Fragments From Floyd

So what's there for a fella to get into in Mobile, Alabama over Thanksgiving weekend? Anybody have suggestions or experiences, down there as far south as a person can go in Dixie?

I haven't found much in the way of bloggers in Mobile to connect with, and it won't be a good weekend for book-related events (writers groups meeting that I could visit, that sort of thing.) There are some wildlife refuges within an hour's drive that could have a pretty good migration of birds passing through or over-wintering, and there's got to be some natural dunes and seashore where I could go with camera and meditate in the sand and take in the very different taste of ocean versus our mountain air and energy. Surely that would inspire some worthwhile snippets to write about (the motel DOES have wireless in "select rooms" and in the hotel atrium, so I can at least post a blog item or two while I'm there.)

Friday night, I can settle for the most interesting of the unappealing movies in the area and spend too much money to sit through one or two of them, just to kill time. And there have to be some really great seafood restaurants where I can eat a week's allotment of southern-fried grease in one meal. And on Saturday, I've never been to the Battleship Alabama--a more touristy thing to do than is my usual.

But if anybody knows one or more "you simply must" kinds of things especially for Saturday, November 25th in Mobile, I will need to entertain myself all day, as I will be a High School Reunion Widower.

The wife for almost five months has been in over her hip waders as part of the planning committee for this large-round-number event where she'll be reunited with folks she hasn't seen for the most part in XX years.

She has quite taken over control of the desktop computer (I'm glad for the laptop!) and I don't even bother checking our home email any more--they're all for her, and all about the reunion. This event is becoming a major blip on the seismograph and has come to dominate her life and our conversations of late. She's already laying out her wardrobe, so I have to get my ducks in a row, too, as an autonomous travel companion along for the ride.

I'll drive her down and back (a 1400 mile round trip) and will hover in the shadows around the periphery while she and her friends do what it is they will do, but for the most part, I'll need to entertain myself as she and I will be ships passing in the night.

The decision that I WILL GO has been fraught with all sorts of approach-avoidance issues as some of you who have been through this mid-life inter-spousal conflict of interest might understand. I intend to be as present for her there as I need to be and as invisible and remote as I can manage to be, so she'll have the independence to come and go and the autonomy she requires for this short period of life immersed back in the people and places, times and spirits of the sixties, a-Go-Go, doo-whop doo-whop. I only wish my graduating class had put together such an event.

So help me get outta th' house that weekend, folks. Save me from hours in the Motel pool and bar or some seedy Barnes and Noble drinking cappuchinos. Surely there's something going on down on the coast that a geriatric blogger-photographer could get into that will yield good memories (or photographs or stories) to bring north with us. Your brilliant ideas by comment or email will be most welcomed! You have 9 weeks to complete your assignment. Get busy, y'all!