Car Rental Fees
I’m making a short trip, and as a mildly obsessive-compulsive person, I make and double check my reservations.
How can it be that a car rental that is around $25/day for five days can come out to MORE THAN DOUBLE what you could estimate the total cost would be?
Last time, I learned that if I rented the car for a week, and turned it in early, I still got a way better break on price.
I might have to try that this time. Taxes and ‘fees’. Tourist fees. Tire recovery fees. (They are always so surprised I read the rental agreements, LOL) Environmental fees. Fees for picking the car up at the airport. Oh, AAARRGH.
All American Diner in Panama City Beach
Leaving Panama Beach, it was a very different day from the hot, sultry Thanksgiving. It dawned clear – and COLD. I braved the beach to show you – not a soul. The breeze is cold and chilling.
Looking North:
Looking South:
Sunset Inn from the beach:
Leaving town, we wanted to try something new, so we stopped at the All American Diner. It is a hoot! They have a nice breakfast bar, and a menu too. The food isn’t memorable, but the atmosphere is 50’s, and a lot of fun:
While we see more people shopping this year, we saw fewer people at the beach. Everyone is saying that they hope the economy improves quickly – they don’t know how much longer they can hold on . . .
A Little TSA Humor
Thank you, KitKat 🙂
Welcome to Ed’s Seafood Shed, Mobile, Alabama
“Oh my Mom is going to love this place!” I told AdventureMan as we entered Ed’s, a Mobile favorite.
He looked at me sideways.
“She can’t climb all those stairs,” he said, “But I will help you push the wheelchair up the ramp.”
LOL, it is a long way up. But it is worth the push. 🙂
When you get there, they bring you a bowl of cole slaw, and no wonder, it is really good, not too sweet, not too much mayonnaise, and just a little bit of bite. It quells those stomach rumbles while you look at the menu:
We always have to try the onion rings. We look for real onion rings, not processed pieces of onion reformed into identical rings, and we look for a light batter. These were wonderful:
And no. No, we are not supposed to be eating deep fried onion rings. You’ll notice there aren’t a lot, and each one was delicious. 🙂
AdventureMan had the Scallop Platter, and I had shrimp and scallops. We both had turnip greens. You’d think that would be healthy, wouldn’t you? They were SO delicious, but I am guessing it is because they were full of ham, and salt:
We always have to test the hush puppies, rate them on a scale. These were pretty good!
This is the condiment of the South, pepper vinegar:
And now, what you have been waiting for, what Ed’s Seafood Shack looks like:
It’s just like Kuwait and Qatar; once the heat eases up, we all want to eat outside. 🙂
The food is so delicious, we can’t go too often. We’re too tempted by those onion rings and those hushpuppies. But the prices are reasonable, the outside deck is comfortable, the view is great and it is close to the Battleship Museum in Mobile. We saw many people having desserts, huge desserts full of chocolate and whipped cream and by the grace of God, we were able to pass those up. Bon appetit!
Update 14 Nov: I got the nicest note from the people at Ed’s Seafood Shed, and I want to share it with you:
Hi! This is Barbara Bridges, owner of Ed’s Seafood Shed. I just read your post about your visit to Ed’s. Thank you very much for the nice comments! I am so happy you enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. If you bring your Mom just call the front desk and my Manager will push her up the ramp for you.
(number for manager taken out by Intlxpatr in case they don’t want everyone calling them, LOL!)
Again thanks and hope to see you soon.
Barbara Bridges
Ed’s Seafood Shed
Air France Customer Service
At long last, my Mom is coming to Pensacola for a visit.
After days of to-and-fro-ing with Mom and Big Diamond, after countless visits to Expedia and Travelocity and Delta, I was able to talk with Andre’ at Air France who, once he heard I was booking for my 88 year old mother, spent an hour with me, finding flights she could handle, (not too early in the morning, not too many stops, wheelchair assists, etc.) finding first class seats and confirming them, making sure Mom would fly in comfort.
“Thank you, thank you so much” I kept babbling, as he clicked and clicked, trying to find days and flights that would work.
“It’s my job” he would say.
The very last time I thanked him, it changed.
“Well,” he said, “when you said the word ‘mother’ then I knew I could not stop until everything was perfect.”
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Air France is lucky to have him. Bravo, Andre’.
Lafayette to Baton Rouge, Google Maps
I wish I could show you photos of this stretch of road. I saw so much beauty on our trip – which exceeded 5,000 miles. This stretch was my favorite. We were on I-10, but I am also thinking there are some really cool back roads here that can be explored.
