A quick note. This story was originally written in 2002. A year or two later Lulu got her eviction notice from the Powers That Be and was forced to move to a newer, bigger, and fancier place in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Some would argue that the forced move was excellently timed, because a hurricane moved in and basically destroyed the old location. The new Lulu's thrives to this day, although it can be argued that the new place doesn't have the atmosphere that the old place had.
~~~
From: PirateJohn@aol.com
Date: Tue Apr 2, 2002 11:29 am
Subject: A little road trip ... LuLu's and the Redneck Riviera!
I figured that a few of y'all might get a laugh out of my trip from Jacksonville to the Redneck Riviera in LA. You know, LA, as in Lower Alabama.
Check out the photos at http://www.fototime.com/inv/86829CE8204E057
The primary mission was to have lunch at LuLu's Sunset Grill. LuLu's is owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister, and is one of those little bits of Buffett trivia and lore that every Parrothead needs to experience sooner or later.
The place was a lot of fun. A bit smaller and less pretentious that what I expected, to tell you the truth. And it's pretty far out in the boondocks. The address given is Fairhope, Alabama, but if the truth is to be know it's something like 12 miles east of Fairhope. The description that I got was "under the Fish River Bridge on Highway 98" and, y'know what ... that's about as accurate as you'll get! If anyone wants to visit and wants a more precise location email me backchannel and I'll give you the GPS coordinates, which I don't have handy at the moment.
I had had a hankerin' for steamed oysters and son-of-a-gun if'n LuLu's didn't run out of fresh oysters the night before! Oh well ... it was Easter weekend and I guess that a lot of the locals were dining out. Managed to have a great fried oyster po'boy sandwich, and some gumbo as a followup. Yum!! And although I tend to agree with those pholks who think that frying an oyster is sacrilegious, this was an exception and actooly made for an excellent sandwich.
The primary mission was to visit LuLu's and have lunch. The secondary mission was to take some photos of the Florabama Bar, which is about 15 miles away as the GPS flies. I had visited the Florabama last fall and had a great time but managed to lose that set of photos. Go figure.
So enjoy the photo collection. There's some pretty scenery in that part of Alabama, and I had really begun to appreciate the coastline around the Florabama when I traveled there last Spring. Cajun friends of mine used to talk about travelin' to Pensacola when they wanted to see the seashore and I can understand completely now that I've been there. Dear Lord, please don't let the Guv'mint begin to allow oil drilling offshore in that area; Big Oil would certainly trash a beautiful vacation spot.
The ride to Pensacola and LA went smoothly and right on schedule: About 5 hours to cover 360 miles and I was standing out somewhere in Pensacola at 9:45AM local time. Time to swoop by the Florabama, take those photos, and get on over to LuLu's. I got there at about 11:15, right after they opened, and my pal Corky Reed was waiting for me.
Well ... thunderstorms were predicted and LuLu's was already battening down the hatches. Corky and I had lunch, shot the breeze, shot some photos, and boogied our separate ways. A few miles later the rains started. And then the thunder and lightning came around.
When I left LuLu's I was thinking that if I hustled I'd be able to get back to Jacksonville in time to see the Brazilian Formula 1 at 8PM. And for the first hour or so I was maintaining about a 75 mph pace along I-10, despite being in a driving rainstorm. But then it got worse ... and worse ... and worse. Traffic slowed. Traffic stopped repeatedly, usually because of accidents. Finally, somewhere around Marianna, Florida we started to hit the leading edge of the front and it was Nasty, with a capital "N." Lightning strikes all around, and rain so hard that cars and tractor trailers (yes, tractor trailers!) were stopping on the side of the road. After stopping three times at three different exits to get out of downpours ol' John decided that it was time to bag the ride and get a room for the night.
Want to know misery? Misery is a small town, no alcohol sales on Sunday, and lightning has knocked out the cable television. That's misery.
Thankfully, Dominos was still delivering and the cable came back to life 20 minutes before the Formula 1 telecast started. Yes! Life is good after all!
Now that I'm back in Jacksonville the K-bike has decided to run kinda funky (water in the fuel tank?) but my clothes and electronics are finally drying out. Lemme see ... where will I ride next weekend ... ;)
ol' John
Keeper of the HumourList at http://hometown.aol.com/PirateJohn/pirate1.html ; motorcycle and other links at http://hometown.aol.com/PirateJohn/funlinks.html
An unapologetic plug for BMW of Daytona, without whose help I'd be suffering greatly: http://www.bmwcyclesdaytona.com/
"Mother, mother ocean,
I have heard your call." -- Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at 40
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