We got up in the morning after reaching Valdosta and called Richard's sister Ann asking her to meet us at the hotel. We wanted to show her pictures of the family and the only thing we had was my little computer that needed internet access. She has never seen our grandchildren and now we had three more to show her.

After some time at the motel we headed off to Pizza Hut for lunch and tried to catch up with what was going on with our families. It was hard to leave, but we had to finish up our trip so we could get to the gulf for one day of rest and then high tale it back home for the start of school. Both of us start back taking classes at local universities the Monday after getting home.

Valdosta was a beautiful old town. There were many old houses that must have been registered on some kind of historical registry. There were large trees with hanging moss throughout the town. I wanted to get a sample of it...but never did. I know I'm a sentimental geek, but who knows when I will make another trip like this. When will I ever be able to afford it again. We took it because we currently have the money, but when it's gone there is no guarantee we will have the resources again. I'm still looking for a teaching job; another reason to get home soon...but not too soon.

 I could feel the bladder infection I knew had been coming on was getting worse. I got some pills to kill the pain and stop the muscle contractions, hoping I wouldn't actually get sick before I got home and could get to the doctor. I wanted to see the Gulf so bad. It had been almost 50 years since I had seen the ocean up close like this. I wanted to see it and take pictures, whether we landed where there was tar balls or not.

I felt like we needed to spend a little of our money on the gulf to help out the folks that have been having such a rough time of it. I wasn't disappointed.

ON TO THE GULF!

We had a time getting there. We were using a Garmin GPS to help us get around. The road it wanted to take us out of Quitman, Georgia had a bridge out and the Garmin has a way of rerouting you that will bring you as close to where you can get back on "its" route as possible, even if there is a closer, better way to go. Our map didn't have enough detail on it so we started in the general direction we thought we should go and though it felt like there was no logic going on we finally got going in the general direction we needed to go.We were delayed for about 30 minutes by a horrible wreck. Someone had hit a large tree on a country road. They hit it so hard it knocked the tree down into the middle of the road. Large trucks and a crew were removing debris and the crashed care while we waited. Then our vehicle started acting up. It wanted to rev up and take off on us. Then it would stall. Once the accident got cleaned up we got going and the car was still acting weird. Not sure what to do, we needed gas so we stopped in Tallahassee. While there I called our mechanic Dan back home and he suggested we go to Auto Zone and have them get a read-out to find out what is wrong then call him back. It was a speed control sensor on the transmission. Great!

He asked us how bad it was acting and we told him it seemed okay on the road..just acted

up parking. He said, if it acted up bad to get it to a dealer, but otherwise we should just wait until we geot home. So that's what we did and made it home.

On our way to Gulf Shores we were driving alongside the sea. A was getting more excited as we saw the ocean on our left.

As we actually got to the hotel it was starting to get dark. We hadn't eaten for some time so we found a little place to eat called the Gulf Island Grill. It had good food...a little pricey at night, but their lunch menu was very reasonable. Lots of atmosphere and good service.

When we checked in we talked to the attendant and he said that the beaches were clean now. Tar balls had washed up on the beach previously, but it had been cleaned up and now it was safe for fishing and eating the fish up to 5 miles out from shore. He told us it was the funniest thing...people were collecting hard tarballs and taking them home as souvineers; a piece of history.

At night I woke up to the sound of machinery on the beach. Tractors and little dune buggies were searching the beach for tarballs. They had a machine that was sucking up sand, cleaning it and spreading it out. I think this crew was put out there by BP. On a later trip during the day we saw a huge collection of tractors and dunebuggies at an empty place in what looked like a big meeting of people. This is just my observance. I don't know the facts for sure. The next morning I got up and went out on the balcony. The surf was pounding and it was sprinkling lightly. I looked out at the enormity of the water and the sky. It had been near 50 years since I have been this close to the ocean. I wept.

 The walkway to the beach.

The Birds Congregate.

 Evening Surf

Examining the Surf.

While there I met a couple of people that wanted me to take their pictures. So I did. They were a sweet mother and daughter vacationing from Kentucky. Missouri is pretty close to Kentucky. Their names are Glinda (the Mom) and Tracy (the Daughter).

After I took their pictures, They took mine. I needed proof I was really there.