December 8, 2004

December 8, 2004

Rainbow Plantation to Pensacola, Florida, & return

DAY 174

 

Another warm day, partially sunny. This morning I removed the driver's side battery and battery tray out of Dee-Dee, and replaced the windshield washer pump and reservoir. Now that I've put some hard miles on her since lowering the acid level in the batteries, and ascertaining there was no more acid leak problem, it was time to replace the windshield washer system. Wish me luck !

After lunch we set off for a day trip to Pensacola, Florida, about an hour east of here. County Road 49 from Rainbow Plantation to Magnolia Springs, then Hwy. 98 east through Foley and continuing on to Florida. Bought diesel in Elberta, Alabama, for the lowest price so far in the United States ; $1.91 a gallon. I think the highest I've paid was about $2.20, and average has been about $2.05 to $2.10 a gallon.

Across the bridge over Perdido Bay, and we were in Florida, on the outskirts of Pensacola. South on Hwy. 173 to Pensacola Bay and the Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the Navy trains their "top gun" pilots. We spent the afternoon at the Naval Aviation Museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. I don't really understand why the U.S. Navy has its own Air Force, and its own Ground Force, the Marines. How do they differ from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army ? Actually, I do know the differences. Anyways, we spent the afternoon touring the Naval Aviation Museum. It was interesting, although not as interesting as the Western Canada Aviation Museum that Bud took me to in August. I find that civil aviation history, particularly in Western and Northern Canada, is more interesting than military aviation history. The only thing I really miss in this RV lifestyle is flying. It's now been about a year since I've last flown an airplane < sniffle >. Mea Culpa ... 3 Hail Marys !

I should be more careful. Down here, they take their religion very seriously. Although that doesn’t seem to prevent most young women from becoming pregnant at about 15.

On the way back to the RV Park, we decided to stop in Foley for supper at a restaurant we wanted to try. First, we stopped at the Coleman store. WOW ... an entire store full of products made by Coleman. Bought a camp stove toaster. We've been looking since we began this journey for a gas stove toaster that was somehow more sophisticated than the Coleman four folding rack thingy. There isn't any ! So today I finally bought a Coleman folding toaster. It was on sale for less than 2 bucks !

We went for supper to Lambert's Cafe ; "Home Of The Throwed Roll". The first time we saw a Lambert's was in Sikeston, Missouri, on "the day of the tornado". I changed a flat tire in their parking lot. Then we saw one a few days later in Ozark, Missouri, near Branson. We didn't know what "Home Of The Throwed Roll" meant. Escapee / WorkCamper Julie explained it. She had been to one. Every 10 minutes or so, an employee comes out of the kitchen with a large tray of hot rolls right out of the oven, and asks loudly as he wanders through the restaurant "who wants a hot roll ?" When a patron responds, he throws a roll to them. Uh-huh ! When we saw a few days ago that there was a Lambert's in Foley, we decided to give them a try. We thought they must be a large, national chain. Turns out they're a small family owned restaurant with only three locations, and we've been near all three of them recently.

"Throwed rolls" are only one of the many included "pass arounds" offered by this restaurant. As you are eating, serving people are wandering around offering deep fried okra, macaroni and tomato, thin sliced fried potato and onion, black eyed peas, and apple butter and sorghum molasses for your throwed rolls. Part way through our meal, our waitress came by to refill Joanne's iced tea. She placed the pitcher of iced tea down on the table in front of me, then "accidentally" knocked it over towards me. I jumped ! It was an empty trick pitcher, painted to look like a half full pitcher of tea. What an amusing place, with huge portions of great food. There was so much on the menu that I didn't understand, and asked so many questions, I finally felt compelled to apologize, and actually said "Sorry, I'm a Northerner".

< sigh > We’re all missing Toby a great deal.

DSK