Travels with CC and Dixie: Acorns keep Fallin' on my Head

Sunday driving is always good, less traffic and construction workers at home. We travelled up into Alabama to the huge campground called Rainbow Resort. The Live Oak trees are in fall mode and their little black acorns are piled on the ground and raining down from the trees in a slow drizzle. They could be heard all over the campground and during the night, hitting the metal roofs of the motor homes.

Amazing what some RVers tow...party boat?!

Magnolia seed pod...note "fur-like" stem

On Monday, we drove to the famous or some say infamous restaurant "Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls" for lunch. The restaurant opened in 1942 with a handful of tables and eight stools at the counter. Even through the war years, it survived and grew to the huge place it is today, based on the generous portions of fresh, down home cookin'. Fresh, warm dinner rolls have always been passed around to guests when they are seated in Lambert's. The crazy practice of throwing the rolls across the restaurant began when an impatient guest shouted to have his bread tossed instead of delivered and a tradition was born. Lambert's exterior wall is covered in murals and inside,antiques and country signs and artifacts decorate the walls. As well as the items on the menu such as the fried chicken and catfish that we ordered, are a huge list of pass-arounds that are offered throughout your time in the restaurant. Just a few of those are: black-eyed peas, fried okra and apple butter. Needless to say, we both loaded large carry-out containers with our leftovers. Dinner not required!

Chris was a little under the weather on Tuesday so I drove to Pensacola Naval Air Force Museum on my own. The base and museum are in a fabulous location on a sandy peninsula jutting out into the ocean. Two huge hangers hold an incredible number of restored aircraft on the museum floor and hanging from the rafters. As well as early and WWII aircraft, there are displays of helicopters, coast guard planes and modern jets.
Many exhibits are interactive and visitors can sit in the cockpit of a Blue Angel jet, or experience a simulator and view downed planes under water in a mock submarine. The mechanically inclined can peer into engines and at control panels and peeled back panels of aircraft.
Throughout the museums are huge models of aircraft carriers with numerous model planes parked on deck and miniature marines tending to the hundreds of jobs that keep those specialized floating behemoths operational.
The Hall of Honor displays commemorative plaques and statues of important naval and air commanders, pilots, admirals and other heroes.
Wartime lifestyle was depicted in a street scene with a small grocery, a drugstore, barber shop as well as a simple family home with its basic kitchen and sitting room, all with products and artifacts from the 1940's.
Four Blue Angel FA 18 Hornet Jets hang in the atrium looking respectfully down on three heritage planes. A giant American flag inspires awe.
I was stopped in my tracks outside when four jets flew above me with their hair-raising, muscle-clenching roar; thrilling me to the core.

Before heading back to Chris & Dixie, I stopped at the Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum. It was festively decorated for Christmas and filled with furniture and objects from the early 1900's.