Son of Sam's Club
Current Waffle House Count: 22
Number of prisons in north Florida I've passed (in 400 miles) : 9
Number of pieces that Pensacola, Florida is in: 1,000,000,000
So it turns out the Red Sox have still not lost to the Yankees. Some people are telling me to stop worrying. They are even saying that the Sox have won the AL pennant. I am determined to fully research this and I will get back to you as soon as I have definite proof one way or the other.
I am currently at a very nice hotel in Point Clear, Alabama. There were a lot of lousy towns between Monticello, FL and here--Marianna, Clearview, Blountstown. We were in Milton, FL for a while. It has a nice old courthouse square with a beautiful old restored theater. Unfortunately, the stores are all empty. All of them. The only storefronts that are occupied are filled with county offices and country officers. Hurricane Ivan did some damage there--one building was turned into a big pile of bricks on the sidewalk. Somehow, in the middle of economic malaise and a weather emergency, they decided to spend money to keep building a big war memorial on the side of the river. It is supposed to be reminiscent of the Vietnam memorial, with the each of the five services represented on black marble, and slabs surrounding the park for each war. Each slab has the timeline of its war carved into it. “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1968.” “Saddam Hussein Captured, 2003” It was oddly unmoving, until you see that there are six empty slabs after “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Those, I imagine, are for the Bush Wing of the memorial.
There have been a ton of towns like Milton with dead downtowns. When you talk to the people, every one of them has the same song to sing. The economy was bad, but they were getting by, a Wal-Mart opens, then every business in downtown died. Just like that. We drive into an area and see a Wal-Mart, chances are the downtown is empty. That's that. We've heard this almost ten times. It’s like a pattern or something. Maybe there's a lesson here.
After Milton, we ended up in Destin, FL for the night before heading north into Alabama, a path that took us along the Gulf coast through Pensacola. Pensacola has been quickly re-arranged into piles of lumber along the roadsides. The city is literally a disaster area. I have lost count of the number of trucks hauling dead trees I’ve seen in the last two days, and those are just the trees that someone has managed to pick up. There are thousands along the side of every road, buildings with one wall standing. We saw an immense empty lot used to dump debris. It was full, stacked twenty-plus feet deep with what used to be Pensacola.
Later, we spent the day in Atmore, Alabama and I have to say it is quite a place. It's a small town whose main employer was Vanity Fair lingerie until about four years ago, when the plant was outsourced to someplace in Asia. They were hanging on as best they could and doing pretty well until Hurricane Ivan came along. Ivan knocked the hell out of Atmore.
There is a huge church steeple lying in pieces in the church parking lot near Atmore’s downtown. There are store facades missing half their siding and every third window is covered with plywood. Nevertheless, it’s among my favorites of the cities I've visited, for several reasons:
1. Very, very few Bush-Cheney signs. Compared to the other places.
2. I’m totally smitten with the twenty-something proprietress of the local coffeehouse, a great art gallery/coffee place. Totally. Wow.
3. Unbelievable barbeque. Gold's BBQ. Highly recommended.
4. The Chamber of Commerce gave me a T-shirt.
5. The Red Sox appear to have won the American League pennant.
There are many other reasons, but those made it a very good day.
The coffeehouse beauty was nervous about being interviewed on camera. She joked that she was worried that the camera would take her soul. I assured her that it couldn't, as it had already taken mine. That got a laugh, and I was in love. Ah, to be young and in Alabama...
More later. I have to sleep...
Number of prisons in north Florida I've passed (in 400 miles) : 9
Number of pieces that Pensacola, Florida is in: 1,000,000,000
So it turns out the Red Sox have still not lost to the Yankees. Some people are telling me to stop worrying. They are even saying that the Sox have won the AL pennant. I am determined to fully research this and I will get back to you as soon as I have definite proof one way or the other.
I am currently at a very nice hotel in Point Clear, Alabama. There were a lot of lousy towns between Monticello, FL and here--Marianna, Clearview, Blountstown. We were in Milton, FL for a while. It has a nice old courthouse square with a beautiful old restored theater. Unfortunately, the stores are all empty. All of them. The only storefronts that are occupied are filled with county offices and country officers. Hurricane Ivan did some damage there--one building was turned into a big pile of bricks on the sidewalk. Somehow, in the middle of economic malaise and a weather emergency, they decided to spend money to keep building a big war memorial on the side of the river. It is supposed to be reminiscent of the Vietnam memorial, with the each of the five services represented on black marble, and slabs surrounding the park for each war. Each slab has the timeline of its war carved into it. “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1968.” “Saddam Hussein Captured, 2003” It was oddly unmoving, until you see that there are six empty slabs after “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Those, I imagine, are for the Bush Wing of the memorial.
There have been a ton of towns like Milton with dead downtowns. When you talk to the people, every one of them has the same song to sing. The economy was bad, but they were getting by, a Wal-Mart opens, then every business in downtown died. Just like that. We drive into an area and see a Wal-Mart, chances are the downtown is empty. That's that. We've heard this almost ten times. It’s like a pattern or something. Maybe there's a lesson here.
After Milton, we ended up in Destin, FL for the night before heading north into Alabama, a path that took us along the Gulf coast through Pensacola. Pensacola has been quickly re-arranged into piles of lumber along the roadsides. The city is literally a disaster area. I have lost count of the number of trucks hauling dead trees I’ve seen in the last two days, and those are just the trees that someone has managed to pick up. There are thousands along the side of every road, buildings with one wall standing. We saw an immense empty lot used to dump debris. It was full, stacked twenty-plus feet deep with what used to be Pensacola.
Later, we spent the day in Atmore, Alabama and I have to say it is quite a place. It's a small town whose main employer was Vanity Fair lingerie until about four years ago, when the plant was outsourced to someplace in Asia. They were hanging on as best they could and doing pretty well until Hurricane Ivan came along. Ivan knocked the hell out of Atmore.
There is a huge church steeple lying in pieces in the church parking lot near Atmore’s downtown. There are store facades missing half their siding and every third window is covered with plywood. Nevertheless, it’s among my favorites of the cities I've visited, for several reasons:
1. Very, very few Bush-Cheney signs. Compared to the other places.
2. I’m totally smitten with the twenty-something proprietress of the local coffeehouse, a great art gallery/coffee place. Totally. Wow.
3. Unbelievable barbeque. Gold's BBQ. Highly recommended.
4. The Chamber of Commerce gave me a T-shirt.
5. The Red Sox appear to have won the American League pennant.
There are many other reasons, but those made it a very good day.
The coffeehouse beauty was nervous about being interviewed on camera. She joked that she was worried that the camera would take her soul. I assured her that it couldn't, as it had already taken mine. That got a laugh, and I was in love. Ah, to be young and in Alabama...
More later. I have to sleep...
posted by Matthew at 11:20 PM
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