After a quick run on Saturday morning, we finished packing the last few items into the car, put Simone the Hula-Girl on the dash, and off we went towards Georgia.
Before long, we had to stop for lunch, and due to a distinct lack in Popeye’s restaurants, we had to settle for Wattaburger. We got the burgers and chicken to go, and found a shady spot near-by to let the cog run around. I think she was as glad as we were to get out of the car, but then she was just as happy to jump right back in…
Though we drove hard and fast, we only made it to Gulfport, Mississippi before dark. Lucky for us, Gwen thought ahead and brought the phone numbers for a bunch of Motel 6’s along. So when we stopped for dinner we called ahead to make a reservation… Alas, all they had was an "accessible" room. Well, if the rest of the hotel is full, then sure, I suppose that will work just fine.What the guy on the phone didn’t know, is that the accessible rooms were (a) small, (b) ugly, (c) smelly, and (d) right next to the pool. Now most of this I could just accept and sleep through, but the gaggle of 5-year-olds that were running in and out of the rooms on either side of ours to the pool made it just bad enough that we decided to relocate… to another hotel if need be.
Room 106 was our original assignment. Don’t let the calm water fool you, this was taken the next day…
Luckily, they had another room on the back-side of the hotel, on the second floor. Much quiter, though it was still smelly, ugly, etc. Of course, this didn’t phase Gracie the the slightest… she hopped right into bed and made herself at home.
So, that’s Saturday… we made it about half of the way, so when we got up early on Sunday, I was pretty optomistic about getting to St. Simon’s Island in time for dessert. Of course, the mutual decision to skip our Sunday morning jog helped a lot too…So a quick bit to eat at some fast food place and a large mocha from the local coffee shop was all we needed before jumping back on I-10. And to be honest, it was really a pretty decent drive. The highway was in good shape, and the drivers were all reasonably courteous. Even when the famous Florida rainstoms hit, most everyone turned their flashers on, slowed down to a crawl, and fell right into a long vegas-esque snake of blinking orange lights.
Once we got through the rain, we found ourselves just outside Jacksonville and only an hour from St. Simon’s Island… we were going to make it in pleanty of time for Dinner. Thanks to Jana’s perfect instructions to the condo, we drove right to the condo and pulled into the parking space just as everyone came down to meet us.
The condo was a wonderful place. 3 bedrooms with space to sleep all six of us. We even got a bathroom and an exterior door to ourselves! After hauling everything up to the room, and getting "the tour", we headed on down the street to dinner. 
As you might expect, it was seafood all-round. I had some great fried shrimp while Gwen hunkered down on a plate full of crab (go figure). Jana did her best to eat her crab, but it fought back a bit and left an embarrassing mark on her…
Click the photos above or visit http://www.dstovall.org/albums/vacation/st-simons-island-2007 for more photos.
Editor’s Note: Image and link URLs updated on 2008.05.26
Tags: St. Simon's Island