Amy’s Surprise

“We need to get away.” That’s what Amy said to me one day after work. “I want to go somewhere in the van.”

I recently retired so I was like, “Let’s go.” When she didn’t respond I inquired further, “Where do you want to go? How long are we talking about? Like the Acadia National Park Trip, a week or longer?”

“Longer.” she said still not offering any suggestions.

“Let’s go out west somewhere. Can you even get the time off? Are you working from the road?”

“I have enough time. Administration approved it! Can you believe that? We need to start planning. Where do you want to go first?”

We were going out west, traveling in the “Aloha” for two full months. She would have to do some work from the road and stay in touch with the team she managed while traveling. Amy felt pretty comfortable being able to do this. We have been on many trips together during our 25 years of marriage. We have never been gone for two solid months before.

We took a ten day trip to Hawaii, we flew in, we rented a Jeep and took a cruise. We stayed 12 days in Utah, flew in, rented a Jeep. We stayed 9 days in California, flew in, rented a Jeep. We drove the Aloha to Maine and visited Acadia National Park for ten days, we stayed a week in the Florida Keys, and a week boon docking the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. We had never driven out west. We had never lived out of the camper / van for two months straight.

60 days of non-stop traveling and camping all over the west? We had no idea what it would entail. Could we do this? Were we prepared? Financially and mentally prepared? The answer is yes and no. We felt good about it, positive. There were some minor set backs along the way. Life isn’t perfect it turns out.

7.5 Hour Drive

We live in North Florida. We spend most of our time on Florida’s West Coast, or the Gulf of Mexico side. We have visited and / or camped many places on Florida’s West Coast to include favorites like Marco Island, Sanibel Island, Ft De Soto, Cedar Key, Panama City, Destin, and Pensacola. I took numerous trips to Tallahassee, FL for work as well out west. Amy and I have never been further than Pensacola, however.

We live in Northeast, Florida close to Jacksonville about an hour’s drive from Georgia. So it takes a good 4-6 hours to drive to all of our favorite destinations on the West Coast. Driving to the Alabama state line took us 7.5 hours.

Interstate I-10 runs for 362 miles in Florida. We literally drove it entirely this trip, from Jacksonville, FL all the way to San Antonio, TX. The road can be extremely boring at times. We made up our own games along the way. I would write out some poetry and then sing it to Amy in my best Johnny Cash voice. We got a chance to talk a lot and got along great for the most part, lol. We have been married for 25 years now and still love being together. The van was at times, how can I put it, like an elevator at times, small and enclosed. It can be claustrophobic because of its size. We also experienced being homesick, well at least I did at times. A sudden sense of “Where are we?” “We are so far away.” “Do we have a home that we own still we can return to?”

I guess these are common things that cross your mind when you are not used to being away from family and home for so long. Having an end date in mind helps a lot. When we returned home (story for another time)I know we both experienced the need to get back in the van and go somewhere again. I think knowing we have a home base to come back to gives us security. After we returned and had time to reflect we knew that maybe one day in the near future we might be ready to make the big move, go on the road full-time.

The rain fell in torrential downpours beating against the windshield the entire drive to the state line. It rained so hard that at times my visibility of the road vanished altogether. We passed a couple different accident scenes wishing the best for those involved. We pushed on. The weather kept us way under the speed limit and cost us valuable time. Better be safe than sorry. Amy had a rather long playlist for us on iTunes and we continued to sing and hum to our favorite songs. She always puts hers on shuffle. Its irritating because you hear some of the same songs a lot for some reason. I thought that was the purpose of a shuffle, to shuffle the songs. It seemed like we listened to Jason Aldean’s “Holy Water” like every fifth song. I thought that was kind of strange it being one of Amy’s favorite songs and all. The song also happens to mention and talk about Flora Bama. Hmmmm…it was almost like she did that on purpose (of course she did)!

The Aloha ran smoothly the entire journey out west. We put her through an awful lot and added thousands of miles to her odometer for sure. I am a bit paranoid at times. Maybe over protective I suppose is a better way of putting it. I was a cop for 27 years I just expect the unexpected to happen. We traveled through gale force winds, tornados, hail storms, mud, heavy rain, and even snow fall during the trip. We will tell those stories soon enough. Just know that the van held its course and never wavered. Never failed us. Smooth sailing only we weren’t operating a boat this time.

The rain stopped finally as we drew near the state line. We had passed the Central Time Zone so we had gained an hour (falling one hour behind the timezone in which we live). It was still late. We were tired, hungry, and ready to call it a night. We aren’t night owls anymore, not in our twenties. I drove straight to the Florida Alabama state line passing the road leading to our campground for the night. This line is located in front of the Flora Bama Bar.

