A Trip to Milton

On Thursday, I left home at 8:02, according to my car clock, on my way to Milton. Milton, Florida – why on Earth would I drive to Milton??? I came to visit my friend Katherine, who is part of my Master's program, but was also my flat mate in London last summer for six weeks. It's amazing how you can spend six weeks with someone and still not know some things about them.

The trip to Milton was uneventful. My friends Amy and Will graciously let me borrow their GPS to help me find my way. The poor woman was quite confused as I refused to follow her instructions for part of the trip. I took 33 out of my county, to the turnpike to 75 and then I-10. She wanted me to take smaller roads and kept trying to make me exit. It rained on me a little; one time so hard I could barely see and was creeping along at about 35 miles per hour. . .

Several rest stops and about 7 ½ hours later, I arrived. It was so good to see Katherine. We have taken classes together for 2 ½ years, spent 6 weeks together including weekends in Scotland and Paris, but we still don't SEE each other often. She looks really happy. During the summer last year, she was going through some personal struggles, but she seems at peace now. It was interesting to meet her children, and her friend/fiancé Scott, after hearing so much about them. So nice to put faces and personalities to names.

It was especially exciting that for dinner on Thursday night, we drove to Foley, Alabama to Lambert's Café. I have friends who just traveled to Missouri and ate at Lambert's and came back just full of stories. Nothing I heard turned about to be untrue. We had to wait, but amused ourselves by trying to figure out just how many license plates we could find from different states. The, we got to sit down and here came the pass-arounds. Pass-arounds are big bowls and pots of things that the staff just brings around and gives you. We had fried okra while we were waiting for our drinks. Then came the rolls. Lambert's calls itself the home of "Throwed Rolls." Actually, their website is http://www.throwedrolls.com/. They literally come out with pans of hot rolls and throw them across the room, and you've got to catch them. Luckily for us, Scott and Chad were our designated roll catchers.

We ate so much I thought I would burst. I had meatloaf, green beans, and fried apples. Other items on our table were chicken and dumplings, country ham that was served in a skillet, and fried chicken. It was like dinner on the ground. Then the pass-arounds. . . the fried potatoes and onions were to die for, and then there were still more rolls. They also offered macaroni and tomatoes, black-eyed peas and more fried okra. . and more rolls. We left stuffed to bursting.

On Friday, we visited Katherine's school. She had a bookshelf to deliver and I am always curious about other people's schools. It is a HUGE school, geographically, and takes up lots of space. It just seems to go on forever. We poked around in an antique/collectible store called the "Copper Possum" where I snagged two Bobbsey Twin books. They had LOTS of stuff I liked and would LOVE to have gotten my hands on – an old church pew, a Hoosier cabinet, some Longaberger baskets. But I restrained myself. Laquita would be proud of me. I spend the rest of the day playing on the Xbox with Zach, although I'm not very good at all!!!

It was a great day. Today, we are off to explore. My daddy will be proud of me; we're going to the Naval Museum and Fort Barrancas, and just "frogging" around. I'll let you know what we see.