Just to confirm that people with big egos and who write "travel" columns can make amateur mistakes to. I went to Gulf Quest yesterday, a Tuesday and discovered they are not open on Tuesdays. But because I won't allow myself to badmouth myself for more than a few seconds, I smiled, took a picture of the train driving under the Mobile Convention Center, looked wistfully at the Cruise Terminal next door and imagined I was about to embark on the three and a half year cruise some liner recently announced, after another cruise line cancelled a three year cruise before it got started. Let that sink in for a minute. Go ahead, let the thoughts wander. You are living on a cruse ship traveling around the world for three and a half years. I am willing to try it if anyone, such as the cruise ship company, is willing to sponsor me while I write gushing reviews about the pristine, untouched by man beaches of Tahiti. Somehow a beach that we haven't ravaged yet has a lot more appeal than one we have ruined by walking in the sand...I will cover the London, Paris , Rome beat for those hungry armchair travelers, and then tempt you with tales from Tangier and the must do ride upon the ancient Nile, hob-knobbing with the ghosts of Cleopatra, bonding with the treasures of Tutankhamun...or, I will ride over to the Old St. Francis building, now called the Trustmark/RSA and ride up to the 34th floor and visit the restaurant Dauphins...
Everyone knows Dauphins is first about the view, and today it was under a stunning blue sky I found the waterfront bustling with the action of ships and tugboats, the brackish river stretching in the distance...I imagined tall European style statues lined in front of the convention center, where in my mind I painted some of the white columns a tea green to nicely contrast with the teal green roof...across the river, to the right of Austal I planted winter grass on the empty plot of land used as a commercial boat and ship launch area...it's my gift to the city to spruce up the other side of the river for our view-viewing experience...
In Dauphins I opted for the popular gulf shrimp lunch which is fried shrimp, fried potatoes and coleslaw. With so many picky eaters on this planet, and a fair share of them right here at home, the challenges of a chef must be multi-faceted. You have the anti-mayonnaise crowd and those who gag at the mention of mustard. So, sometimes the best road to travel is to provide the basic slaw and allow the customer to customize. Here I added some mayo and made it pour like a Mobile thunderstorm with black pepper on my slaw. The shrimp and fries were delicious as well, and I imagine the evening dinner experience has several more layers of excitability, which I will have to try some time. On the other hand, at Rochelle's on Springhill the coleslaw is what it is whether you like it or not, and if you don't crave their perfectly chilled coleslaw then you and me can't be friends. And while I'm at it if you don't like shrimp what are you doing here in Mobile? There's a place called Nebraska that is so landlocked that once you get there you will never see a body of water again. Ever.
I had parked my car for the two-hour limit right in front of the A&M Peanut shop (circa 1947) so why not before heading back west stop and pick up a few things? It was worth the 20 minute wait to get a quarter pound of divinity candy, throwing me back to the Christmas days when grandma used to make it, and a bag of filberts, which most of us know as hazelnuts. They roast them on the spot. I ordered a bag of the roasted peanuts - addictive, and a bag of buttery bad but good for you popcorn made on site. $17.50 later I was out the door on the way home, about a twenty minute ride if I take the freeway...
As I gazed up Dauphin Street I sensed a lot more character than in previous years. The street had grown up and made me think of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but a cleaner, more family-friendly version as it is often billed. No you can't, except on rare, designated special occasions such as Mardi Gras, stroll along the street with a big ole hurricane in a pretty plastic cup. You probably won't see a pole dancer swinging in and out of a window on Dauphin Street, but for enough money I will buy a pair of new leggings and give it a try...nobody knows it but I've got shapely legs...
This Friday, January 5, 2024 The Braided River Brewing Company is having a free concert to kick off the Mardi Gras season, releasing their widely anticipated Boom Boom Mardi Gras Ale...The party starts at 5:00 PM where you'll find the Blow House Brass Band entertaining you, food trucks, local vendors and more locally grown beer than you can throw a moon pie at.... you'll find them at 420 St. Louis street or on what I call Mobile Brewery Row....
The City of Semmes, our not so timid cousin to the west, reminds residents debris pick-up is this week. You should put yard debris out today and they pick up on Thursday and Friday...don't be that person who puts it on the curb Thursday and they've already been through your neighborhood...
It's a cool rain-drizzly day in the Mobile area, a special request of those trees and plants who stood thirsty for the past several days. It's a nice day to light up the fireplace and read a good book, such as Seven Days in Paris by Preston Brady III, or a zany humorous short novel set in the deep south and called The Color White - also by Preston Brady III, or if you are younger and with a really edgy sense of humor you could try the knee-slapping fiction novelette Pancake Butt, again by the famous Mobile writer Preston Brady III and all available on Amazon Kindle and bookstores across the galaxies...I don't usually wear t-shirts with logos or imprinted slogans, but I do sometimes wear one that says "Shameless Promotion is Healthy..."
And finally, I could not resist...a post by John Coats on FB screenshots a post by the Flat Earth Society. It reads: "The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe..."
If that don't make you laugh then you got zero hillbilly in your blood...
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