Monday, March 9th: Drove into Fairhope this morning and headed south on the Eastern Shore trail.
The trail is mostly just a wide sidewalk running along the road so it has the usual cinder blocks, garbage cans, occasional phone poles and of course various landscape and construction trucks parking on it. Annoying but not really a big deal.
The trail does run along the bay but you can’t see it because the whole bay side is lined with houses. Made for a kind of boring ride. Sorry Alabama, but this one is no award winner. We stopped at a little park about 9 miles from Fairhope – that was off the trail a bit. Got see the bay and then just headed back into Fairhope.
Lots of construction happening. Even the houses well across the road from the water are going up high. (Commentary from Tom: If the stilt-houses don’t survive the next big hurricane it is time to ban building along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts, or make it build at your own peril – i.e. no insurance.)
Back at our barn loft Airbnb we enjoyed watching these two guys visit each other. I think they are separate owners so it’s just neighbors talking over the back fence.
Tuesday was a leisurely day – strolling through downtown Fairhope and chatting with some storekeepers and a woman in the restaurant who was excited to see someone from Clarksdale, Mississippi since she lives in a neighboring town. Jeannie had to break the news that the Clarksdale t-shirt was from a previous road trip. A pretty town with a lot of antique shops – some interesting items but none were worth packing in the minivan.
It’s a nice town and clearly a tourist destination given the number of people we saw cruising the shops. Good place to take it easy for a couple of days.
We even got to visit their very nice laundromat!