Day 10 - April 12, 2011 (Tuesday) - Auburn, AL to DeFuniak Springs, FL - 158 miles

    For those who don't know this, I served in the US Naval Reserve on active duty from August 1967 to December 1969. I went to Pensacola, FL and entered Officer Candidate School in 8/1967 and was commissioned an Ensign in the USNR 77 days later. Ensign Gamel entered flight training, and candidly,  I was not very good at that. The Navy sent me to Naval Air Station Whiting Field (Milton, FL...NE of Pensacola), where I served in a couple of different positions until December 1969 when LTJG Gamel (I was promoted) was released from active duty.

     When I was at Whiting, I served with LT John Brown, and we became friends. We both left the Navy about the same time, and eventually lost contact. In the past couple of months, I found John (who had changed his last name to Danilow...that of his mother), and we made plans to get together again.

    I left Auburn, AL and rode through Montgomery, AL to take a look at the state government facilities there. I stopped outside the state capitol building to make a photo, and this is the result:

I'd have gotten a more centered shot on the stairway, but two buses were parked there. After I made the photo, one of the drivers came running after me yelling: "Officer, officer...do you want me to move these buses?" I guess I must have looked official (many police officers in the South wear brown uniforms), but I told him that I was not an officer, and as far as I was concerned, he could leave his buses there. Anyway, the state capitol building in Montgomery is surrounded by government buildings up to three blocks away. It must be a mini-industry in Alabama.

    I rode south through Alabama, and smelled the wonderful rural smells of Spring. I marveled at the little blue and red wildflowers beside the roads, but my attempts to do them justice in photographs really didn't do the job. I did stop in the little town of Luverne, AL which characterizes itself as "the Friendliest City in the South." I made of couple of photos, and chatted with the owner of a general store (just to the left of the car in the second photo).  He said business was good in Luverne, and (looking over a huge rack of camouflage clothing) that the turkey hunting around Luverne was "outstanding."

     I arrived at DeFuniak Springs, and my trusty GPS took me right to John's front door. It was old home week again, but the passage of 30+ years had taken its toll on the youthful 20-somethings of 1969. John and his wife Greta pulled me into their world, and we spent many hours catching up.

    John is in the real estate business now, and he took me on a tour of the area in which they live. Meanwhile, back at Chez Danilow, Greta was preparing a wonderful dinner of Schnitzel which we enjoyed with a bottle of Pinot Noir.

    A little snooze, a little shower, some sausage and eggs cooked by John, and the new day began.