Crazy Times in Orange Beach

I guess that once you have completed the Loop you do crazy things. 

Mark here is modeling the bra that Susan and Linda were going to hang in the ultimate dive, Flora-bama.  Linda had read about this place in one of the guide books so we decided to stop for a beer before doing our shopping.  It was a neat place with a lot of character and history.  It was partially destroyed in Hurricane Ike in 2005 and since then they have added different levels and bars to the part of the building that survived.  The room with the bras hanging from the lines has different colored tarps lashed together to form the roof.  The "roof" is supported by white PVC piping which acts as the trusses which in turn are "ducted taped" at the peak to the cross piece.  Notice that the instigator, Susan is not in any of the photos.  She was the one who insisted that we go back that evening  and she was the one who insisted that we take them to a Dollar Store so that they could buy a bra to donate to the character of the place.  All the prep was done but the girls did not have the balls to hang the bra.  As it turned out, we got there fairly early (ie. before 7 PM) but after paying a $5 cover charge each (and after more shopping by the girls (she bought another T-shirt)) we discovered the place was fairly crowded.  It is "Song Writers Month" down here and there is live music almost everywhere.  We discovered that Flora-bama is quite popular, even more so in the summer.  They have been known to have 5,000 people a day attend some of their events.  In the end, Linda left her mark on one of the bars and it was dully recorded for our records along with the now useless bra.  There is hope though, Mark and Susan, on behalf of all Loopers, have promised to hang the bra so that the AGLCA patch (with Linda and Susan's name)  is hung in a respectable spot of prominence.  It was great fun.

There were a couple of other interesting sights at Orange Beach.  The Captain docking the boat behind us actually did the docking form up in the crow's nest.  It looks a little scary but I'll bet that he does not have any blind spots like I do.

Huh, I ain't the only one to touch bottom at this very spot.  This 120 foot boat ran aground the morning that we left Orange Beach.  This is the very spot where I touched bottom but was able to back off because I stopped in time.  It is now confirmed: it was not my fault nor the navigator's fault: the buoy needs to be re-positioned to account for the shoaling in that area.

During the last couple of days we have seen oil spill clean up crews working along the beaches, lots of them.  Near Orange Beach they were actually scrubbing in-between the inter-locking bricks.  In other locations I have seen heavier equipment moving the sand.  From my perspective everything looks normal in this area and I spent two weeks along this coast in February.  Although this area was spared for the most part, there is no hint of the oil spill from a visual perspective but the businesses sure can feel the strain from the lack of tourists since the disaster.

On Saturday we move on.