Our January Trip to Louisiana-Part 2

Read about Part 1 HERE.

So January 2nd saw us rising and shining in partly sunny coastal Alabama at Lorraine and Chris' house.
Chris had to work that day but Lorraine was on school break from her lunch lady job so we did a little sightseeing.

First it was off for a short walk.  We took a trail near Village Point Park to see a guy about a tree.........

It's a really BIG oak tree!  See that speck in yellow to the right of the tree?  That's Lorraine.

This tree is known as the Jackson's Oak.  It's 95 feet tall and 28 feet in circumference. It was notable even back in the 1700's as it was a survey marker in an old Spanish Land Grant map from 1787.

What I can gather, during the War of 1812, in 1814 specifically, after General Andrew Jackson and his troops drove the British out of the Pensacola area of Florida(Florida was Spanish Territory then, with coastal Louisiana, the Mississippi Territory-which also encompassed present day Alabama-and Western Florida-the Panhandle including Pensacola-were disputed territory between the US and Spain),

Jackson and his men bivouacked in this grove of oak trees before heading to New Orleans(and the Battle of New Orleans).
Gen. Jackson is said to have climbed into this oak tree so as to address and give his men a rousing speech before the march forward West to NOLA.

It's near impossible to get a goodly amount of Jackson's Oak into a camera shot it's so massive, much like the Angel Oak we visited in South Carolina last Spring.  I tried to get a shot into the canopy of the tree but without any leaves(it was Winter when I took this)it wasn't so great a picture but you do see a lot of the silvery moss draped on it's impressive branches.
I'd like to see the Jackson Oak again but in full foliage. ;-)

Anyway, after seeing the tree we trotted back to the parking lot but not before passing a woman with her dog, who asked us if we belonged to that Fiat parked back in the lot.  Yes, it was Lorraine's car(which she loves by the way!)and those two struck up a conversation.  Seems that woman needs/wants to buy a car and was pumping Lorraine for information on her particular model.  I hope that woman got some good pointers and made a good car buying decision when it was all said and done. ;-)

Next up Lorraine drove us to see another guy about a church and it's property. 
This is where Chris works.  He is the head groundskeeper of a local Catholic Church. 
And wouldn't you know it, where he works is the same name as the church and porochial school I attended in Virginia as a child.
We drove by lots of land the church owns....church, chapel, rectory, school, fields for various sports.....there was a LOT of buildings and land this church owns.  And Chris is the only groundskeeper, which seems like a lot of work for one person to me!  If you know the Monsignor there, tell him Chris deserves a raise. ;-)

After stopping at the equipment shed and saying "Hey!" to Chris as he ate his lunch, we were off again to see another Wonder of the Area.

But this wasn't a Natural Historical Wonder but a Modern one............

A Buc-ee's gas station/convenience store in Baldwin County Alabama.  Said to be the "Disneyland of Convenience Stores" it was the first Buc-ee's built outside of Texas(and opened on my birthday in 2019).
Built off the Baldwin Beach Expressway it's a must stop on the way to Pensacola FL I hear and everyone for 50 miles must have been in that store the day we were there! lolz

We did use the restrooms since they are suppose to be amazingly clean and then we browsed around.

Me in front of the "Wall of Jerky".   Or you could say just another jerk by the jerky. lolz

Leg Lamp shirts that McVal would have scarfed up had she been there.....plus they were on SALE!lolz

Southern saying pillows and mugs because we are in the South.

 And then there were funny saying t-shirts with a Southern theme.

And then funny signs about pets.

Now I didn't even take photos of....all. the. food. and. drink.
Canned/bagged/bottled as well as freshly cooked.  The smells in that place were amazing and mouth watering.
But we resisted, I only  bought the bumper sticker and chap stick in the photo 7 back. 

We hopped on over to a place called the "Mellow Mushroom" for lunch.........

Here I am with the Mellow Mushroom man.  Gotta get my funny touristy photos in, right?

I heard about this regional chain from a young blogger I use to read/follow who lived in Eastern Tennessee(she no longer blogs).  She and her hubs are vegan and this was a hipster place they liked to eat at.

