Mouse Sized Gulf State Park Dismeet 2020

Jimmy- It sounds like you are getting the weather we had all week. Cold, rainy... Not fun. Hopefully it blows out overnight. We finally had broke the pattern and summer has finally arrived.

Ed- Keep the food/restaurant pics coming. Half the places I go to in GS are from you and everyone posting pics and reviews.

j
 
I really want some of that food down there, too!
 
Um, well, your humble correspondent slept through the sunrise. 😴 I missed it by about a half hour. But this morning is lovely.

Yesterday afternoon late me, DD, and DW were all working on the puzzle. DD noticed that nowhere on the box does it indicate how many pieces it is <strange>. But DD can be "Type A" when it comes to this sort of thing so we made great progress.



The view was nice during that time.



Having been here twice recently now and seeing all these campers, I have been day-dreaming about a small Airstream. I'm interested in the Caravel 22FB.

https://www.airstream.com/travel-trailers/caravel/floorplans/22fb/

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Single axle, trailer GVWR of 5,000 lbs, simple with a full bathroom (DW likes that idea). Sorta like a big popup.

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I think a new-to-me Suburban with a rear axle ratio of 3.42 (my current one is 3.08) would do the trick and your base Suburban with a 3.42 and 5.3L base engine has a trailering capacity of 8,300 lbs. I would use a front hitch on the Chevy for the bikes.

Maybe someday. :cloud9:

I only brought two signs this trip.



My Musket Mickey wood sign is for Fort use only now since I think all the past UV exposure has darkened it. And I need to make a new green DIS sign since I no longer live in Hoover, AL. And I "liberated" the Bama tailgating sign when my favorite tailgate spot on the UA campus was closed to that activity by the Dean of Arts & Sciences. They posted signs and have a rent-a-popo to keep us out now. But when his back was turned I set one free.

Debating what to do today....

Bama Ed

PS - church service music is drifting across the lake from the Pavilion this morning. Didn't know where it was coming from at first. :music:
 
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Afternoon update time. Sitting outside in the shade feeling the breeze. It's idyllic (no flies yet as of 553pm local time).

Met a nice couple in a campsite around the corner who live in the same county we do (license plate numbers give us away). Had a great chat (campers are the nicest, coolest folks). Then we headed into town for lunch. The crowds in downtown Gulf Shores around the Tee/Hangout area give me the hives. Sitting in a line of traffic waiting through three light cycles to get through the interchange because some fool turning left into our road FROM my left side got hung out in the middle of the intersection and backed up in the traffic in my lanes when his green turn arrow went red (I hate those kind of people). People were parking in the grass on the north side of the beach highway along 1st and 2nd Ave and crossing the street in front of us carrying all their beach goods. Beach houses were charging $10 per car to park on the grass yards. Welcome to Memorial Day weekend after a pandemic shutdown. :sick:

But back to lunch. We fought the traffic to get to DeSoto's which is just behind Souvenir City (the souvenir store with the shark mouth entrance). Highly rated and well liked. It's a regular stop for us down here.



Tables were way spaced apart and servers wore masks. I got a crawfish poboy and fries:



DD chose the Riviera Salad with shrimp (and ranch dressing of course) :rotfl2::



DW got a lunch special of blackened catfish, side salad, and steamed vegetables (oh so healthy):



DeSoto's is good in that they have lunch specials (smaller portions and lower pricing compared to dinner) of seafood selections with two sides for less than $10. And there are also non-seafood selections (country fried steak, ham slice, chicken tenders, etc.). So there is something there for everyone.

Many folks left Live Oak street this morning (my Aliner on the left side of photo):



The breeze picked up this afternoon as we worked on the puzzle after lunch. The weights work fine but the flat face facing the wind gets bowed inwards so I got a piece of rope to pull it out flat and tied it to the picnic table. Very stable.



What a great lazy day. The ice cream truck rolled through the campground too.



I was headed to the Comfort Station for some .... comfort ....



.... when something caught my eye and I had to investigate.

More in the next post.

Bama Ed
 
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In the prior picture if you look on the left side, you'll notice a red pickup and blue pick up in the background. Some guys were hauling fish out of a cooler and cleaning them there on the camp fish table. I had taken a picture of it in my TR from last month:



I am no kind of fisherman (I have tried) and admire those who can catch fish. (In if anyone in a future DISMeet wants to split a charter that might be my only chance). Anyway, as I mentioned in a prior post, red snapper season opened last Friday with a 2 per person limit, 16" minimum. These folks (3 guys 1 lady) had a couple of bags of filets already finished and three more snapper on the table. Big ones.



A little lemon juice, melted butter, some spices, blackened oh they would look so good in a cast iron skillet:



Put some yellow rice on the side, some fresh crisp steamed veggies to go with it:



With a glass of white wine and some key lime pie for dessert and I would be in heaven! Yowza!



Due to a big push from DD yesterday, we finished the puzzle today. It was 750p.



