Our Final Days of Summer 2010

After several great days in north Georgia, we pulled up stakes and headed south. We stopped for one night outside of Greenville, AL, at a small city park called Sherling Lake Park. We got lucky and were given the site with the most shade and a deck, too.

After we got set up, we walked down to the lake.

We decided to enjoy our breakfast on that cool deck before heading down the road again.

Then it was off to Foley, AL. Foley is about 15 miles north of Gulf Shores and the Gulf beaches. We’ve been wanting to go there for some time and this was a great opportunity to do so.

We were pleasantly surprised to hear our friends were going to stop there on their way west. As luck would have it, we arrived about ten minutes after they did. Our new home for five nights was Johnny’s Lakeside RV Resort. Here we are after we were all set up next to each other.

And here’s the view we had out the front window of our coach.

This area has OMG good food! Every meal was awesome. Our first was at Lambert’s. This is a small chain known for its “throwed rolls”. Yep, if you want a roll they’ll throw it at you. If you don’t catch it, they’ll throw another until you do. And these rolls are the size of softballs! HUGE! Have you ever had hog jowl? Julian ordered that and it’s much like really thick sliced bacon. I had meatloaf. We brought about two-thirds of our meals home with us. Another example of WAY too much food. But very yummy.

The next day we all headed to the beach. We stumbled onto “The Hangout” which sat right on the beach.

We all had the most amazing shrimp quesadillas – with TONS of shrimp in them.

After driving up the beach in both directions, we saw a restaurant called “Ribs and Reds”. Our burning question was “what are reds?” So we stopped to see if we could find out and get a dinner menu to look at as well. Well, reds are Royal Red Shrimp and the menu looked so good that we went there for dinner that night. Another wonderful meal. Reds are a very deep-water shrimp and are somewhat saltier than other shrimp. Julian and I split a meal for 2 of crab legs, reds, mussels and oysters. No shortage of food here either.

I’m afraid the highlights of our time in Foley are primarily the restaurants. We had lunch at Wintzell’s Oyster House and dinner at The Original Oyster House where we could watch the sun set. We had lunch the next day at Mikee’s Seafood, where we split a snapper dinner that was awesome.

We walked a couple times at the RV park, hoping to counteract some of the food we’d been enjoying. (Diets await us at home.) We drove further up the coast one day, all the way to Florida. We walked the beach a little – it was hard on Julian’s hip. We enjoyed late afternoon conversations on our friends’ patio – they had more shade. We really had a great time in south Alabama.

And then, after a day and a half of driving, we arrived home. It was a short(ish) trip this year. Only 51 days out. After that seriously rocky start, we had a really great time.

So, until next time: Happy Trails!