Day 9 - Hattiesburg MS to Pensacola Beach FL

June 22

Today was a fun day.  We traveled from Hattiesburg MS to Pensacola Beach FL, with a fun little diversion on the way. 

We started the day by driving from southeast from Hattiesburg MS to Mobile AL to return to the I-10 freeway. Faithful readers of this blog will remember that we've had some less-than-happy experiences with bridges on I-10.  Well, right outside of Mobile, the first part of the crossing of the Mobile Bay is not a bridge at all, it is a tunnel.  And, if you've ever been on a bus full of teenagers (or maybe it's just the Wesley Bell Ringers), you know that whenever you go through a tunnel, you have hold your breath and hold your hands up in the air:

Good thing it wasn't a very long tunnel.

After we crossed Mobile Bay, we made our first Starbucks stop.  We were over a week into the tour before we stopped at Starbucks.  Either Starbucks are few and far between or we had long bus days and we didn't want to risk the side-effects of a break that included a lot of coffee drinks.  Or maybe a little of both.

As you know, the sub-title of this tour is "The Roadside Attraction Tour".  Well, today that part of the tour continued when we visited the famous "Bamahenge". 

That's right, a life-size reproduction of Stonehenge in Alabama. C.P. got a boost from Jake and climbed on top of one of the "stones":

Of course, we had to take the required "group in front of the outrageous object" photo:

There were other interesting things in the area, including dinosaurs, knights, and an alligator:

We were hoping to see the Lady of the Lake, but she was in dry-dock.

All of this craziness is on the road to Barber Marina outside of Elberta AL.

After lunch in Pensacola, we headed to Pensacola Beach and found our hotel.  It turned out to be easier than we expected:

We distributed room keys and turned everyone loose (as long as they were in groups of two or more) for fun-in-the-sun on Pensacola Beach.

Pensacola Beach is a beautiful place and we had a lot of fun there.

It did rain, but not until about 9:00 PM.  It was a fun day.  Tomorrow we head to Dacula GA for another concert.