I did bring a second one (750p) but might hold off for a day or so before breaking it out.

Bama Ed

PS - and lest you think every meal is seafood and sides while we're here, I'm about to have my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chips now for dinner. Not kidding. :sad2:

 
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Ah yes...the endangered red snapper...

last time I went, you could drop an empty hook next to an offshore structure and pull one up. But only keep 2.
 
DD was up that early?

Have fun at the beach.
:beach:

j

Lol, no way Jose'! :rotfl2: But as a college student stuck in an Aliner with her mom and dad, she's had to adjust to regular "bidness" hours of operation, so to speak.

Got back from lunch a little while ago. Heavy traffic (the going home exodus-condo checkout times are around 11am) on Hwy 59 coming out of Gulf Shores headed towards the Lulu's bridge. We chose an old favorite, King Neptune's on the left/west side of 59 just north of the lagoon, and it was a YUGE disappointment.

Being an old favorite, I did not bother to check recent on-line reviews. But the original owner (back to 1981) died in January 2020 so the place has a new owner and new laminated menus. The internet website for the place, which I HAD checked, still had the old "about us" entry and the old menu listed. Gone are the affordable lunch specials. In its place are expensive dinner-priced entrees at lunch (like Disney does). Sorry, not paying $22 for a shrimp po-boy and fries (not in this town). I had wanted the old lunch special of fried chicken livers and two sides for $5.99. All gone. :sad: All meals over $20 for lunch (the burger was $18).

When I asked about the different/new menus, the "manager" (a waitress with the title) gave me a printed paper "basket menu" that had some $10, $12, $14 meal options. It took a while to come out of the kitchen and all three were wrong. Regular shrimp instead of popcorn shrimp. A completely different seafood combo platter. Fried catfish instead of the basket choice of "seasoned fish". A complete and utter disconnect.

The bill came with the new menu prices and I protested. My server explained to the manager how we'd pointed at the basket menu to the items wanted (she was in our corner) and since she was new herself, didn't apparently fully have the new menu memorized. The "manager" discounted our meal total to the basket equivalent price so I paid and left (giving my server a 20% tip).

But I will never go back. That's how a new owner ruins 40 years of a relationship with its customer base. Same "King Neptune's" name on the outside but regular customers like me are in for a surprise. And it will never happen again. The party of 6 next to me who were seated even before our drink order was taken STILL had not gotten their food as we were leaving an hour later and were complaining to the "manager". (fewer tables inside for social distancing but picnic tables outside too-about the crowd you expect on the start-of-summer weekend).

The new owner might live off the reputation established by the old owner but other regulars like me won't put up with this. We have too many options/choices in this market for reasonably priced good food. Newbies will get fooled once. You might make it through the high season but beyond that, oof. I've seen it happen here so many times over the past.

Gusty breeze this afternoon in excess of 20mph is too much for the awning and would be strong enough to blow loose pieces off a puzzle board. So I'm reduced to griping about lunch. It's sad though.

Bama Ed

PS - Jim, I'll post some of today's beach pix later after I upload them.
 
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Beach pix from today. Over at the GSP Pavilion. DD wanted to go a little earlier to get a front row spot at the high tide line without having to go WAY out to the sides of the beach (longer distance to pull the wagon of stuff thru the sand). Also earlier is less direct brutal sun. So we were at the beach at 9am. Parking lot (even when leaving) was maybe at 25% capacity because the long weekend folks were headed home.

It was still windy this morning, too windy to extend the beach umbrella.



Looking east towards Florida.



Looking west towards Gulf Shores.



I spent over 90 minutes watching this kid ride the waves with his boogie board.





My thing sitting on the beach is I want a foot rest at about a 30-degree angle above horizontal to put my feet on. So I built one.



DD has already asked to go back to the beach tomorrow morning and I begged off. I want to fix a nice campsite breakfast of eggs and sausage. We had a decent number of people leaving yesterday as I showed but all those sites filled back up. Today more have left and they are filling slowly.

28mph wind gusts currently and chance of rain tonight near midnight and 40-50% into the morning hours tomorrow. So I have taken the EZ up awning off already and will stow away anything outside necessary in anticipation of overnight rain.

Had a nice chat last night with Arc and DW but they were gone much of the day yesterday and had an event scheduled for today. I am glad they are here. We talked about doing some burgers one night this week.

So we may have to hunker down for a while depending on the ever changing weather.

Bama Ed
 
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Beach pix from today. Over at the GSP Pavilion. DD wanted to go a little earlier to get a front row spot at the high tide line without having to go WAY out to the sides of the beach (longer distance to pull the wagon of stuff thru the sand). Also earlier is less direct brutal sun. So we were at the beach at 9am. Parking lot (even when leaving) was maybe at 25% capacity because the long weekend folks were headed home.

It was still windy this morning, too windy to extend the beach umbrella.



Looking east towards Florida.



Looking west towards Gulf Shores.