One of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke, writes some very brutal mysteries set in this part of the country. As I drove through, I could imagine his mists rising off the Atchafalaya Bayou and I know what it is like when the thunder clouds gather before all hell breaks loose. Here and there you also find some settings which are perfect for the louche True Blood.
Welcome to Louisiana
We have had some beautiful drives on this road trip, but I would have to say that my absolute favorite drive of the trip was from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. About 18 miles of the drive was along a 1930’s era freeway over miles of bayou and swamp land, it was beautiful, just lovely. I was driving, so I couldn’t take any photos, and the lanes were a little narrow so I was truly focused on the driving, but couldn’t help but notice the beauty we were driving past.
Our stay in Baton Rouge was a little noisy, there were LSU alumni gathered in our hotel to watch a football game, which is great except their children were running up and down the halls and screeching, oh aarrgh.
Our drive home was uneventful – about an hour across the rest of Louisiana:
Another hour crossing Mississippi, then another hour crossing Alabama, about a half and hour and we are home in Pensacola! It is barely noon, we unload the car and go to pick up the Qatari Cat, who moans loudly to tell us how annoyed he is with us for abandoning him. Once home, he is quickly settled and happy again.
It’s been a long, fun, trip and we are glad to be home. AdventureMan is airing out our old carpets, cleaning some which our cats threw up on (previous cats, not the Qatari Cat. Big Nick. Morganna. Cinnamon. Merlin. We’ve had a lot of sweet cats.) There is work to do, bills to catch up with, doctors to see (oh aarrgh) and meetings to attend. We have to catch up from our trip AND we have to catch up with our ‘normal’ lives. The best part is catching up with our son and his family and Baby Q. 🙂
Baker’s Ribs and Fried Pies
Texas is a lot of fun! As we are driving through Ft. Worth and Texas, very early on a Saturday morning, the highway closes and all the traffic is diverted off, and then back on. Time for some major work, I guess, and early Saturday morning is probably one of the best times to do it.
Around mid-morning, we start seeing signs for Fried Pies. I have no idea what a fried pie is, so AdventureMan explains it to me, it is a round pie crust with a filling, usually fruit, folded in half, crimping the edges, and then deep fried.
Sounds like a lot of calories, LOL!
Then we start seeing more signs, and we decide it is a good time for a stop at Baker’s Ribs and Fried Pies.
We have to walk through the barbecue section to get to the pie section. Our downfall.
There are a million kinds of fried pies, so we buy an apricot, a peach, and a cherry, and we take a few bites, but we don’t want to eat the whole thing because it will spoil our lunch. Lunch . . . we can’t resist the barbecue. We buy a couple of smoked turkey sandwiches for later, the smell is just irresistible.
These girls were just so nice, and helpful. 🙂
This gal is making the pie crusts:
And this lady has just pulled out a batch of the fried pies (to the right)
Fried pies are delicious, and I learned you have to eat them fast or the liquid in the fruit makes the crust start to crumble. The smoked turkey was even better, maybe the best smoked turkey I have ever had. The sandwiches were a wonder.
Update: AdventureMan says choosing to eat fried pies is part of How Do You Want to Die? and that he is willing to sacrifice the few minutes those bites of fried pie might have cost him. (We don’t eat fried pies; this was an exception. Don’t do this at home!)
Entering Texas
We needed to stop to gas up and stretch shortly after entering Texas, so while AdventureMan was picking out some CrackerJacks, I took a photo. I have a hard time imagining staying at this motel:
The climb up the volcano was a good thing; even though this is a long driving day, we are feeling good as we get close to Wichita Falls, where we will spend the night. The sun is setting behind us, so I capture it in the rear view mirror:
Tacos Y Mas in New Mexico
Shortly after our hike up the old volcano, we stopped for lunch in a small town. Sadly, many of the small towns we passed through were shells; old stores, old restaurants, old gas stations, all closed now. We saw this all across the United States, the center of the small towns dead or dying, and most of the remaining industry along the major state roads.
As we looked for something acceptable for lunch, we saw a Subway (‘think fresh!’) off in the distance and we can always settle for Subway, but just before we got to the Subway, we saw Tacos Y Mas:
You’re always taking your chances when you eat street food (this was not a restaurant, but an order-out trailer. The menu was fairly large for a small operation, and they had a steady stream of customers. We ordered the taco lunch special, drove down the road a few hundred yards and came to a rest stop with covered picnic tables, where we had a taco feast:
It was really delicious, but heartburn city later, LOL.
One of the funniest things in New Mexico and Texas were all the signs saying “do not pick up hitchhikers” near all the prisons. LLOOLLLL!
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