Sometimes You See the Strangest Things

I love finding quirky things when I travel. Route 66 through Oklahoma was a treasure trove of quirk. In fact, the travel guide we followed for those two trips included “big alerts” for things like giant pop bottles or the worlds tallest totem pole made out of concrete. Of course we stopped to see everybody one. Today we found two pretty quirky sites right here in southern Alabama: Bamahenge and The Lady of the Lake.  Along with these two “sculptures” were assorted dinosaurs, knights in the woods, spiders and a fountain topped by King Neptune.

Here’s a little background information. George W. Barber JR. is considered to be one of the wealthiest men in Alabama. He was the heir to Barber Dairy which he sold in 1998. He was a race car driver and a car enthusiast. When he sold the dairy and retired he began to build the worlds largest collection of motorcycles which eventually became a museum in Birmingham. He also built the Birmingham Motorsports Park, a racetrack dedicated to developing race car drivers.  At his museum and race park he also began to collect strange sculptures ( www.barbermuseum.org) . Around 2008 Mr. Barber began to build the Barber Marina south of Elberta, AL, on the shore of Wolf Bay.  For years Ken and I would see this giant metal building when we would take our annual dolphin tour. About 4 years ago the name went up on the side of the building.  It was the warehouse for Barber Marina. Mr. Barber expanded his strange sculpture collection on and around the marina. According to    https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/36349 the  sculptor Mark Cline received a request from Mr. Barber for a replica of Stonehenge to be built on his property. The resulting sculpture  was christened Bamahenge. Having been to the real Stonehenge I can say it’s a nice replica but it doesn’t replace the real thing. However, it was a peaceful spot in the middle of the piney Bama Woods.


A few years later Mr. Barber’s assistant called Cline and said that Mr. Barber wanted a 50 foot sculpture of a lady. Not the entire lady, just her head and knees. And he wanted her to float. Cone puzzled over this but finally settled on building her core out of foam and covered her in fiberglass. Her face was modeled after Sara Evans and Catherine Zeta-Jones. When she was complete Mr. Barber decided to install his Lady of the Lake in his newly completed Marina basin. She is visited by dolphin boats and curious folks like me.


We left Barber’s and drove to Foley where we ate lunch at Stacey’s Rexall Drugs. This is a 1927 drugstore complete with an authentic soda fountain. We had sandwiches but did not partake of the ice cream.  It looked delicious though and was served in old fashioned ice cream dishes.

We ended our day with a quick shopping trip to The Orange Beach store and Matt’s Ice Cream. Dinner followed dessert and consisted of my delicious shrimp creole made with our favorite  Lartigues steamed shrimp.

This has been an odd week for us with crummy weather, bad restaurant meals, a lackluster dolphin cruise and Ken having a terrible cold. I think we were both grateful for today and have our fingers crossed for one last wonderful day at the beach tomorrow.

Drives and Books and Beaches and Storms

I haven’t written in awhile.  The promised posts about our Route 66 adventures got lost in funerals, school and time.  Maybe I’ll come back to that someday. It was an interesting trip. On our drive down to Alabama this past weekend I was reading some of my blogs from trips gone by. It was interesting to read them because I’ve forgotten bits and pieces of detail.  The memories are there but they are big picture, lacking all the small details that make a trip worthwhile. My blog posts brought back some of the minutiae.  Today, sitting on the balcony of our rented condo, I read some of my dear friend Stacey’s blog articles again.  She’s a fantastic writer and I’ve really enjoyed reading her blog this past year. But, the side effect is comparing my writing to hers...not even in the same ballpark but I’m going to plow ahead ( two lame metaphors in one sentence) and write anyway.
Our drive down was long, uneventful and pleasant. I always marvel at how the culture changes as you drive south. Not just the way the language slides into a southern drawl but how the houses and towns and restaurants change. There are still a few vestiges of the sharecropper days with minuscule, ramshackle houses dotting the landscape.  Every town has at least three churches: Baptist, AME and Pentecostal. Every once in awhile there might be a Catholic Church as well.  Cafes offer fish fries.  Convenience stores sell boiled peanuts in a vat by the door.  I’ve yet to try them.

