On Dothan and Alligators

Look at that thing! It's huge! (That's what she said....HEE-YOOOO!!!)

We've never been to South Alabama before. Our neighbors who used to live here in Auburn moved back home to Dothan two months ago, and we decided to visit them.

We were told we were going to go fishing, and that we'd be hunting an alligator.

Wait, I'm sorry....A what?

Dothan has about 70,000 people living in the city, and about 100,000 living in Houston County where it's located. Our friends recently moved back home after the wife graduated with an Architecture degree from Auburn. Don't ask me how she married to an Alabama fan. That's a house divided on Saturdays.

Anyway, we drove Friday after work and saw the sights on the way down. Like this.

Yup. You hear that a lot down here. Everyone thinks they have the best butt. Quite frankly, I've seen a lot better up north. And have you ever visited People of walmart? Sheesh...

We also went through a wicked thunderstorm. It looked like we were heading into Mordor.

Help me, Jeebus

I mean, seriously, have you ever seen anything so onimous and scary? ...Besides People of Walmart, I mean... Now, that's scary.

Despite the rain, we made it to our friends house, made dinner, and relaxed. I was accussed of being a party pooper because I went to bed at 11:30 pm on a Friday night. It's always nice when your wife calls you a party pooper.

Yeah. Real nice.

So, as I was saying. The next day we woke up, ate breakfast, and because we had a 5 year old with us, we spent the morning in the backyard pool. And that was very nice. It's been awhile since I had the opportunity to just bum around at a pool and not do a gosh darn thing. It was sweet.

Disregard the beer and the cigarettes

We showered, dressed, and got lunch at a place called the Firestone Pizzeria. Who knew that I'd have to drive to Dothan Alabama to have great, thin crust pie. Seriously, and even though both the sauce and the crust was off, it reminded me of Pepe's. Although I do miss Pepe's, and Luna's in West Hartford. (Sigh).

As you drive around downtown Dothan, you'll come across these great murals painted on the sides of the buildings. When we go back in November for the Peanut Festival, I'm going to actually get out of the car and take decent pictures. Until then....

Ray!!!!!!

It's George Washinton Carver!

We then drove out to a small farm stand to pick up tomatoes. Funny story. While we were there, the farm stand owner's son, who is a little slow himself, tried to pick up a tomato of his own as he chatted up the wife.

"And what was your name, again?"

"I didn't say, actually. You don't know me. We've never met"

"Uh....."

My man didn't have a chance, and he was stumped. He had no comeback for that one.

"I'm ferocious, I tell ya!"

Now, remember when I said we were told we were gonna go gator hunting? Well, we had a surprise visit by a little one at the farmstand. Apparently this little guy was caught on a fishing hook, and for kicks was brought to the farm stand to be shown off.

I wonder what happened to him?

We went back to the friend's house, relaxed a bit more, and then loaded up to go out to Echo, Alabama. The brother and sister-in-law of one of the neighbor's we came down with lives there on 600 acres of family land, complete with plenty of pasture, 3 ponds / lakes, and the alligator we were supposed to hunt.

So, here's the story with the alligator. Apparently, beavers had been a problem on the 3 lakes on the land. In order to control the population, the family introduced an alligator into the pond. A few years later, no more beavers. Problem solved. Or was it? Because now the family dog has gone missing. And quite frankly, it's a big fricking alligator. 

Now, we never got boozed so we could take this thing down, but we will. Oh yes, someday we will.....

Because the land and the farm was so pretty, here are more pictures, without commentary

We had a great weekend, and we were able to "gnome" our friends back.