April Louisiana Road Trip...Day 8

Monday, Day 8 of our Road Trip, we left Shreveport and headed back east on the interstate.

The original plan had been to go South through Alexandria, then through Baton Rouge to the Southern half of Louisiana, where we were going to make 2 stops--first at the Abita Brew Pub in Abita Springs, LA and second over the river into Mississippi at the Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company in Kiln, MS.

But as luck would have it, both are closed on Mondays and we happened to be going that way on Monday.
Sigh.

So with part of our plan for the day thwarted, we left a little later in the morning and headed back east on I-20.

Before we left the area though, we stopped so I could get a "Roadside America" style photo-op....

                          
Me and the World's Largest Cowboy

This place was right behind our hotel so why not?


Before you knew it....ok, about an hour and a half after getting on the road, we were back in Mississippi.
I love how this sign is located right underneath a grand old Magnolia tree.  If there is one thing I miss about living in Virginia, it's Magnolia trees....

 

We crossed the Mississippi River again at Vicksburg.....

The Mississippi Welcome Center at Vicksburg is a bitch to park at, but out back of the building they have a right nice veranda overlooking the river....

While I was there a local high school senior was having his class photo done with the river as a backdrop.

Once we got to Jackson we veered off the interstate and went Southeast down to Hattiesburg.  About halfway from Jackson to Hattiesburg we stopped for lunch in the little town of Magee.

Now tell me......how was I about to resist a sign with a catfish on it?!

You just never know what you're going to stumble into once you leave the interstate and chain-type restaurants.

These "trees" with faux flowers greeted us in the lobby.

And here is a shot of the dinning hall after the lunch rush was over.....

This was a Fried Catfish and American buffet type place with a "Down Home Country" feel.
Notice our iced tea came in tin measuring cups.....

Fried Catfish, fried Okra, Hush Puppies(those are fried too), Mustard Greens(not fried)and some Mac and Cheese to round out my cholesterol Feast....and I am not even going to show you the dessert I ate. lolz

And I got brave and took a pickled okra off the salad bar.
I grew up in the South eating southern foods but I have never until that day tasted a pickled okra.
Of all the ways you can prepare/eat okra, pickling one had never occurred to me.

I took one bite and discovered that pickled okra is nasty!  Pickled slimy furry vegetables are not my thang evidently....

Incidentally, this was the second time I saw pickled okra on a salad bar on this trip.  The country kitchen place across from our motel in Louisiana where we ate a few times also had them.

And lunch was not the end of the interesting things we saw in Magee at the Catfish House.....

They were offering for sale these books at the front desk/check-out counter.

Now if you actually go read up on this book it sounds interesting and might be a good read.
But the title?.....it sure made my head snap around when I passed it and had to go back for a photo. lolz

And that wasn't the end of interesting sights at Berry's.
Check out the 10 Commandments in front of the restaurant......

I guess I've been living up North too long now because I was surprised by this...but I shouldn't have been. lolz

After a quick stop in Hattiesburg to pick up a surprise for someone, we soon crossed another state line into Alabama and hit traffic in downtown Mobile.

 

After we got through the tunnel....what a mess!......we have some scenic driving right next to Mobile Bay....

Another half hour or so and we were arrived at our destination for the evening-- Fairhope, Alabama.
We found a nice Holiday Inn Express for the night, unloaded the car and before I knew it I was talking to Lorraine from We are: clamco and arranging to meet her family for dinner at this place in town.....

Chicken buffet rules posted by the front door.

 We went inside to wait and before you know it, in walked the Clamco clan: Megan, Lorraine and Chris.
Hugs happened and we just started talking like we'd been old friends forever.

While waiting for our chicken, Lorraine and I got our picture took and of course I hammed it up because yah, that's what I do......

And I told Lorraine that I absolutely loved her......because she is an awesome person.....but also because she is shorter than me!!
And I never meet anybody who is shorter than me.  ;-)

After gorging on chicken, biscuits, slaw and fries, the Clamcos invited us back to their Clamco Cottage for coffee, tea and dessert.
Hubs, Lorraine and I took a walk down on the Fairhope pier first.  I didn't think to take any pictures of the waterfront but then again, it was dark by then.

Chris also showed us his convention display and wares which he had set up in the garage.  He's got a great set-up and I knew he'd do well at his Mobicon show in May.

And even better, Chris made me a present.......one of the Steampunk items he makes to sell.....

It's a cool tube light on a base.  Press the button and the tube lights up in a changing array of colors.
Thanks Chris!

Check out more of Chris's creations at Black Flame Creations.

Here is the clamco couple again.
They are both such nice folks and made us feel very welcomed.

The only negative thing I can say is that we didn't get to meet sooner back when they lived here in PA not 20 minutes away from us!
All those years we lived so close and wasted that opportunity.....*sad face*

The evening passed all too quickly and we headed back to the motel for some shut eye.
It was a lovely end to our day.

Sluggy