I spent over 90 minutes watching this kid ride the waves with his boogie board.





My thing sitting on the beach is I want a foot rest at about a 30-degree angle above horizontal to put my feet on. So I build one.



DD has already asked to go back to the beach tomorrow morning and I begged off. I want to fix a nice campsite breakfast of eggs and sausage. We had a decent number of people leaving yesterday as I showed but all those sites filled back up. Today more have left and they are filling slowly.

28mph wind gusts currently and chance of rain tonight near midnight and 40-50% into the morning hours tomorrow. So I have taken the EZ up awning off already and will stow away anything outside necessary in anticipation of overnight rain.

Had a nice chat last night with Arc and DW but they were gone much of the day yesterday and had an event scheduled for today. I am glad they are here. We talked about doing some burgers one night this week.

So we may have to hunker down for a while depending on the ever changing weather.

Bama Ed

I want to see a picture of Ed in the sand reaching his toes.....come on that youngster can do it....:beach:
 
I am dismayed to hear this about King Neptune's. One our favorites too. I'll take your advice and skip it in July.

Was going to ask, whats your experience at The Steamer? The one between Souvenir City and Desotos.

Considering new dining experiences in July.
 
I wanna be @bama_ed when I grow up. He puts me to shame on my keeping pictures up to date.

It’s been a little crazy for us as we’ve had to travel back home twice, once for church yesterday (I’m the media director) and once today for a family friend’s kid’s graduation party.

Saturday some friends of ours came over and we went over to the Sunliner Diner. It’s one of my favorite spots (especially due to their “special” milkshakes:rolleyes1 I had the country fried chicken and eggs and DW got the club.
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After the diner, we went to the outlets for a little bit. Surprisingly they weren’t crowded at all. One thing I’ve learned is that the folks that are wearing masks, don’t have a clue what they are for or how they’re supposed to wear them. Several stores required you wear them which I wasn’t too happy about but it is what it is. Did get some new shoes from Skechers which I love.

Sunday morning, got up around 5 to make the drive back to church. Was a beautiful time as the sun was just starting to peak up.
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After we got back over to the campground I decided it was time to setup my ham (amateur) radio. @bama_ed and DW came over to watch (and help) the spectacle of getting the antenna up. (Pics of the antenna will have to come later as we had to take it down this morning because it’s so incredibly windy today.) In the time I was on the air, made contact with NY, PA ,WY, and Toronto Canada just to name a few. Since this is a state park you can “activate” as “Parks on the air” and folks get awards for making radio contacts with as many folks as they can at parks.
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We just got back to the campground and this wind is insane. Definitely glad we took the antenna down and brought the awning in.

Weather permitting, DW brought a puzzle over we are supposed to work with Ed and family on in the morning. Been a great time getting to hang out in the evenings with the legend @bama_ed!
 
Sorry to hear about King Neptune. I don't remember if I've been there. DW isn't a seafood fan.

The beach looked great. I can tell the wind was cranking. The surf looked a little rougher than usual. Nice that the crowds have settled. I remember from years past that Tuesday and beyond were great.

No trips to Scoops yet?

j
 
The beach looked great. I can tell the wind was cranking. The surf looked a little rougher than usual. Nice that the crowds have settled. I remember from years past that Tuesday and beyond were great.

No trips to Scoops yet?

j

Teamubr,

As we got there early in the morning, the surf flag was yellow. But there was a strong surf and wind. When we left, the surf flag had been changed to red. So you were right, it was a rough surf.

Scoops planned for later in the week.

Was going to ask, whats your experience at The Steamer? The one between Souvenir City and Desotos.

Considering new dining experiences in July.

To tell you the truth, tiggerdad, never EVER ate at The Steamer. The idea of steamed shrimp never appealed to me. I know there are lots of ways to cook shrimp .....

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(so on and so forth)

.... but Bubba never said anything about STEAMED shrimp. :sad2:

So if that's good enough for Bubba Blue
That's good enough for me too!

Steamed seafood never appealed to me. So I'm no help on that one.

Bama Ed

PS - I've battened down the hatches here, folks, it's going to be a blustery night. Not dangerous weather but it's quite a rollicking ride already this evening in the Aliner.

 
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I wanna be @bama_ed when I grow up. He puts me to shame on my keeping pictures up to date.

Weather permitting, DW brought a puzzle over we are supposed to work with Ed and family on in the morning. Been a great time getting to hang out in the evenings with the legend @bama_ed!



Oh please. :sad2: That @bama_ed guy is a moron. :crazy2:
 
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Thanks Ed. I think we'll give it a go in July and I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, you mentioned earlier about sharing a charter. You know, Nick, Randy's friend that has joined us in the past has his own fishing boat. We could all chip in and let him take us out.

I can see it now...

A few small ones, easy to catch and no fear
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Then we could bait up some big ones!
jaws.gif

@SouthAlabama5er yelling at one of us to get him in a net
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Of course we could make a sport out of it...
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Im in!
 

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