Our crew got on the road right at 1:00pm as planned. Andrew got home from work a little early, and Ben got dropped off. We picked up Heather on our way to the interstate, and then we were on the road, headed to the Nashville Greyhound station where Madison was due to arrive at 4:00pm. We would have been right on time if we had not run into Nashville holiday weekend rush hour gridlock. We rarely go through Nashville, instead utilizing Briley Parkway to get over to I-65N when we head to Kentucky. Because of this, I had kind of forgotten the way that I-65N/S, I-40E/W, and I-24E/W all converge in a pretty tight area of numerous interchanges.
Getting to Madison was a relief. She called us to say she’d arrived at the station as we sat in the car with 8 blocks of bumper-to-bumper traffic between us. She was fine when we arrived, and it was so great to see her. I tried not to make too big of a deal, but I was so happy. From the bus station, we decided to brave the snarl of traffic we could see on the interstate above us and try to get out of town before stopping for dinner. The traffic turned out to be a hellish hour and a half of about 20 miles progress – extra frustrating when you’ve just driven 3 hours and have 8 more to go.
Once we finally escaped Nashville, we stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. We all needed to get out of the car and unwind a bit after that intense aggravation, so we went in and ate and relaxed. It was a long rest stop but time well spent.
From there, we just drove and drove and drove and drove. We soon entered Alabama, passing through Huntsville and Birmingham. Outside Montgomery, however, we hit night road work that required 3 lanes to merge into 1, causing another hour of delay. Beyond Huntsville, we exited onto Highway 59, which dead ends into the ocean. After 40 miles on that highway, Andrew and Ben were recognizing landmarks and soon I was too.
We had to stop at the realty place to get the check-in stuff for the house. We were going to grab some groceries but the usually 24-hr grocery, Bruno’s, was closed. We headed down to the house, carried up a bunch of luggage, then opened up the house to check it out. It was even cooler that the realty website pictures. Andrew and I got the main floor master suite, Maddie and Heather got the downstairs front bedroom, and Ben took the upstairs front bedroom, leaving the upstairs master suite for Kim and Derek.
Since it was 3:00am, the girls went to bed, but Andrew, Ben, and I took some time to unwind on the deck before turning in. It was a beautiful night, and I had to go down by the water to see and hear the waves. It was a short walk and then time for bed.
Friday, Sept. 3
Everyone slept in. I was the first one up and found the note from Kim and Derek saying that they had made it in safely. I certainly didn’t hear them come in. I drank coffee and started on a drawing that wound up taking all day to complete. When Andrew and Ben got up, they went and got a few groceries. Then girls got up, Andrew took them up the road to see Vicki, Kate, and Jose, but I opted to stay behind to chill and work on drawing. I finished up about the time that they returned.
Before long, we all went to the Shrimp Basket for dinner, which was great. Afterward, we went to a public beach past the state park. Ben had recommended this spot as a good one for finding shells, which I’d previously had very little luck with in Gulf Shores. This was definitely a good spot, as evidenced by all the olive shells that Ben and Andrew found. Ben had a knack for spotting them in the surf, and Andrew quickly developed his eye for finding them too. I got a few nice pictures during the glorious sunset, and everyone got as many sea shells as they wanted.
We headed back to the house from there. Andrew packed up lunches and drinks and snacks for our deep sea fishing expedition in the morning. We took a short night walk on the beach but called it an early night since we were getting up early.
Saturday, Sept. 4
6:00am came brutally early, but I forced myself to get up and get ready, since I hadn’t done much preparing for the night before. I managed to get myself together, and Kim and Derek got up and started getting ready, then Andrew too. Ben wasn’t feeling well and opted to stay behind and rest up. Maddie and Heather were going to get picked up by Vicki later in the morning to go shopping and hang out.
Kim and Derek left ahead of us to get some Dramamine and breakfast on the way, and Andrew and I picked up Jose. Soon we all met at the marina and were boarding the boat. We set out on about an hour and a half voyage that took us 20 miles from the coast. The water along shore was glassy, but out there, things were a little choppier. But the sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing, and the first spot we stopped had a lot of action right off the bat.
Jose caught the expedition’s first fish, a little red snapper that they threw back since they weren’t in season. Kim, Derek, Jose, and Andrew each caught a couple apiece, including several keepers. I wasn’t having much luck with only a little red snapper throwback but was having fun trying. Then I felt some strong hit the line. The end of my rod bent in an arc, and I began reeling for all I was worth. The shipmate came over to supervise my efforts and, after what seemed like forever, he said that he saw something big coming up. It was a big red snapper, not in season, so we couldn’t keep him, but he was easily the biggest fish I’ve ever caught.
Shortly after that excitement, I looked over to my right to see that Andrew was holding the deck rail and looking down over the side. I asked him if he felt okay and first he said yes then he said no. I told him to look at a fixed point on the horizon but he told me to move and starting yakking over the side. I foolishly assured him that he would feel better now that he had gotten that over with. Unfortunately, he had the worst case of sea sickness I’ve ever seen and that was just the beginning, about 2 hours into a 6 hour trip. He took a Dramamine and almost immediately threw it up. He tried to push through it but without success and eventually went to lie down in the air-conditioned cabin. Even still, he was pale, sweaty, and sick for quite some time. Admittedly, I was also affected by the boat’s motion and threw up once over the side and once in the trashcan in the cabin. Luckily, I didn’t feel bad afterwards. When the trip was over, Jose informed us that the side of the boat where Andrew and I were fishing was the most susceptible to sea sickness. So now we know.
On the whole, everyone had fun fishing, except Andrew who described it as one of the most miserable experiences of his life. Kim, Derek, and Jose had the fish cleaned and filleted while I took Andrew home. He laid down for a nap, and I read on the porch. Maddie and Heather returned to the house after spending the day at the outlet mall with Vicki.
