Daily Archives: November 21, 2009
Old memories are the best…
Our day started with a call from Nick Russell who wanted to know how much longer we were going to be here in Gulf Shores. Nick and his wife Terry are presently in Titusville, FL and had decided to head over this way before heading back up to Elkhart, IN to, hopefully, sell their old bus conversion/RV.
They’re planning to leave Monday morning and drive straight through to the Escapees RV Park up in Summerdale. But, unfortunately, we’re also leaving here Monday morning to head back to Houston, so I guess we’re going to have to wait awhile before we can get together again.
About 11:30 am we headed over to Pensacola, FL to eat at Sonny’s BBQ for lunch and then visit one of Jan’s favorite gift shops, Artisana.
Coming home we drove past one of my favorite childhood playthings.
When I was a kid I loved to play on this locomotive. Of course it didn’t have a fence around it then.
A little Googling tells me that #1355 was originally built in 1912 as a 2-8-0 Consolidated and operated mainly in Missouri. In 1945 it was converted to a 2-8-2 Mikado and ran the St. Louis – San Francisco – Pensacola line until 1952. It was stored until 1955 when it was mounted on what was then the main street into Pensacola.
I was always fascinated in these big machines. Up close, they’re even more massive. I mean, these drive wheels are over 6’ in diameter.
It’s always good to see stuff from your childhood still around. Makes you feel not quite so old!
Heading back toward the rig, we passed another series of the mascot statues. We’ve seen pelicans in Seabrook, TX, moose in Coeur d’Alene, ID, mermaids in Beaufort, SC.
Here in Perdido Bay, FL they have more pelicans.
Coming back to the park, I stopped off at the Park Office to drop off a stack of Gypsy Journals
Getting back to the rig I installed the new metal drain plug in my water heater. The old one was plastic and was leaking. Besides that, it had become rounded off so it was hard to get off and impossible to tighten. The metal one works great.
About 5:30 we headed out for supper at Sea N Suds, a place we had seen here in Gulf Shores, but had never eaten at. I guess we kind of figured it was just another bar on the beach. But we saw a recommendation on Nick Russell’s blog and decided to check it out. And boy I’m glad we did.
Not only was the food good, but looking at some of the old pictures on the wall, I discovered a picture that I didn’t know existed anymore.
It’s a picture of my parent’s motel here on the beach, circa 1955.
I know this is 1955 because that’s when we built the new bigger house/office and two more cottages on the back row. In 1956 we added three more cottages on the back row for a total of 10. The pier at over 300 feet long was the longest one on the Gulf Coast at the time.
Here’s a picture of the pier during a storm.
It turns out that the Sea N Suds was built on the site of my parent’s motel. (They sold it in 1958). I had lost track of exactly where it was because all the old landmarks that I remember are gone. And it’s possible that the Sea N Suds building is built around our old “Tackle Shack”
Here’s what the area looks like now.
Here are some other pictures. This first one was taken about 1954.
And this one, taken about the same time (Note I’m still wearing my favorite cowboy suit), shows me and my best friend, David Duddy, and gives a view of the cottages from the street.
This next one was taken in early 1951, a few months after we moved to the beach.
And this last one was taken in the summer of 1952.
Coming back from Sea N Suds we hit the the thunderstorm that had been building all day. By the time we got back to the rig, it was pouring and blowing. So much so that the satellite dish had blown over.
So it was reading and computing for the rest of the night.
Later…
