The Flora-Bama Extravaganza or The Frank Brown International Songwriters' Festival

Gulf Shores, AL     High:  69    Low:   57

We're talking about the 28th Annual Frank Brown International Songwriters' Festival, held all over town here in Gulf Shores, AL and the surrounding area. The festival is usually held in early November and this year it's from Nov. 8th thru the 18th.....We're talking about over 200 songwriters coming from all over the U.S. and the world to multiple locations in Perdido Key, Pensacola FL, Orange Beach, and Gulf Shores, AL. Many of the songwriters are multiple award winners, many are up and coming writers trying to make it in Nashville. Many of them are here FROM Nashville. They are here to pitch their songs, to see fellow musicians and renew friendships made over the years here in Alabama. They are here to make connections, to have a good time, share their stories behind the inspiration for their songs and share that with you. Most of the venues where the musicians are playing are free, some of the places have a nominal cover charge.

You want to hear some famous award winning songs that have won Grammy awards and other multiple awards from the songwriters who wrote them? They are here. Sparky had a hard time choosing some of the most well known, there were so many.  A lot of the writers are country music based and may not be known to you if you don't follow country music...But here's a very short list of some of the accomplished songwriters:

Sonny Throckmorton--From 1976-1980, there were only three weeks when one of his songs wasn't on the charts...He has written FIFTEEN #1 country hits...

Will Nance--wrote #1 Brad Paisley smash--"She's Everything", on the multi-platinum 2007 CMA album of the year...George Strait has recorded several songs that Will wrote...

Wood Newton--wrote "Bobbie Sue" for the Oak Ridge Boys, and "Riding With Private Malone"..He's written several more songs that won BMI awards for being played over a million times. He has two songs in the new movie "The Last Ride"--a movie about the last three days of Hank Williams' life.

Billy Dean--Eleven Top Ten singles over 18 years, numerous BMI awards....

Brett Jones--Fourteen Top Ten records, seven #1's....Most recent hit is Billy Currington's "That's How Country Boys Roll"...

We have a whole book full of talented songwriters and their bios and when they play, you gotta have this to figure it all out! We got this from Lulu's, the restaurant in Gulf Shores, that Jimmy Buffett's sister owns. The bartender gave it to us...Inside is a handy dandy chart of all the venues, times, and artists...

It was hard to decide where to go last night!  We decided to go to the Flora-Bama....A big, sprawling, Gulf Coast landmark that bills itself as a beach bar/oyster bar and America's last roadhouse. It's located on Perdido Key, Pensacola, FL. They say you can have a millionaire sitting next to a biker, and we don't doubt that! Last night, we were sitting just feet away from Kenny Stabler, who used to be the left handed quarterback for the Oakland Raiders years ago and was the league's MVP.  The "Bama" as locals refer to it, serves a special drink called the "Bushwhacker"....They have lots of bands that can play on several stages, so its a huge entertainment draw in the area, with entertainment featured just about every night.

We paid a 5.00 cover charge for general admission to a couple of stages at the "Bama", but then decided to pay 5.00 more each to go to the "Listening Room", where we parked ourselves for the rest of the night to hear some fabulous entertainment from some of the songwriters here for the festival...Sparky tried to take photos, but they came out so poorly, she couldn't use them...But picture this....the Listening Room is an intimate setting of bar tables, booths, and a small center stage. The room is dimly lit. It's cozy and quiet, no talking during performances, and you'll be admonished if you do. That was very much appreciated....The performers interacted with the audience very personally and the entertainment was wonderful! We heard some of the folks mentioned above...Will Nance was terrific along with Steve Williams in their session,  Rusty Budde, and Red Lane are getting up there in years, but were still wonderful in theirs...Sparky doesn't know some of these old country songs, but Eldy does, and he just loved their music. You really had the feeling you were experiencing the history of country music by sitting in this cozy room and listening to some beautiful guitar playing, great story telling and lyrics that made you get tears in your eyes. It almost feels like song writing is a dying art, when you listen/read to a lot of what's being written today.

We heard some great women play...Donna Slater, Elaine Petty, and Ronda Hart were terrific! Those gals had some pipes, let me tell you!