Once the sun went down, we cleaned up and Andrew, Madison, Heather, Ben, and I went to eat dinner at our family favorite, Bahama Bob’s. We got a nice table on the porch by the beach and had cocktails and frickle pickles and lots of good seafood. It was a delightful meal, one of those perfect Gulf Shores experiences.
That night, we lounged around until everyone turned in pretty early. I couldn’t sleep though and spent a while on the porch watching TV on my laptop. I woke up in my beach chair at dawn and then crawled into bed.
Sunday, Sept. 5
Andrew woke up early and made breakfast for the girls and me. After breakfast, I gave Madison a present in honor of our wedding anniversary: a picture frame with pics of the three of us on our wedding and from this last cruise, of Maddie with my mom, of her birthday and going-away parties, of Vicki, and of her spring band concert. She seemed quite pleased with it, which thrilled me. I had worked hard on making it in the hopes that she would like it.
The girls went down to play on the beach, and after reading for a bit, I dozed off for a nap. The adults all wound up lying down for a while, so when I woke up from my nap, everyone was asleep except the girls, who were hanging out and watching TV.
I did some dishes and then made a pitcher of strawberry daiquiri and retired to the porch with a glass and my book. As the afternoon turned to early evening, Madison and Heather went down to play in the sand and surf. I decided that sounded like a lot of fun too, so I changed into my bathing suit and headed down to the water’s edge. The girls were climbing a sand hill and having fun on their own, so I decided to go down the beach a little ways and take a dip. I took my camera along and grabbed a few sunset pix.
As I walked along in the surf, I saw big schools of little pinfish in the waves, and I saw several skates moving through the schools of fish. I found a spot and waded out to thigh-high water. While doing so, I had a weird apprehension about going out any further, nothing definable really and was initially a vague feeling. After bobbing in the waves for a few minutes, I had a distinct feeling that it was time to get out. I tried to shake it for a moment, assuming that I was being paranoid. It was undeniable at that point, and I got out and dried off.
As I was walking back up the beach, I saw that, 20 yards from where I had been wading, a man that was surf fishing had caught something that looked a lot like a shark. I scampered over along with about 15 other people on the beach. I was pulling out my camera as I ran over and, sure enough, the guy had a roughly 5 ft black-tipped shark hooked in the surf. I was snapping as many pictures as I could, and, the next thing I knew, Madison and Heather were running up into the crowd.
At about that point, the shark broke the fishing line, and a guy with the initial angler lassoed the shark’s tail. Everyone was taking pictures, and the guy with the rope worked the shark back into the shallow water. Then he let everyone that wanted, to run up and snap a picture or touch the tip of its tailfin. Maddie, Heather, and I each took a turn touch the fin after watching the other folks in the crowd do it without incident. It had a sandpaper texture and a rubbery consistency. After everyone took their turn, the guy took the rope off its tail and grabbed it by the back of its dorsal fin and pushed it into the waves. After a moment’s hesitation, it swam out of the surf, its dorsal fin disappearing beneath the surface of the water about 5 feet from the shore.
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| That's Madison and Heather in edge of the bottom right frame! |
It was an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I love those spontaneous moments when nature decides to interact with you, rather than when you force nature to show her gifts under contrived circumstances. From swimming with dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay, to rescuing a lost fawn on Grandma’s farm, or stroking the nose of a wild baby skunk in my mom’s yard, I’ve had some pretty amazing encounters with nature’s best, and this shark experience ranks up there.
After we saw the shark off, the girls and I headed back toward the house to tell everyone all about it. Andrew had seen the group of people on the beach and that we were among them and was heading our way already, missing the whole thing by about 2 minutes.
While I had been out on the beach, Andrew and Kim took care of pretty much all of the dinner preparations. They broiled the fish, made roasted new potatoes, and fixed some squash. It smelled delicious. After a bit, Andrew, Ben, the girls, and I headed down to Vicki, Kate, and Jose’s house with our great smelling goodies. Kim and Derek opted to stay behind and watch the Giants game.
We had a lovely dinner. The food was excellent, and it was nice to have the family experience along with the friend scene. We took a few pictures on the porch after our meal and reminisced about our wedding 6 years before. It was just perfect.
After dinner, we went back to the house and worked on packing and tidying, so we could get a timely start in the morning. The girls turned in early; then Andrew, Ben, and I took a last night walk on the beach, with Kim and Derek joining us. It was indescribably pleasant and a most satisfying nightcap.
Monday, Sept. 6
We woke up on time, got loaded up efficiently, and were on the road at the appointed time. Unfortunately, so was every other family leaving Gulf Shores. We were stuck in traffic for 2 hours, traveling only 20 miles from the house in that duration. Eventually, we made it to the interstate and had limited difficulties from there other than some construction traffic.
We had aimed to get to Nashville by 6pm but it was more like 8:30pm. Jerry was cool about it, fortunately. In fact, he and Meghan were quite accommodating in helping us with the logistics to include Madison in our trip, which means a lot and hopefully is a sign of future cooperation in such matters.
And, just like that, she was hugged and loaded into their van, heading the opposite direction from me. It’s not as though I had expected this parting to be easy, but it was a lot more difficult that I had expected. While we were all together, it felt like old-times (well, since a month ago “old-times”). It just felt like she should be going back to Memphis with us, even though that wasn’t under any kind of consideration. It’s just how it felt. So, when she was gone again, the pain of separation felt pretty raw. I don’t know if it will get easier for future partings. I hope so.
Anyway, Andrew, Heather, and I hit the road for Memphis, the last 200 miles of our trip taking what felt like an extra long time. We dropped off Heather at her house at almost midnight, and finally got home ourselves, just the two of us.
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| Palm inflorescence |
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