Day 5: Wednesday April 29, 2015
Moving day. We woke up knowing without a doubt that our trip was more than half over. We managed to get up a bit earlier this morning, although, I’m really not sure how. We did breakfast downstairs again and finished packing.
Once the packing was done, I called down to valet to get the car brought to the entrance. As someone who stays at mid-level (and in Disney, value) hotels, this just seemed so different to me. But valet seems to be the only way to park at a hotel in New Orleans.
We grabbed our pile of luggage (HOW did it grow so much in 4 days?!) and headed downstairs. The receipt had been emailed to me about 2 am, so all I had to do to check out was hand over the keys. Needless to say, I’m not sure that the wheels on the suitcase even stopped moving before I was moving again, and headed outside. Just as we opened the door to the outside world, our car emerged from the parking garage. Perfect timing.
We packed the car, fired up the phone GPS, and we were on our way to Alabama. The hotel was not far from the highway, so within minutes we had joined the crazies on I-10. Side note, I’ve driven in a few places known for its crazy drivers, Boston and Texas included. I’ve decided that the Masshole population has nothing on New Orleans. Good grief! But we made it out of the city and crossed Lake Pontchartrain, which was a cool drive. I kind of wished I-10 was the highway with the really long causeway over the lake. As it is, I-10 crosses it for a pretty significant length. Nick, the king of sleeping about as soon as he sits down in the passenger seat, slept.
Before I knew it, we had crossed into Mississippi. I have a goal to go to all 50 states before I turn 50, and I do count driving through, so this was another new state crossed off the list. That being said, I did stop at the Welcome Center to do an official “check-in” on facebook, and also to gather tourist manuals just in case we end up back in the area again. It was a very cool rest area in terms of architecture, so a few pictures got taken. Plus we wanted to document that I had crossed another state off the list.
Once the brochure gathering was done, it was back on to I-10. Next stop? Lunch! Nick and I are big fans of the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The website (flavortownusa.com) that lists every place Guy has been to is bookmarked, and any time we are traveling, we check it to see if there are any restaurants to go to that he’s been to in that area. Through this website, I had discovered a barbecue place called The Shed. It just happened to have a location in Ocean Springs, MS that was roughly 2 minutes off the highway. We like BBQ, and timing was perfect for lunch. It was a no-brainer.
We knew this was going to be a winner when we pulled into the parking lot.
Once we’d finished admiring(?) the outside, we headed inside to order. I got a pulled pork sandwich. Nick got a combo platter that involved brisket, pulled pork, corn and mac and cheese. We found a place to sit while we waited for our food. The interior of The Shed is a crushed stone floor, and the seating area is long picnic tables. The table set-up was very much like a BBQ place we went to in Texas.
Our food arrived a few minutes later and we dug in. So GOOD! If you’re ever passing through MS on I-10 at a time even remotely close to meal time, you need to go to The Shed. It’s great!
Once we finished lunch, we walked back to the car, where we realized that we’d been so busy taking in the outside of The Shed that we’d totally missed the bayou along the edge of the parking lot. So pretty.
Once the picture taking was done, we hopped back in the car, and continued driving. If you factor out stops, it’s supposed to be a 3 hour trip from NOLA to Gulf Shores. Very reasonable, and a very easy and very pretty drive. Nick fell asleep again. We stopped at the first tourist center when we arrived in Alabama, and then continued deeper into the state.
I got a little nervous driving through Mobile. The pictures I’d seen of Orange Beach were gorgeous, but the water in Mobile Bay was anything but. It was very similar to the water in Lake Pontchartrain. Not a pretty color.
When we arrived in Gulf Shores, our first stop was, what else? The welcome center. We got our tourist manuals (and coupons), and then we headed across the street to The Track. Time to really be tourists.
Growing up, I never went go-karting. It just wasn’t something my family did. Nick’s family apparently went go-karting on every vacation. Like it was a requirement that there be a go-kart place at their destination. His family introduced me to go-karts last summer, and it was fun. So when I found The Track advertised online, I knew we had to go there.
Once we had purchased our points, we headed for the first go-kart track. This was our warm up. It was pretty good. But the real reason we came here was around the corner, and we still hadn’t seen it in person yet. I’d seen pictures online, but when I told Nick about it, he decided he didn’t want to see it until he was there in person. And we know everything looks different in person anyway.
So once we finished on the Super Track, we headed around the corner to the Wild Woody, a three story, spiraling, wooden go-kart track. It looked even cooler in person than it had online.
This is where we realized just how low-crowds this area was. There were a handful of people at The Track, but Nick and I ended up being the only two people racing on both tracks. We had a blast. And that 3-story wooden track was just as fun to go-kart on as it looked. If only they had that in NH.
Once our points were gone, we hopped in the car, and finished the trip to the hotel. Our home for the next few days was the Hampton Inn, Orange Beach. It was ON the beach. It looked kinda beachy too.
Check-in was easier than I had expected, given that this night had been reserved on Hilton Honors points, and the rest of the stay was cash. Pretty soon we were on our way up to our room on the 6th floor. While I was glad to see that they honored my permanently stored preference of “high floor”, I was a little disappointed to see that our room was right across from the elevator. My account also says “away from elevator”. Oh well, can’t win them all.
The room was a typical Hampton Inn room, with a very beachy color scheme. Perfect. And the view was fantastic! My concern as we drove over Mobile Bay wasn’t necessary. This beach was gorgeous.
Once I’d finished admiring the view, it was time to start the nightly challenge of figuring out where to eat. Eventually we decided on Bahama Bob’s, so we hopped in the car and drove over there. Bahama Bob’s is right next to the ocean, and specializes in seafood. Since it was cool (you know...a chilly 75* haha), they had the plastic up around the balcony. We sat out there to eat. Nick had some fried seafood platter (shrimp, oysters and???). I had some fried white fish, and a Bahama Mama to drink. Nick also went the fruity drink route with a Bahama Bob. Dinner was good and so was the service.
Nick and I love ice cream, and it’s kind of our thing to find a local ice cream place wherever we are. So once dinner was finished, it was off to Matt’s Homemade Alabama Ice Cream for dessert. I have no idea what kind of ice cream either one of us got, but it was very good. Not as good as our local place (that, interestingly, was begun as the senior project of one of the teachers I work with), but very good.
After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to the hotel to grab the camera, and go for a walk on the beach. It was beautiful. I took lots of pictures. Nick waited very patiently.
While picture taking, we noticed a fin surfacing periodically a ways out in the water. We never figured out exactly what it was, but we decided to go with “dolphin”. We didn’t want to think of alternatives.
Once the sun had really gone down, we stopped at the beach side tiki bar that was connected to the hotel for a beverage for Nick (some Alabama themed thing that tasted like cough syrup), and headed up to the hotel room, where we parked ourselves on the balcony for awhile to listen to the waves, and then eventually collapsed into bed.
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