St. George Thanksgiving

After waiting until 5:30 in the afternoon to leave yesterday, Kate and i gassed up the car and headed toward Columbus and Phoenix City. We stopped to eat at Country's Barbecue on the Chattahoochee River. Unfortunately, it was all you can eat chicken night and the place was packed. After about an hour, we got back on the road. We did stop to get topped off with gas at 2.94 a gallon, but then we dove into the blackness of East Alabama. And I do mean 'blackness,' for there didn't seem to be many streetlights or headlights in East Alabama as we headed south towar Eufala and Dothan an Panama City (the Redneck Riveria). As we passed through South Phoenix City, Alabama, Kate and I came across Cafe 431 in a strip shopping center. This little bistro looked rather promising and trendy, at least by its name. However, the presence of a painted concrete rooster in front of same kind of detracted from the 'coolness' of the place. Neither Kate nor I could quite figure out where the owners were going with the name and the chicken.


As we drove toward the coast, we drove through an awful lot of nothing. Punctuated, however, with the pretty city of Eufala and the larger expanse of Dothan. Kate was a little concerned with the route we were taking, since my instincts didn't always jibe with mapquest. There was a particularly troublesome time at the northern environs of Dothan when I decided to take a left rather than a right, as proposed by mapquest. I think Kate was afraid we might end up in Dothan forever. After several hours of driving in the darkness, we finally motored into the center of Panama City, then took two extreme rights and ended up driving through another great expanse of darkness which lead us through an air force base, the deserted downtowns of Mexico Beach and St. Joseph. By the time 12:30 rolled around, we had made it to St. George Island.

Cindy was somewhat awake as we arrived on the second floor of the condo. She seemed a little bleary, no, perhaps, a lot bleary as I took off my contacts and clothes and popped into bed. The next thing I knew it was morning and I found my way upstairs to breakfast and the rest of the family.

Frank and Maggie and Lily arrived this afternoon, while Kate and Cindy and I were shopping and looking around the stores before we headed into Boss Oyster for the tradional beginning of Thanksgiving. As you can imagine, I ate my three dozen roasted oysters (delicious) and came back to the condo for brownies and vanilla ice cream. Now everyone is upstairs and I am taking the time to sit at Kate's computer and write down a little bit about the day and the week and the time we will share for the next couple of days.

I love Apalachicola. It is so old Florida and really ends up being a throwback to what Florida was like when it was still part of the established part of a state which was predominately frontier. The docks are full of shrimp boats and the oysters are still plentiful. Some things change a tad, but more remains the same.

It was nice to sit with the crowd and enjoy each other. We do get along pretty well when we get the chance to be there with each other. It is too bad we don't get together more often.

Well tomorrow is bloody mary morning, which Kate has been looking forward to for awhile. The afternoon will be turkey and dressing and football and more people than you can shake a stick at. Quite a crowd. Friday should be fun, with more time spent in town with the family and the afternoon watching Santa Claus coming into town on a shrimp boat, which is what Santa does in these environs.

Saturday will come soon enough, and we will head back to Griffin. Sunday afternoon will come and Kate will be going back to Clinton until Christmas. The days fly.