48 in 48 trip, she bought me a beer!  Again, I was the only one in the bar wearing a mask. They have a big bottle of hand sanitizer, but that’s all the concession they are making.  The bartender said there have not been a lot of cases in that area, and she thinks most of them had in November and December, when they had flu like symptoms, but tested negative for the flu.

In Tallahassee for the night, at first glance, it seems like a nice city, with more varied landscape that I’m used to seeing in South Florida.

Song of the Day: Flora-Bama, Kenny Chesney

Podcast: Things You Missed in History Class, The Demon Core (Glad I didn’t know about all the accidents they had with Nuclear Power at Los Alamos in the early days)

Book on Tape:  White Trash, the history of class in America

Beer of the Day: Blonde Ale, Gulf Coast Brewery

Total Miles: 330