Goodbye to Alabama

After dinner and dessert, we all sat around and visited in the living room. The Olympics were on, and we watched some of the ridiculously good diving events. When everyone decided to call it a night, I headed back with Ruth and the boys. I let Matthew drive us back, still in mild shock at the fact that he's freaking sixteen.

They live in Semmes, about 30-45 minutes from Mobile. Their house is reportedly ten years old, but I think that's ridiculous, because I clearly remember visiting it when it was still being built, and that simply can't have been ten years ago.

The four of us stayed up until well past midnight visiting, and for some reason I showed Matthew and Andrew the Star Wars episode of Robot Chicken. My uncle Aaron is a firefighter (captain, in fact), and his schedule has him alternating 24-hour shifts. (It's not as bad as it sounds; I understand they get to spend most of their down-time sleeping at the firehouse.) He was on duty that day, so he was heading back in the morning.

I woke up the next day at about 7, and Ruth cooked a huge breakfast for us. (Unfortunately, we ate it all before I had a chance to take a picture.) The menu consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, sausage gravy, and Conecuh sausage. If you've never tried Conecuh, and you're a fan of sausage, you desperately need to try it. It's only available in and around Conecuh county, Alabama, though.

Afterwards, I had to pack up and head out. The hardest part of the trip was having to say goodbye to Aaron and Ruth so quickly. I tried my best to visit everybody, and I guess that's what matters.

Fay was barreling toward Mobile, expected to hit sometime that afternoon, so Aaron was battening down the hatches as I packed up the car. I made sure to get pictures with them all, and somehow decided it was a good idea to stand on the step below Aaron and Ruth. Go figure.