Friday, 11/21: From the Beach to the Bayou

The day dawned very nippy and windy, but we still took Nick for a walk on the neat nature walk over the sand dunes. As we stopped to read one of the nature plaques--this one featured prickly pear cactus--Nick didn't pause to read it with us. He just walked right on top of said cactus. After we shrieked and got him extricated, we found only one big ole needle sticking out of one paw. Ouch! He seems fine, though. The scenery was lovely and we sure know why they call this the "Emerald Coast":



Then we toodled over to Louisiana, via as many US routes (not interstates) as possible. Up through Gulf Shores and Pensacola (and the world's longest fishing pier). A bit white-knuckly going over the long bridges with the serious cross winds today. Then back through Mobile, avoiding both the tunnel AND the serious detour we took the last time. We navigated it well this time. Helped to have both experience and daylight on our side. Through Mississippi (after a delicious country lunch with the waitress calling me "baby" constantly) and into Louisiana for dinner with Lisa's sister and niece. No pictures--doggone it--but I meant to take a picture of my $4 glass of red wine. This was in a restaurant where the soda pop glasses were ginormous, so the wine was poured in like manner. ;-) A great deal! And the shrimp was good, too. Great to catch up with the Isham ladies.

Today--and the rest of the week as we head home--is just going to happen the way it happens. We poured over maps and routes last night and decided to just see what happens as we go. Weather, short days, the holiday in the middle of the week, and our Saturday return date may make this more challenging than we'd like, but we'll do 'er. At the moment, contemplating Eunice and Opelousas this afternoon (staying somewhere), over to West, Texas tomorrow for kolaches (I'll post the link if we make it there), then back up to I-40 for possible stopover in Winslow, Arizona (yes, cue song), another Arizona stop, a California coast stop, and home. We'll see. We THINK we've decided against the US-60 route because of time of year....