One of the more disappointing sessions, was with Sonny Throckmorton. He got up on stage, forgot the lyrics to his own songs, appeared very wasted and gave up almost at the start, cracking jokes the rest of the session. He was quite the comedian, so it wasn't a total disappointment, but when it's your first time in the area to hear some legendary songwriters, it was a bit of a disappointment to see he wasn't up to his game....His buddies held their own, despite him..  Rock Killough was a delight on the keyboards and guitar. Rock has three songs on Sammy Kershaw's albums and has done vocals, played guitar or harmonica with Hank, Jr., and Merle Haggard.

We really enjoyed our first visit to the Frank Brown International Songwriter's Festival, or FBISF, as it's known. We hope to visit more venues this coming week to hear some more wonderful songs and see the writers. It was so cool to see the OTHER side of a successful song hit, the songwriter who made it possible. What was also wonderful to hear was the songwriters' voices themselves--they deserve to be heard, most of them have wonderful voices. You wonder why they aren't as well known as the recording stars are. It was great to hear the stories behind the songs, too....A wonderful experience and we are so lucky to be here to enjoy the music and the writers.....Stay tuned--ha ha-- for more down the road....

Gotta Go to The Gulf!

Gulf Shores, AL    High:  70    Low:  50

Yesterday, we went to the Gulf Shores Public Beach, the one that highway 59 dead ends into. We sat and watched the birds, and what few people were there. The beach was practically empty! Of course it was just only 60 degrees or less with a strong breeze blowing, making it cooler.

What few people were there, were having fun.....

We walked the beach for a bit and saw workers still looking for tar balls from the BP oil spill, but they weren't finding very many, they said. That's good! The beach sand was white as white could be, and soft, not scratchy with sharp shells as some beaches can be. We thought the Gulf Shores beach was one of the prettiest beaches we have ever seen....

After walking the beach a bit, Sparky saw an interesting place called The Hangout right behind the beach. She decided to check it out, did a walk through, and looked at the menu. Eleven to seventeen dollars for a hamburger--not for us, even if it IS on the gulf! It was a cool place, and during season, (March thru October) it's one of THE places to be...Dancing on the tables at night? OK, maybe for the twenty-somethings and Sparky back in the day...NOT! :-) There was a "Wishing Wall"--a cool piece of "art" where people write wishes on colorful little pieces of paper, then try to find any empty slot to stuff the wish in.

The Hangout has an outdoor area with their own little beach with gigantic Adirondack chairs, an outdoor stage for entertainment....and some cool signs, too...

The indoors was HUGE, with a dedicated "living room" for watching football games-- sofas, a big screen TV and all. But we were starting to get hungry and wanted something a little more reasonable. Eldy had seen something on TV about a new restaurant/bar and grill in Orange Beach that was made from cargo shipping containers, called The Gulf. The same people who own the Hangout have started this restaurant, The Gulf.

What a cool place! It's a restaurant/bar/grill/beach and a VERY classy hangout. And VERY reasonable food--six dollars for a delicious burger with aioli mayo and the works on a very fresh, lightly grilled brioche bun. Best burgers/fries we have ever had! (4.00 for a fries order and it's big enough for two)  It's not just a burger place, but it is a limited menu which is written on a blackboard each day. They had some other lunch offerings for people with a more adventuresome palate--some kind of cerviche--a seafood dish, another mushroom dish for today's menu and something else which Sparky doesn't remember. The decor?.... It's AWESOME!

This restaurant has the feeling of sorta like being in the middle east, with the seating on the beach, the chairs, the colorful rugs....If Sparky is not mistaken, along with the very current music that was playing, she could have sworn that they were playing "Scheherazade", music from Korsakov at one point!

How about these hammocks in the palms....Sparky was wondering if people had too much to drink, maybe the bar/grill might have a hard time getting them to leave?

The owner's wife has a flair for the eclectic...A mixture of all kinds of vintage and antique chairs and tables and antique decorations...

Sparky loved the color washed table and chairs....

Sparky loved the eclectic seating, too.....everything from old metal chairs to tractor seats to plush settees on the beach....We didn't want to leave!

There's a really cool upstairs that looks like an outdoor living room and the view from the upper deck is fantastic!

