When you’ve come this far, might as well keep going
Hey ya’ll!
Sometimes in life there are stories that tell themselves – we are merely the conveyors of the words or a simple scribe to preserve them. This is one of those stories; I was merely along for the ride.
I awoke to a balmy seventy degrees in Mobile this morning – a reminder that Fall in the South is a constant battle with the remnants of Summer. I had decided last night that if I’ve gone this far, there is no way I’m going back home without going to the beach first. And so I did – and the trip was totally worth it. I chose Dauphin Island for a few reasons – proximity to where I was staying, it’s an island (which is awesome in itself), I’ve never been there, and the drive looked like more fun than actually getting there.
I was right.
The drive led me along a parkway that was graced by breaking waves of the ocean on one side and khaki colored grass of a marshland on the other side. Eventually, the land faded away and it was only ocean on both sides of the parkway. There is something to be said about being totally alone with only a cup of coffee, the new day’s sun, and the fragrance of the ocean in the air.
Dauphin Island is truly a little gem where Southern Pines, oaks covered in Spanish moss, crepe myrtles, and palm trees all live together. It is the perfect blend of everything I love in a vast plush green and just beyond that a body of blue that laps against the sand. I drove the full length of the island and somehow found a station playing those old standards I love so much. You know the kind – Ray Charles and Bobby Darwin - and for a few minutes I felt like that guy who plays the pilot on Pan Am driving with the top down (corny, but if you watch Pan Am you understand).
So now as I type this, I’m sitting at the University of South Alabama staring out a window at a lush palm tree. And just behind that is a row of crepe myrtles – I’m going to have a tough time staying indoors this morning.
Warm Southern Days,
Russ
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