Sand and Plans

July 4th was pretty awesome.

First we went biking in Chickasabogue park. But I didn't take any pictures. But if you know me, you know I LOVE to bike!!

Then in the evening went with some friends to the Battleship to see the Mobile City fireworks show. Several friends and my sisters got to come it was a rather fun night. :D









Here's my sisters Red, White, Blue...

This was not intentional but makes a great picture of us anyways.

On Saturday Here was "Plan A"
- Goto Pensacola to Weatherford's Outback in the morning
- Climb their rock wall
- Goto beach? Maybe. Maybe play some volleyball...
- Come back by 5 to Mobile to play Ultimate frisbee

By 8pm we were on "Plan H". Which involved
- Goto Weatherfords and find out the rock wall hours are 3pm to 9pm (it was 11am).
- Goto "Shiny Diny" for lunch and wait an hour to get food (sitdown to eating 1hr), but admittedly everyone thought it was Excellent!
- Take Nearly an hour to get to the beach (arrived at ~2pm) drive around for 30min and NOT find a parking spot.
- Continue EAST on hwy 399 till there were no more buildings and FINALLY find somewhere to park (along the road).
- Play some volleyball, hang out on the beach, 4pm time to go.
- Art and Amy arrive as we are walking out (I was NO help in getting them there sooner).
- Decide we really don't need to go back to Mobile so soon, Go back to the beach.
- Swim/Float/Frisbee/Sand Castles
- Theres suddenly a storm rolling, in take a picture, its time to Go.
- Go back to the pavilion/public safety building to change and watch the pandemonium as 5000 beach goers are trying to scurry out of the rain, and get clean, and in their normal clothes, same as us.
- Start driving to Mobile only to get separated from Art and Amy again.
- We're hungry where do we eat? Malbis Ma Bella's ...ok.
- Arrive in Malbis only to find ALLL the power is out and the Jubilee center is a ghost town with no lights on at all and no cars around. Daphne too, WEIRD!
- Continue to Mobile and eat at Logan's.
- Disband for the night....

Weatherford's Outback is a pretty cool store on highway 90 in pensacola. It sits right across from the water and just down the street from the shiny diny. They have all manner of backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, skiing, and climbing gear and clothing. They also have a really cool Golden Labrador dog. This is the Weatherford's Outdoor Climbing wall..


This is two pictures of the indoor. I plan to climb this one.

Not this part..

I felt it necessary to show these because in all my searching I couldn't find a single picture of the rock wall or the store. I will take more when we go and actually climb.


This is our group at the beach. This picture confirms several things for me. We actually did get Marshall to goto the beach (weird). We were all there and had a good time. Thusly today really did happen and some of our plans actually (Eventually) worked out.

The beach we found at the end of the buildings in Pensacola was actually pretty cool. It wasn't totally secluded, but there weren't a thousand people to get around either (and not alot of retirees like on gulf shores).

On the ride to Pensacola, Marshall was talking about "living in the moment" and how that somehow enhanced life. :) Then later when Weatherford's didn't work out Cherold mentioned how you make plans and hope they work, but when they don't you have something to swing from. Then on the way back to Mobile Marshall kept saying that he felt "Existential" this evening and how time seemed to be standing still.

I should tell you more about this, scenario. I told you about the plans, but as we were driving back it was raining and the rain was sheeting off the windshield. The sun was going down in front of us (we were heading west), but behind the clouds. Making everything a pale orange and blue. :)





It did seem time was at a standstill and very much like we didn't know anything about the next moment (except maybe that I would somehow mention Mutemath again). It was overall VERY VERY surreal. Then we arrive in Malbis, and there are no electric lights on AT ALL.

Once we got to Logan's I was talking to Marshall and managed to sum it up like this.. .
It's like looking at a waterfall and each moment is a little water drop and they just keep flowing and falling down. But looked at wider the water seems almost not to move as if time were at a standstill and nothing was happening.

Before today I was really worried the plan wasn't gonna work out, for a while I thought only me and Marshall were gonna climb and going to Pensacola just for that wouldn't be worthwhile. Additionally neither of us is really a climber (I don't like the hieghts personally). But in the end it worked out in spite of my inability to connect and communicate with Art in operational matters (sorry we left you behind twice). But in the end very glad everyone came and I think we all will have great memories of this adventure of a day.

It's often said it's not the destination but the ride. But I would interject that it is usually the destination, but you probably won't find what you expected once you get there, so you better appreciate the ride as well.