And yes, that is real lawn grass that all the furniture is sitting on! What a colorful feast for the eyes at this place. Can you tell we liked it? :-) Oh, YEAH! We'll definitely be back!

Satsumas Season...Yum!

Gulf Shores, AL    High:  65    Low:  44

It's a short and sweet blog today. If you've been following our blog, you might remember Sparky talking about Satsumas last year...those fabulously sweet oranges that are grown in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama...They are a Japanese hybrid version of a mandarin orange and can withstand brief cold periods. Cooler weather actually makes them sweeter. They can survive temps below freezing for a few hours, should the mercury dip...They look a little bigger than your ordinary canned mandarin oranges. Easy to peel, no seeds usually, and oh, so sweet! It's satsuma season here in the south!

We saw a guy selling them out of his truck right on highway 59, which is near where we found them last year with a lady selling them out of her station wagon on a side road near Gulf Shores...So we bought a bunch--about thirty of them for five dollars. There's a Farmer's Market by the Gulf Shores Pavilion every Saturday from 8:00 AM till noon, and they can sometimes be found there, too. They look so delicious, and they are!

That's one of the most wonderful things about full timing, getting to taste truly fresh produce from its origins, or eating freshly picked that day from a field or orchard...If you've never tasted a satsuma, you are missing out on one of nature's sweetest treats. Time to get snackin'!

Basket Class or Not?

Gulf Shores, AL     High:  66    Low:  39 (!)

Sparky was all set to take a pine needle basket class this morning at the Orange Beach Art Center. She had read about it in the local newspaper. After calling to get directions to the art center, she found out there was no basket class...Not today, not every Wednesday, as the paper had said. Well, PHOOEY! That would have been very cool to have learned how to do that...There are long leaf needle pine trees all over this park, and the baskets you can make from them are fabulous! Well, maybe another place, another time....(Whew! I thought we were going to have bays full of pine needles, says E., with a relieved sigh.) Um-m-mmmmm...I might still collect them just in case I run across a basket class...Ya never know! (Sigh.....)

Sparky headed over the Orange Beach Library to find out about their digital mobile book lending service...She has a Kindle Fire and wants to get some FREE books on it. There are lots of free ones on the internet and through Amazon, but Sparky can't tell the good from the bad, 90% of the books she's never heard of, nor is she familiar with the authors. It seems that the wish list of books she has compiled and wants to read cost a fair amount of MONEY! Phooey! Time for another strategy to start reading more. Sparky wanted to know if you had to be a county resident to obtain books on loan, digitally or otherwise, and if they had some kind of special arrangement for snowbirds. Guess that's what we are, although we don't stay long enough in one place like most snowbirds do in the winter.

It turns out that I got to get a FREE library card, I can check out digital books from this library any time for two weeks at a time, and I can check out materials from this library digitally any time. They have what's called a Visitor Library Card. It was FREE!  For now, no restrictions and it's good forever. Yay! The Digital Bookmobile was COOL! They had videos showing you how to download from the library using a free app called OverDrive. Apparently, all (?) the libraries use it for patrons to download digital library books, at least that's what the guy said at the Digital Bookmobile today.

They also had all the latest gadgets for people to try out---Nooks, iphones, tablets, Kindles, every kind of device and manufacturer you could want. It was terrific! If you were having trouble trying to decide which device to get, this would have been a great place to try them out...all the different ones there at once. Fun!

Back home again....Eldo had gone for a 7 mile bike ride...He's really enjoying the park and the trails here at Gulf State Park...Sparky went out this afternoon and checked out the Rattlesnake Trail and the Twin Bridges trails, and darn if she didn't see a snake on the Rattlesnake Trail! It appeared to be dead, like somebody had previously run over it.  Sparky was busy checking out the long leaf pine needles right pretty darn close to it and didn't see it until the last minute. Scared the bejesus out of her!  UGH!

Beautiful scenery, beautiful day again today.....The Rattlesnake Trail is not as pretty, in Sparky's humble opinion..It's just a short straight shot from the park to the trailhead end, which ends up at Orange Beach City Hall.

The Twin Bridges Trail is much prettier...two wooden bridges, lots of curves, prettier scenery....

There were some interesting plants growing beside the bridge...Spore heads on these plants or seed pods? Where's a naturalist when you need one?