And here is Lorraine outside of their "Flushrooms". lolz

And here's the pizza Hubs and I shared for lunch there.  We had ordered a pizza called "Holy Shitake" but they were out of mushrooms for it(I find that so ironic......the place is called the Mellow Mushroom and they had no mushrooms*snort*).
So we punted and got the "Funky Q. Chicken", a pie with bbq chicken, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, Applewood smoked bacon and finished with a bbq sauce swirl.
While I would have preferred the Holy Shitake(as Churches and shrines seemed to be the theme of the day)the Funky Q. Chicken hit the spot.

Then it was off again to see a guy about another church..........but you'll have to wait for that piece in Part 3.

Sluggy

2016 Road Trip.....Day 18 & Day 19 AL, to GA to SC, Rinse & Repeat then NC

After a leisurely breakfast we packed the car up and hit the road East out of Alabama........

We got a little east of Oxford Alabama and saw a homemade billboard from the interstate for what looked to be an interesting place.  We weren't in a rush that day so we said, "What the heck!" and took a little detour.........

To the Dixie General Store.

This is an interesting little shop full of all things Dixie and Southern related--t-shirts, flags, hats, belt buckles, blankets, etc.

Bob, the gentleman who runs this operation knows his American history and we had a nice long chat with a fellow Southerner who loves his piece of our country.
Be sure and take the time to stop in if you are passing through this part of Alabama and check out his wares.  Bob is super nice and personable.  Tell me I sent ya! ;-)

And we bought a few things too. ;-)

Bob has an online presence as well here for all your SouthermConfederate needs-- Dixie General Store

Fairly soon after getting back on the interstate we were crossing over into Georgia.

And an hour later we hit Atlanta.......

Luckily we got through there before rush hour hit.

We did see the torch/flame where Olympic Park is(and where the 1996 Summer Olympics were held)from the highway as we passed by.....

We made a quick stop off the interstate in Conyers, Georgia to stretch our legs when Hubs saw a billboard advertising a liquor store. lolz
I went in but left to sit in the car as I had no shopping to do here(really? how much liquor can one person buy?!? lolz).
Next door was this food place with Louisiana cuisine.....in metro Georgia.

I went in but they were out of what I was going to buy so I got Hubs some Bread Pudding with a Whiskey Sauce to eat later that evening back at our next motel.

We stopped in Augusta for the night at a Comfort Suites.
After Hubs checked in he came out to the car for me and the luggage and hands me some tokens.
Evidently this particular motel has a manager's reception between 5-8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays were they give you two free alcoholic drinks each.
And lucky for us, it was a Wednesday!

Not only drinks but they give you dinner too!  I sure wish I had known that before we checked in because we had already made arrangements to meet some online friends for dinner near their home.
Darn it!  Hubs was about near tears that he had to miss a lasagna dinner........

So we hit the road across the border into South Carolina down windy back roads.
Oh look!  A turkey vulture.  Was this an omen?

We finally arrived in the little out of the way town that blogger Java Jones and her husband Superman live in.
We met at a local to them brew pub called "The Mill House Pizza".

Good Times Brewing happens here and we partook of a few different beers.
I hadn't seen Java in person since the 2nd Bloggerpalooza back in March 2014 and I had never met her DH since he didn't attend that Blggerpalooza.

Hubs and I ordered and shared a pizza........

We didn't realize it was really really small or we would have each ordered one for ourselves. lolz

The hours just flew by as we caught up on each others' lives and bonded.  Before I knew it, it was after 9 pm and we had to hit the road back to the hotel.

Superman, Java and Sluggy

Across the street in the parking lot I saw two Giraffe statues.  Too bad it was so dark and the shot didn't come out very well.....

We stopped before leaving the town for gas and I was STARVING!  I grabbed a pre-made sandwich at the gas station convenience store to eat on the ride back to Augusta, GA.
The ride home was a bit spooky on those back roads, this time in the dark, but we finally made it back to the hotel, sleepy and tired.

After the free breakfast on Thursday morning we hit the road for our next stop.
Across the Savannah River on a gray and gloomy day........

