The Long Drive Home

After a week on the beach its always a bit of a let down starting the ride home. From Pensacola,fl to Mobile, Al then up to Memphis, Tn and straight across west to Fort Smith, Ar.
This ride does't have much in the way of scenery aside from the sides of the road flying by. While still in Alabama we made sure to pull over and get some boiled peanuts and other produce from a vendor. I have to say that boiled peanuts are one of my favorite road tripping snacks when down in this portion of the states.

Saltwater & Sand

With only one day left until we had to leave we went out and found a phone booth for me to stand next to then spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach.

We ran across an area that had been marked off so that the baby sea turtles would have the best chance to make it out to the ocean undisturbed. With the amount of sea turtles we've seen from the docks and in the water nearby us as we swam its no surprise to find such a thing.

Stinky who has sworn off getting in the drink and has opted to spend his remaining time as a travelling minstrel as Aja and I enjoy some walks on the beach.

Below you can see a jelly fish almost as clearly as we could.  

Its beatiful at dusk and a little sad knowing that we leave tomorrow although I know our pets will be missing us.

A Day At The Beach

Making the best of the mass market for seafood in this region I most admit I've had oysters for a number of meals already. My friend Stinky is suffering from either drinking so much salt water on accident of possibly he has a connection to Fort Smith that makes him ill if he sleeps so far from it. He has began ordering an appetizer as a meal so when he inevitably can't finish it Aja and myself could easily help out.

Fort Smith Transplant here in Pensacola is our Old band mate and long time friend Riley. I love my friends.  8^) A flock of seagulls helped repeatedly today to keep me fully entertained.

Fort Smith to Fort Pickens

A  short and very scenic drive from Pensacola Beach is the old fort where they kepy Geronimo and his family captive. Luckily the view was prettier than the history and we enjoyed a half of a day of site seeing and adventuring through Fort Pickens, Fl.
Being from Fort Smith old military installations are nothing new but the size of this place was incredible. It seemed that we could drive for ever and around every corner was another entrance to the enormous underground series of tunnels.

Not having a flash light was a bit of a bummer here. I could brave the dark tunnels despite the reason that kept  creeping into my mind telling me that this place was spookier than any place i'd like to be with out a light at least.
Soon we came to the heart of the compound. It was massive by any comparrison despite the huge series of tunnels we'd just passed.  If you enjoy toying around with massive cannons and exploring dark passages
this is your place.

Pensacola Beach Or Bust

 I always love going to the beach and living in Arkansas thats not always the easiest thing to do. The beaches in Tx i've been to are as nasty as a beach can get but a shorrt 12 hr drive from Fort Smith is Pensacola, Fl. My wifes family have a long standing love of this beach and the first vacation we took that wasn't to my Mothers to visit was to this pleasant little beach town. We have a tendency to go at the beginning of Hurricane season because we like to push our luck and to avoid the peak months prices. So far so good. Sometime in September is when we love it.
 Trying to juggle our schedules for time together is a chore sometimes so we occasionally travel in a fashion thats a little strange. I work 5am - 5pm so soon as I get off work on my last day before vacation we hit the road within an hour and a half normally and drive all night. I've worked in trucking dispatch for a while and use to frequent the bars in my youth so all nighters with long periods between sleep aren't unusual.  With my wife and a life long friend in tow the journey began. The drive to see the sunrise over the Gulf normally is what keeps me moving. This time the drive was interesting. Our Navigational device wasn't aware of the shortcut we knew of so for a few hours we really made up time on our ETA and made it in time for the sunrise but lucky for us the patially cloudy sky blocked the sun peaking over the water. Not one to cry over cloudy skys I braved a quick dip in the water that was full of sea life.

I seen more jelly fish, sea turtles and schools of fish that i'd seen on my collective trips previous to this one.

After a quick dip and a few photos shots with my camera phone we headed to our Villa for a quick nap to refresh the mind and spirit and then for a week of beach time.