FROM JERRY HENRY!!!!

Be sure you check out my next issue.
It should be on the streets Friday.
I interviewed Greg.
Great book in my opinion.
Stay in touch!
Jerry

HEY Y'ALL:

Well, it's Sunday morning and I've finally recovered from the trip to Dothan and Dauphin Island as well as the Bloody Marys yesterday morning at Mark's Homecoming party. We had perfect weather for the parade but the event was marred by an 18 wheeler running over an 8 year old girl. Rumors spread along the parade route that she was killed but we later found out she was hospitalized.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS/610290499/1007

Ronnie Quarles and Tiger Jack Garrett were doing a remote from Alex's front porch at THE LOCKER ROOM http://www.locker-room.biz/
I got Tiger Jack to sign his photos in THE HEY BABY DAYS OF BEACH MUSIC http://heybabydays.com

He signed the one of him in WTBC studios, circa '63,
http://wtbc1230.com/history.html


"Robert, we were there for it all-- Keep on rockin'
T JACK"

For the picture of Papa Gary Fuller and him with the Tams, Jack wrote,

"Me and Papa Gary, T Jack"

My copy of HEEEY BABY DAYS is gaining value every week because last Saturday, I met Wilbur Walton,Jr. and Jimmy Dean at Dothan's Dakota Coffee Works
and got them to sign their pictures.
Wilbur started shaking and wheezing when he saw the picture of THE OLD DUTCH INN. He was definitely suffering from the ravages of post traumatic stress syndrome when he wrote,
"I survived THE OLD DUTCH INN. WHEW
Wilbur Walton, Jr."




Friday, October 20 saw me break free from Tuscaloosa and drive south to Dothan.

My sister Becky and her husband, Buddy, let me stay at their farm out on Fowler Road below Ardilla. Buddy greeted me Friday night with an invitation to go to Hunt's

http://www.huntsrestaurant.com/

so we proceeded to gorge out on oysters and party with the nurses!

WOW!

Saturday morning found me inspecting Buddy and Becky's new pond located beside the swamps of Cowarts Creek.

The Second Pond at The Hog Farm, Cowarts,Alabama

That afternoon I was perched on a barstool at Drifters to watch Tennessee whip our ass while acting like a the complete gentleman my mama Kate raised by tolerating the insults of some of the bar's clientele who happened to be dressed in orange.

Thank goodness the bartender in Dothan soothed my hurt feeling by showing me her play pretties, giving me hugs and rubbing my neck.

She was, as we say, very comfortable with her body!

You can't get that kind of grief therapy in Tuscaloosa!

Sunday's drive from
Dothan to Dauphin Island was delightful.
I ate lunch at J. Michael's

http://www.theoriginaljmichaels.com/

J. Michael's gorgeous daughter served me my Shrimp J. Michael's with garlic bread and I got to talk to Mike after lunch.
He's moving the restaurant again. He's going into a new building across Grand Lagoon near Captain Anderson's.
J. Michael 'bout lost his leg to infection recently so it was great to see him on crutches and recovering from an absolute nightmare encounter with flesh eating bacteria. The photos of his wound were horrendous.

I cruised down Thomas Drive to 98 and out past Phillip's Inlet to one of Florida's newest state parks, Camp Helen.

http://www.floridastateparks.org/camphelen/default.cfm

TALKING 'BOUT ROBERT REGISTER WALKING SACRED GROUND!
There is no other place on God's green Earth I love more than Lake Powell and Phillip's Inlet!!!

The Monarch butterflies were all over the beach preparing for their annual migration to Mexico.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2000/11/1122_monarchs.html

Photo taken Sunday afternoon, October 22, 2006 at Camp Helen in Bay County, Florida
http://bcs.dep.state.fl.us/reports/2005/2005hur2.pdf

I left Camp Helen, crossed the Walton County line and headed toward Grayton Beach. At Grayton, I had two beers and watched the Falcons'
game with a room full of drunks at THE RED BAR!

http://graytonbeach.com/redbar.html

Stopped at The Boathouse in Destin http://www.boathouseoysterbar.com/
for a one cold one for old time's sake and then hit the road for FWB.
I made it into Navarre before sunset
but the road along the island to Pensacola Beach will be closed for a long, long time.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/NEWS01/604060328/1006

Had a cheeseburger at McGuire's in Pensacola
http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/

& then topped the evening off with a nitecap at SAMMY'S!


http://www.sammysonline.com/pensacola.htm
BREATHTAKING!!!!

Got into Dauphin Island after 9 so I hit the sack to get some rest before heading out to the west end Monday morning with Greg Spies.

Greg's survey indicated that the property owner who hired him lost 35 feet of beach during the winter storm which had occurred the week before. This house is supposed to be on the fourth lot from the Gulf.

As you can see, it's a little closer than that.

A little over a year after Katrina has left the west end of Dauphin Island a ghost town.
This entire area was wiped off the face of the Earth by the storm.

You can see the manhole cover standing out in the Gulf. Beachfront property lost forever.

Wreckage of storm sewer and road top on the west end of Dauphin Island, Alabama

Concrete slabs and sand cover wrecked boathouse pier on the Mississippi Sound side of Dauphin Island

Beach house pilings across Bienville Street from the Gulf snapped off at the ground

Panorama of the area of the west end blown out by the Gulf during Katrina(notice the storm sewer on the left and the wrecked foundations of the right)

Greg Spies at The Pelican Pub around closing time Monday night

I started my third myspace site to store these pictures. Check it out at http://myspace.com/atlasofalabama

Best,
RR http://robertoreg.blogspot.com