And we were back in South Carolina, again!

We passed a small town with many orchards...........

More rain.

A big flag at the Camping World store outside of Spartanburg, SC.

Log Home Builder along the highway in SC.

Oh look!  Kudzu......

And more Kudzu........

After almost 3 hours we finally hit the North Carolina border.

Headed into the mountainous Western part of NC and the foggy mist descended.......

Oh look!  I found the way to the Bat Cave.....lol
Yes, it's a real town in NC.

Then it was off I-26 onto I-40 toward Maggie Valley....

Then more fog and mist and gray skies as we head West on the Great Smokey Mountains Expressway......

Into the town of Cherokee NC on the Eastern Cherokee Reservation.

And yes, they have a casino here now and no Sonya Ann, we didn't go in there. lolz

Now go bug her to start writing again on her blog and tell her I sent ya!


More of the adventures for Day 19 later........

Sluggy

April Louisiana Road Trip.....Day 9....A Boring Day of Driving

Tuesday morning, after I took a quick dip in the pool and we had our free breakfast, we hit the road heading north.

First a word about breakfast.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express here in Fairhope Alabama.  It was the most expensive room we took on this trip but the breakfast was superb.

Ok, not Eggs Benedict superb but for a continental "included with the room cost" Breakfast it was great!  Lots of options, everything was either hot or cold(depending on what it was suppose to be)and the cinnamon rolls......let me just wax poetic for a bit about their cinnamon rolls.
O.M.G.

I tried desperately to figure out how to fit a tray of these into my purse but to no avail....sigh
These were the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted in my 55 years on this planet.
Not too sweet, not too dry and a butt load of cinnamon.  I am drooling just thinking about them.

So we hit the road, but not before stopping in at the Rite-Aid in Fairhope because I had +Ups and coupons expiring that day so I forced Hubs to go there. ;-)

The applesauce was free after +Ups and the dish soap was .50¢ a bottle after rain check and coupons.

Then we hit the highway until we came to Spanish Fort about 11 miles away. lol
Saw a World Market and had to check it out.

More "Slap Ya Mama" products......

And it was difficult but I resisted buying this Chocolate Bacon Caramel Corn.....

And this location had the Downton Abbey teas but at $11.99 a small tin, I left them on the shelf....

The bulk of the day was spent driving through Alabama.  I never realized how long that state was.

Up past Bay Minette and then onto I-65 and up to Montgomery and then onward to Birmingham, then east on I-59 to Chattanooga TN.

Yet another Casino we passed in Alabama that I didn't stop at.
Ssssh, don't tell Sonya Ann.....

We did stop at this touristy trap along the interstate however.

Priester's has been selling pecans since 1935, like the sign says.
We hit the free tasting samples and I bought some bags of pecan pieces for cheap....they'll be great in pies or pecan sandies.
The whole nuts were outrageously priced so I passed on those.

I did see these awesome decorative measuring scoops with chickens on them and thought of you Linda. 
But at $40(plus tax)they stayed in the store. lolz

Not much scenery along this looooong stretch of interstate driving, except for a Hyundai plant.

The most exciting thing along this route was this sign for Selma.  Yes, this is boring when a highway sign is the most exciting thing to look at and post about.
We didn't go to Selma this trip.


I may have dozed off in the car for awhile....I blame it on cinnamon rolls. ;-)
We ate so much breakfast(and with all those free pecan samples at Priester's)we didn't even stop for lunch anywhere.

We got into Chattanooga around 8 and it was after dark.  It took all day to drive from the bottom to the top of Alabama and then into Tennessee.

We found a motel room right off the interstate and by the time we unloaded our bags and settled into the room it was 9pm.
Seeing as most of the food options near the motel for dinner were fast food, we ended up at Waffle House which was one of the few places nearby that was still open and not burgers.  At that hour a little light "breakfast for dinner" hit the spot.
Then back to the room for some shut eye.

I do hate long driving days but now it was behind us and we could do some fun stuff on Day 10 and 11 before getting home on Day 12....or so I thought.

Sluggy