Destin Mon 5/7 5435-5675 (240 mi.)
Got up and out of my hole without touching anything and headed south. Nice ride
through Alabama to Dothan for lunch. Went looking for Panama City BC, but it had
closed 4 years earlier. Continued along the
coast at a leisurely pace to McGuires
in Destin. Had a very nice beer surrounded by 500k $1 bills. Unfortunately, their
gift shop was a tourist gouging trap and I refused to pay $10
for a pint glass. Went over to Charlene (a good friend from High School in Hamburg) and
her husband Danny’s house for a very nice dinner
and evening. Met their very nice kids Danny Jr. and Sarah Ann as well.
Diamondhead Tue 5/8 5675-5888 (213 mi.)
Got up and met Danny and Tommy (fisherman) at the Waffle House for breakfast.
Lois, Charlene’s mom joined us there and we had a nice chat.
Danny took us over
to the Silver Shores (?) Condo where his friend Dan was delighted to comp us a
couple of beach chairs. Chatted with Lois until she had to go to work (for Charlene).
Swam in the gulf, sat in the hot tub, and relaxed for the ride to Mississippi.
What a beautiful Beach!
Charlene met me at the condos, and I gave her a ride over
to a nice little restaurant on the bay for my first (but not last!) pile of gulf shrimp.
Rode down the coast (more slowly than I had hoped), through Pensacola, and hooked up with
another heavily loaded Valkyrie until Mobile, where I stopped at the Hurricane Brewery
downtown. Very nice place, and good beers! Got a free sampler of everything. It was
getting late, so I headed over to Diamondhead to see Carl, Jeanne, and Alec (14).
Spent a very nice evening eating a huge bowl of Crawfish, some excellent home-made
Jambalaya, drinking micro-brews, and listening to Carl play the guitar!
Diamondhead Wed 5/9 5888-5888 (0 mi.)
After a nice breakfast, Carl, Jeanne, and I headed out in their truck to Biloxi for the beginning of the Katrina disaster tour. It was a very interesting day! I was pleasantly surprised that, while there were clearly many houses and buildings missing, there was no real debris remaining. Houses either looked like new (rebuilt), were undergoing renovation, or were simply "slabbed" (missing altogether). Just caught the ferry to Bay St. Louis (as the bridge was out and not scheduled to open for another week) to pick up Alec, then also picked up a Moufellata and 7 lbs. of fresh shrimp for dinner. Got home, watched Raising Arizona, and ate a great dinner. We had a very nice visit and we all passed out in the living room late.
Contact me at: rf6gunz@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2007, Rick Fletcher