Coming into the area we drove down a stretch of two lane highway with enormous hotels to our left and glimpses of the Gulf Shores in-between the buildings we passed. It reminded us of when we visited Panama City, FL a couple of years ago, it had that beachy-vibe to it.

We saw the bar on our left as we stopped for a red light at the intersection. There was a small crowd of people crossing the street to the bar but it didn’t seem too busy. It was late and again, not the night owls we once were decided to park across the street at the Old River Grill. This a very nice restaurant / bar in Flora Bama with a beach and river running behind it. Makes for great views. We parked and headed up the stairs to the front entrance. Once inside, we were seated in a corner booth. The other tables were empty, only a few people were eating on the other side. We learned it was closing time soon so we ordered up. I had a gulf shrimp basket with fries and coleslaw. Amy ordered up the shrimp tacos. She got a glass of wine and I tasted a brew.

Food arrived rather quickly and we didn’t waste anytime putting it away. I held up my glass. Amy picked up hers and we toasted to successfully starting our big, big journey out west. We had landed at our destination. Flora Bama hadn’t even existed in our minds until a friend of mine, Tim G we’ll call him told me about it one day at work. He had posted some pictures on FB and well, we decided to put it on the itnerary Making Our Way Out West.

Gulf Shores / Pensacola West KOA

We arrived in the dark to our campground. This seemed to be a common theme for us along our trip. We got back late most nights and arrived in the dark or just before sundown. We didn’t get to see it until first light. Amy planned on working from the van the next day so I decided I would use the time to get my hard drives organized for photographs and videos. I made our journal entries for the day. I pulled out the bed and we threw the sheets on and crashed.

I made us eggs and bacon the next morning. We ate and waited for our eyes to open completely. We noticed during our trip, this morning being the first time, that having the air conditioning on all night blowing straight down on us from the ceiling caused us to have some stuffiness in the mornings. If you are like us, I know a lot of people tell us they are, you got to have a fan of some sort blowing on you at night to help you sleep. I’ve always gone to bed with a fan blowing on me. We’d have to deal with the sinus issues.

After my cup of coffee I transformed the bed into a couch. I attached the table and set Amy’s computer equipment on top for her. Oh, I forgot, I ended up pulling her side of the couch back out into bed form so she could stretch her legs out better and have more room for her notepad and stuff. She plugged in her headset, got the internet working, and fired up her computer and cell phone. She went to town, typing away and handling her meetings. She’s so professional, I love listening to her being so business like!

After she finished up her full day of work I asked Amy if she would like to take a walk and check out the campground. She was a willing participant and off we went. The grounds were well kept, lots of sites for large RVs, premium camp sites with patios, tent sites and small-large sized cabins for rent. It wasn’t as big as some of the other KOAs and campgrounds we would stay at later but still pretty cool spot. We walked down by the water, a small beach area with a lake, and out onto a boardwalk.

We returned to our van, we were ready to go. We planned on eating at the Ole River Grill once more and hopefully we could get a seat out on the back porch this time overlooking the beach, dock, and waterway. I undid the two cords (ah I love how easy it is to hook up and disconnect the van) and we made our way to the dump station. We used the restrooms and showers at the KOA main building instead of the van this time. I cleaned out the cassette toilet and dumped some gray water and we were on our way to the bar!

Oh, if you're curious to know, there are three different types of KOAs or Kampgrounds of America you can stay at. The three types are Journey, Holiday, and Resort.

KOA Journey campgrounds are conveniently located near major highways of North America. They have pull-through sites, after hour check in service and offer RV supplies usually. Not of all of them had a big store, but I would say the majority of the ones we stayed at out west did! Not one of their campgrounds were disappointing to us. In fact we have a favorite we’ll share with you later on. We did stay at one where we felt crammed in beside other campers and we’ll tell you about that one as well soon enough.

KOA Holiday campgrounds are usually closer to big destinations, have lots of activities to enjoy. They are campgrounds suited for exploring the areas you intend to visit. They tend to have more amenities. They have full service RV sites and deluxe cabins with nice well-kept bathrooms.

KOA Resort campgrounds are the deluxe KOAs. They are larger in size and house more RVs, tents, cabins. They have dog parks and all the amenities and have restaurants / cafes on site as well. We did find some cafes at the Holidays we stayed at as well. Some even served up pancakes. The resorts just seemed to feel more like a, well resort. The patio areas were larger, the stores as well. One of our favorites, we are still keeping secret until later was our #1 stay. The restrooms at the resorts were a lot bigger, private rooms with toilet and showers, some with a bathtub. They have even started adding glamping to their sites.

With all three in mind, they cost different prices of course with the resorts being the most. It also depends on the location your at, how popular it is to tourists.