Our first night on the road was spent in Jackson, Mississippi. I’ve read the book “The Help” several times and practically have the movie memorized. You might remember that it takes place in Jackson although modern day Jackson looks nothing like it did in the 1960s. Then there’s the Johnny Cash-June Carter song “Jackson” so of course I was singing that song in my head all day and thinking about Abileen, Skeeter and Minnie. I would’ve loved driving over to the Fondren neighborhood to eat at Brent’s Drug. However,  Ken was afraid he’d have to eat some of Minnie’s pie if we did so we just skipped dinner.  Our hotel was the beautiful Old Capitol Inn in downtown Jackson.  We must’ve received an upgrade because we had a lovely one bedroom suite. The inn is just down the street from the original capitol building. It dates back to pre-Civil War and was spared by Sherman’s Army. Behind the inn is the brand new Mississippi History and Civil Rights Museums. I would love to come back and spend a day or two in Jackson just to visit these museums.

Saturday we took our time and moseyed down to Orange Beach. We only drove through one tiny rain shower, quite a change from previous years. We arrived at our condo a few minutes early so we walked over to the snack bar, bought a drink and said hello to th Gulf with a toast. I’ve been a little apprehensive about our condo since booking it. You just never know how accurate VRBO is and we chose a one bedroom this time as opposed to our usual two bedroom. We were pleasantly surprised. It is very nice and really just right for two. It isn’t fancy but it’s been updated and is quite attractive. I’m not a fan of the steep stairs up to the bedroom but that’s not a deal breaker either.  We like this complex because although it’s the oldest complex in OBA, it is right on the beach, doesn’t allow unaccompanied people under 25 and is gated. That translates to 0 distance to the beach, no loud parties or drunks and is a little more secure. After checking in we spent a couple of hours on the beach, went to dinner, WalMart and to bed.

I’ve been watching the weather forecast for the past week, noting that it changed every day.  About Thursday it started looking as if it wasn’t going to be a pleasant week. I’m not embarrassed to admit that along with my worrying I’ve been doing a lot of praying for good weather here. The wettest hasn’t been the best but it could be a whole lot worse. Yesterday we dodged a few rain drops but still spent several hours on the beach. Last night it poured which on the metal roof sounded like a herd of buffalo (we’re on the top floor).   Today we went to the Visitor’s Center, to a store Imwantd to go t (closed) and to make Dolphin Cruise reservations (no one there). The clouds started to darken, as did my spirits, and by the time we got back in the condo it was pouring again. I had about a 30 minute pity party and then shook it off. By 1:00 p.m the rain had stopped.  We were able to spend all afternoon beach sitting.  Ken has a cold so he covered up with a towel and snoozed a little. The rest of the week is supposed to be clear. Winter Storm Toby is on his way to the NE, hopefully without causing problems for my friends and family in its path.

We ate dinner at the always fun Hangout and I am so full I’m uncomfortable. Just chillin tonight.

Valerie asked me what I was reading. I like to read books that don’t require a lot of thinking when I’m here so I put Prairie Fires on hold for now. I figured that I didn’t need t read The Help for the third time so I brought a book I found when I did some cleaning last summer. I first read Giant by Edna Ferber in High School so I thought 40 years wasn’t to soon to read it again. I’ve read that Texans were not happy about how it portrayed them or the state of Texas.That’s very similar I think to how Jacksonians felt about The Help when it was published. Anyway, I’m enjoying Giant very much.

OBA and Gulfshores have changed since we were here in 2016.  There are several new restaurants and a couple of new hotels. Of course condos multiply faster than rabbits down here. The neatest change is the upgrades being made to the Gulf State Park.  There are several new boardwalks, two pedestrian crossovers and by fall there will be a brand new lodge.

If we actually do anything other than sit, read and eat I’ll write more later this week.

Miss y’all but I don’t mind being here.