Sparky just loves ornamental grasses and even the weeds!

The park has all kinds of different habitats...Here the fire ravaged forest is trying to recover. The brambles looked like they were on fire in the setting sun of late afternoon....

There are places to sit and picnic on these trails....This appears to be a new shelter that wasn't here last year.

To cap off our wonderful day...We caught up with Jan and Greg White who are in town for ten days here at Gulf State Park. They've been gate guarding in Texas over the summer and had quite a few stories to tell about that, the scorpions Jan killed, and their experiences can be relived at Our RV Adventures if you'd like to know more. We talked over dinner at Lulu's this evening, the restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister. They are a warm and friendly couple, and we always enjoy seeing them again. Glad you are back, guys!

Sparky, the Firebug!??

Gulf Shores, AL    High:  65   Low:  42

If you've been following the blog, you know that Sparky LOVES campfires...There's something irresistible about the flames licking the wood, the flames dancing around in the fire pit, swallowing up the logs, consuming the wood...Sparky is a great fire starter with her little fire pit method...Get the little fire starter wrapped yellow logs that are sold at Wally World, or use the dark brown little fire block pieces that are soaked in something that get your fire going, make a little teepee of light kindling wood on top of the fire starter log, light a match and watch it burn. Sparky could watch a campfire for hours if she didn't get sleepy while becoming mesmerized by the flames. (It's probably the glass or two of wine that's really to blame, explains E.) And those colorful flame sticks you throw into the fire to cause the beautiful blues, greens and purples? Can't forget those! Eldy always has to put the fire out, as Sparky can never make it to the final minutes of the dying burning embers...(Sigh...That's right, says E. I'm the last one in on campfire nights.)

So when Sparky saw smoke in the sky, she knew there was FIRE...There had to be a big fire in the area....We pulled off to watch it from a distance...

We saw it from several stopping points along the road as we were heading into town for a pizza...The wind picked up...

And the fire picked up.....Clouds of big black smoke billowing towards the high rises on the ocean...

It looked worrisome.....

But it was a prescribed burn..We saw firefighters and equipment monitoring the burn...They have to burn the grasses, debris and forest litter that hurricanes bring in and pack down when the water surges come in and then retreat...The debris left behind packs down and the plants can't breathe and grow. The risk of wildfires increases with the packed grasses so the county does controlled burns to return grasslands back to natural habitat. The burning of the undergrowth release nutrients back into the soil, and helps animals species as well....They have cool season burns and growing season burns in Alabama. Hmph! Didn't know that!

Sparky's stomach was growling so on we went to Papa Ricco's Pizzaria, in Gulf Shores..."home of warm beer and lousy pizza."  The pizza was actually quite good, and the beer nice and cold. We were wondering about the state of the fire, so we went back the same way to check on the way home...When you see a large grass fire, you are wondering if it really is under control, but we guess it was...there was fire equipment on standby, and firefighters watching in all directions...and then there were the gawkers...That would be Sparky and Eldo....(I swear that's how Sparky got her nickname, she's a pyro nut! says E., as he shakes his head, watching his Sparky watch the fire.)

Still burning....Hope it's under control as they said it was....Sparky talked to a fire supervisor briefly, and they were very non-chalant about it so it must have been under control. The amount of smoke in the air was alarming, you would think the public would be hollering about pollution, but apparently, it's an evil necessity to keep wildfires under control. Seems like an oxymoron, sort of....You create fires to avoid fires....OK, then....Here's my last shot of the day...it's so unusual, we're not sure what happened with the camera...driving along and I accidentally hit the button as we were coming back home??? Threw it in the blog just to preserve it....

Just another boring day (NOT!) in the life of full time Rvers.....  :-)

Catman Road Trail...

Gulf Shores, AL    High:  68     Low:   43

Sparky went out exploring the trails today. In particular, the Catman Road Trail in the park, a part of the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail. Catman Road is a distance of about 6.5 miles out and back from the Gulf State Park main road...It was the perfect day for a ride, not too hot, not too cold....The trail has wonderful places to stop and sit along the way....Like right off the bat, there is a shaded park bench with a dock where you can tie up your boat if you came in on the waterway and just wanted to get out and stretch your legs, or there are many other spots to sit and rest in the shade along the way.

