April 6/7/8, Day 33/34/35, Wednesday/Thursday and Friday

Over these days we travel from Port St. Joe Florida to Cullman Alabama. The drive along the panhandle of Florida was great, beautiful scenery close to the gulf and a bright day.

As we are driving through the area of Seaside Florida it looks like a place to sit on the porch and watch the world go by, or stroll along the walkways. This is a great place to visit and I would consider vacationing there. There are quaint cottages to rent along with some neat condos.

In the small town areas there are many places to stop and eat sitting next to the sidewalk. Seaside’s closest thing to a food court is this string of food trucks (all converted Airstreams) along 30A.

We were so engrossed with the units standing next to the highway that we forgot to take pictures, but I found some on line.

A mile down the road was this house being built on the gulf.

We stop at the Whales Tail, beach, bar & grill was right on the beach, beautiful blue water gently waving on shore.

We can watch this from our outside seat. Shirleen had the Whaler, scrambled eggs, red potatoes and sausage with coffee; I a coffee and shrimp omelet with cheddar and jack cheese and grits, then Shirleen noticed they had a bloody Mary, so I had one, it is after 11. This was by far the best in a long long time, plenty of horseradish embellished with two string beans and an olive, just great.

We drove through Grayton trail and beach. This is a place that is overgrown with trees that make it look as though the houses were there first and the trees grew around them.

Our next stop is the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

What a pleasant stop. A great exhibit on the Navy live oak tree farm, yes, they harvested trees for the old wooden ships. The strength led to the name for the USS Constitution as ‘Old Ironsides’, because of the way iron cannon balls bounced off its sides. The building and gulf beach were destroyed a couple years ago by a hurricane and have been re built and the trees are coming back.

This eve we stopped at Back Yard Burgers, where she had a bowl of potato soup and I a mushroom Swiss. But on the way to dinner we hear a loud wrapping noise coming from the drivers side rear of the car. Not real worried as we have run flats and it can run street speeds real good without being flat. It turns out an inside part of the tire has separated and will need a new set before we go further.

This happens right across from a GM dealer so I go back the next morning for a new rear set. We then drove to Effingham IL as we wanted to make Michelle’s by Friday after noon. Mid-America Motors, a Corvette and VW enthusiasts, has a museum we stopped at again.

Michelle suggested we take a back road to Sussex WI, more to the west and not through Chicago. It turns out to be 10 miles more but less hassle. Along the way at Tower Hill we see this garage off the highway, now we know what to do with our old license plates.

We got to Michelle’s and Mark’s by 4:30 time to go to the Schwabenhof restaurant, Menomonee Falls, for a Friday night fish fry, the girls get the chicken, Mark a little of each and I fish. See you when we get back or to those further away, next email visit.

I said I had one more story coming, this time on Spanish moss.  We were told the story of it being used as a stuffing for pillows and mattresses in days gone by. Because of its softness people though that it would make for soft bedding? Well soon after they discovered that they harbored bugs and the phrase ‘don’t leave the bed bugs bite’. My take on it is that it was another way to enter our homes and during the dead of the night to wrap their long strands around the occupants of the beds. Then the moss could take over the world with the other plants I have mentioned. jerr