We opted to sign up for their $33 annual KOA Rewards program where we get 10% off each stay and accumulate points that we can apply to future stays. The positive thing about KOAs is that they are everywhere, a huge network. We never had a problem finding one near the location we intended on exploring. You will hear more about our stays in future journals. We weren’t paid to say good things about KOA we just wanted to share our experiences at them, and we don’t have a negative thing to say. They emailed us way in advance to remind us of our upcoming stay, gave directions, made special arrangements during late check ins and well it was a great experience.

The Flora Bama Bar Experience

The second time we ate at the Ole River Grill we did in fact get to sit out on the back patio. The weather was nice, no chance of rain. I think we ordered the same meals as the night before because it had been so delicious. It was a bit windy but we didn’t let that ruin our meals. We ate, talked, and watched the families on the beach swimming and playing. We watched small boats docking and Yachts trolling down the waterway.

After we were stuffed, we finally made our way across the parking lot stopping to take some selfies by the Flora Bama sign and the Sweet Home Alabama sign by the roadway. We walked across the street and went up to the booth out front. The lady was really nice but informed us that they only accepted cash, no credit cards. Although they have ATM machines all over the place inside the bar they only had one out front. She pointed to a blue portapotty. “I know its weird, but it keeps people dry when its raining.” So into the portapotty we went! It was marked on the outside with the three letters ATM running down vertically across its door. It was probably two hundred degrees inside it. Sure enough there was an ATM machine inside. It took Amy a few minutes to learn how to operate it. Probably because who uses an ATM machine anymore? Not us, rarely if we do.

Cash in hand we paid our entry fees and got our hands stamped. A pirate symbol. Felt like kids again going out to an all-nighter at the club, lol. We climbed the stairs and went into the first bar. There is a series of bars and stages for each on the different floors / areas of the bar. As we exited one we saw tons of license plates from different states that said different funny things. So cool. Passed by a poster announcing the country singer Joe Nichols was coming to sing soon. Think he was from the 80’s or 90’s but we liked him. Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, and so many other favorites have played at this very bar. There have been movies filmed here and both Chesney (Flora~Bama) and Aldean (Holy Water) have written songs about the place or mentioning it. We came during an off season or something, not a large crowd, but of course we came early remember (not night owls anymore)!

My friend and former co-worker Tim G told us about the place a while back. Learned about a mullet toss challenge they do annually and it sounds like a pretty big deal at that. The Flora Bama is on Orange Beach, AL and borders Perdido Key, FL. From what I read, you can check out there website it’s very informative, is people by the droves come to stand in a ten foot circle on Perdido Key, FL to toss a frozen mullet fish (hair mullets are welcomed by the way) as far over the Alabama state line as possible. They have awards and concerts and all kinds of activities. Sounds interesting right? We’ll be back for sure, something different to do I know.

The Flora~Bama is one of the most famous beach bars in North America. It was originally constructed in 1964 after a road (Alabama State Route 182) was constructed connecting Orange Beach to Perdido Key. In the early days it was practically the only lounge in the area. As traffic increased along the highway so did business. The business grew of course to accommodate the larger crowds. The bar is host to a number of special events, a lot are around the holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and the Fourth of July.

We got lost easily with the twists and turns, upstairs, then downstairs, then around the corner. Bands playing everyone. I guess since you paid a cover charge the drinks are cheaper, or maybe we got bottom shelf? Dunno. We sat in each location for a few and eventually we made it to the boardwalk out back leading to the beach. There was another bar and little cafe out there with chairs and tables in the sand.

Amy of course all but ran down to the ocean water, kicked off her flip flops and into the water she went. She quickly turned around after contact with the cold, cold water and the expression on her face was unforgettable.

When she tired of the ocean, which rarely ever happens, we found some seats at a table and listened to the musician wrapping up his set with two final songs.

We ordered one more round of drinks and headed back in. Oh, but without drinks. Didn’t I explain already? Perhaps I forgot, sorry. I was busy reminiscing the scene while typing. It’s easy to find my mind wondering back to this lovely beach to watch the sunset on the ocean water. To explain quickly, because I probably need to wrap this story up soon (hopefully you reached this point), on the way out security stopped us on the boardwalk leading to the beach. We learned that you can take you alcohol out to the beach but you can’t bring it back in. In Florida, the laws are a little different, where you can’t walk away with alcohol from a licensed establishment. This is no knock on Alabama, we just thought it was strange. I think its because they don’t want you sneaking alcohol back into the bar, makes sense if that’s the reason. So in other words we downed our drinks before going back through. It’s a wonderful place to visit and camp for sure. We shall return one day to explore further!

Season 2 of Vanlife has begun. Watch the Flora-Bama Video Now!