A beautiful butterfly garden on the way, about midway on the trail...A shelter with a screened in porch and picnic benches to get in out of the sun. And then there is the garden with bushes and flowers attracting lots of butterflies...These are the Gulf Fritillaries Judy was talking about in Travels with Emma...

Stopped to take more photos...Sparky's eye was caught by some other pretty plants and foliage along the way....Nothing really too special about this bush, just the way the sunlight caught it, caught Sparky's eye...

And the personal dedications on the benches and swings to those who loved nature are just wonderful and heartwarming to see....What nice tributes!

This one sign under a shaded porch swing..."In honor of Dr. Don Kidd, precious husband & best biking buddy, loving daddy boy. With great respect and love, your family".

A beautiful ride on the Catman Road Trail today. No gators seen today, Sparky is going looking for 'em on another trail tomorrow! With all the alligator signs around the park, they gotta be here somewhere!

Settlin' In....

Gulf Shores, AL     High:  67    Low:  48

Sparky REALLY wants to go swimming in the huge Olympic size pool here at Gulf State Park, but it's too dang cool outside and in the water-- both still about 64 degrees...The weather is not supposed to warm up till Friday, temps in the low seventies, maybe she can go swimming then.

In the meantime, it's take care of business today--laundry and some errands...Ever see so many machines available in a campground laundromat? Two dollars to wash, 1.25 to dry...a common price in campgrounds that we have been in.

Next we headed up to Camping World to get a zero gravity chair, one of those chairs where you push back on the lower bar and it moves back into a nap position :-). It's a little pricey but nice. We looked them all over very carefully and this one was the most well made, the most comfortable, had the best locking levers and seemed like it would hold up the best. We purchased the warranty with it for two years..normally, we don't do that, but sunlight really does a number on fabric chairs even with protective UV stuff in the fabric. The grommets start to pull away from the fabric as the UV rays beat down on the fabric, weakening it, the elastic starts to give and shred after awhile. After rethreading our last chairs twice, and the grommets ripping, we were ready for a new chair. Why not paid a few extra dollars for the protection plan and get a new chair if something goes wrong? Eldy goes through his rocker chair about every two years, so it's been well worth it to get the warranty plan. Sparky loves the chair and will be spending more time relaxing in it...(HA! We'll see if that happens, but that's part of the reason we got the chair, to make Sparky slow down a bit, explains E.)

We've been riding our bikes around the park...It's so big that if you go around all the streets in the park, you get about 6 1/2 miles for a bike ride just riding in the park! It's one of people's favorite things to do here in the park....We like riding around seeing if there are any fellow "Hoosiers" here (that's people from Indiana). There are a few, but not as many as you would think in a park this size. Tons of Michiganders, lots of people from Illinois, LOTS of Canadians--Ottowa, especially, and smattering of Kentuckians, Vermonters, Illinois people, :-)  and of course Alabamians. Eldy enjoyed  riding around so much yesterday, he says he might try to ride the park every day. You heard it here, first, folks..(Great...says E., with a BIG sigh..) Nothing like a little loving, encouraging pressure to help our guys stay in shape, right, ladies?

Love the little animals around the signs in the park....

There are definitely quite a few walking trails within the park....

And quite a few alligator warning signs, "DON'T FEED OR AGGRAVATE THE ALLIGATORS"--REALLY? Like somebody would be dumb enough to aggravate an alligator? (Uh, Sparky?.......) Who, me? Naw......I'm not THAT crazy....

But Sparky hasn't seen a single alligator in the park....Just lots of birds and this little tree frog, if that's what he is.

Hope he stays outside and doesn't want to come in, like the last little dude Sparky encountered staring at her from the bedroom floor while going down the road a few months ago. That last little frog, no, wait, he was BIG-- jumped onto the fridge with his sticky little webby feet, and Sparky just about had a heart attack and screamed, and Eldy just about slammed on the brakes with all the commotion going on in the back of the rig. That was the "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BACK THERE??!!" story in case you missed it. The little hitchhiker was safely disposed of by trapping him in a paper cup and let outside as soon as it was safe to do so......

That's it for now.....see ya later.....