Lines, Lines, Everywhere a Line!

As a retiree, with no set calendar except for vaca's you would think I would be ok standing in a line or two, or three.  Nope, even with ton's of visits to Orlando's amusement parks, I have not gotten used to lines.  Yesterday, our vaca departure from Panama City Beach day, was especially so!

I at least got a head start the night before, retrieving a luggage card and making one trip for car packing.  But, there is always that wait for the elevator.  Nothing worse for the door to open, and it is headed in your direction, but full of people.  Or, the door opens, folks step off, then you see the arrow pointed in the wrong direction!

Finally the car is packed, and we have scanned the room one last time for anything we missed.  Learned this the hard way when the spousal unit left her favorite bra on the back of the bathroom door.  The resort mailed it to her just fine, but then we find two pairs of my drawers in the same envelope!

We are out of the resort earlier than we have ever been.  Yes! time for breakfast at our favorite eatery, "Another Broken Egg".  Thankfully, we got there early enough to miss the crowd, but by the time we finished, the wait line was 30 people deep!

At the suggestion of our friend Jenn, we took Hwy 79 North, to Hwy 20, and then Hwy 331 north to I-10.   You can take Hwy 98 West over to HWY 331, but Jenn indicated that there as a lot of construction happening on Hwy 331, plus all the traffic coming from 30AAAAA! The spousal unit has a maps app on her apple I-phone that shows you traffic.  Before we completed the stretch of Hwy 20, she checked he map app.  She yelled "wow!".  The bay bridge on Hwy 331 was backed up all the way to Hwy 98!  Glad we took the route we did!

Our entry onto I-10 is about 40 miles east of the Crestview-Niceville exit, which goes to the Mid Bay Toll Bridge to Destin. As we were passing this exit, I looked south on this road and traffic was backed up heading north as far as the eye could see.  The only breaks were from the stoppages caused by the color red on the traffic signals!

I knew it was going to get worse once we got past Pensacola and into Alabama.  Yep!  five miles out from the Loxley, the traffic came to a crawl.  As we approached Daphne, lots of cars were merging into the right lane.  We exit the Interstate just as you approach Mobile Bay.  Traffic is much less congested on old Hwy 98.  On the bridge, if anybody has a wreck you are screwed!  You can see the lack of progress of the Interstate traffic headed for the tunnel from Hwy 98.  We just stayed the course!  As you approach Mobile, you notice most cars are in the left lane, all anticipating a quicker trip under Mobile Bay through the old Bankhead Tunnel.  Not me!  We head to the Bay Bridge, then take I-65 south back to I-10.  This route is a bit longer, but it relieves the stress of Mobile Bay and we hate taking Hwy 98 through west Alabama.

Too early for a lunch stoppage because of the breakfast feast a few hours earlier.  As we approach the Hwy 63 exit at Moss Point, I figure, what the heck, time for a little Shedheading!  Just a few miles further west on I-10 is the Shed!  WE got there about 1:30.  I've never seen the line so long, out the door, into the parking lot!

Price you pay from leaving the beach on a Saturday

Just Glad it wasn't the line to pee!

large combo plate: ribs, chicken, pork and brisket

This line got kinda amusing.  The spousal unit and I both took turns going to the restroom.  There was a young gal at the door selling cold beverages and handing out menus.  I don't remember much of what she said because I was busy staring at the ring hanging from her nose!  Another worker was sitting on a table as you entered the door.  He was covered in piercing and ink, even showing off the tattoo on the inside of his lip.  He was the life of the wait line, telling the stories from people asking him "how are you going to earn a good living with all this body art?  He laughs and follows that with my Dad owns this place, I'm not going anywhere!"  I also had to chuckle at the family behind me in line.  The dad decided that the family would split 1.5 racks.  His teenage son replied, "but Dad, I don't know what that is!"  I'll bet he became a Shedhead by the end of his meal!

Back in the road, no traffic at all.  We Took Hwy 57, The Shed exit, north till we ran into Hwy 98 south of Hattiesburg.  Our OnStar GPS system just about had a duck figuring out where we were!

More lines in my future.  Football Saturdays are just around the corner!