New Restaurant

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 63 degrees, high 82 degrees, thunderstorms early, clear in the afternoon

This post marks the 100th entry into the blog. When I started the blog, it was with the intent that it would be used to allow family and friends to follow along with us on our journey through life. I think the original intent is being met. We have found in our travels and adventures that other people were also interested in following along with us. That is very gratifying to me. The most important thing to have come out of the blog for me is that it has become a labor of love. I truly enjoy writing about and sharing our days with our readers, and intend to continue as long as possible. As we saw last week, there may be times when I can't post through no fault of our own. As much as possible, however, I will post every day. Now, on to today's entry.


We were wakened about 0500 hours by a line of thunderstroms that passed through the area. Fortunately, there was not any severe weather in this system in our area, with the worse weather passing to the north and south of us.

Since we have gotten so much work done on Terri's house, we decided to take the day off. We had a movie that Terri loaned to us I wanted to see, so we watched Syriani with George Clooney. Not a bad movie. However, I'm the sort who doesn't think all the world's ills are caused by the United States, which I perceived was the thrust of this movie. When you look at the people who were involved with producing the movie, such as George Clooney and Matt Damon, who are vocal critics of just about anything the United States stands for, it helps explain the slant that this movie took. As I said, not a bad movie, as long as you were aware of the message that was being sent.

After watching the movie, we went with Terri to Mug Shot, a popular restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. As most people who know us realize, we are hamburger connoisseurs. We are always looking for the perfect hamburger, and our favorite so far has been Backyard Burgers, a small chain based mostly in the south. Of course, there is nothing like a burger made at home. Mug Shot is located in an older building that has been left much as it would have been in the 1880s. It has wooden floors, a tin ceiling, plaster falling off the brick walls, and a bar that looks as though it was used 100 years ago. Comfort is not the main intent, with the tables and chairs being built out of wood with no padding.

When we walked into the restaurant, we were told we would have to wait about 20 minutes for a table. I don't like having to wait for a table, but we decided to wait this time, since we had heard the burgers were so good. Instead of 20 minutes, we only had to wait about 5 minutes. Things are already looking up. We were shown to our table and the waiter took our drink orders. Before we had decided what kind of burger we wanted, he was back with our drinks. We asked for a couple more minutes to decide, and then chose the bacon cheeseburger. I ordered the seasoned fries, while Carolyn and Terri ordered onion rings. The food was on our table in a reasonable time. The fires were lightly seasoned and excellent. The onion rings were large and tasted great. Best of all were the burgers. They were large, with meat hanging over the edges. The flavorings used enhanced the flavor of the meat. The burgers were large enough that we could only eat about half of them, and brought the rest home for dinner.

Our anaysis of the food is that Mug Shot's hamburgers are excellent, and we will certainly return for encores. On our scale of quality and taste, these burgers are second only to Backyard Burgers, and they are very close to taking over the spot as our favorite. We recommend this restaurant to everyone.

After leaving the restaurant, we drove through the University of Alabama campus. It has been several years since we have been through there, and there are a lot of changes, all for the better. Terri showed us the upgrades that have been done to the football stadium, and we saw girls dressed in ante bellum costumes on the porch of the University President's residence. Leaving the campus, we went to Terri's office with her where she works with children with autism. I helped her get a small refrigerator into her office that we had found in the shop at her house. After that, we stopped at Hobby Lobby so the ladies could do a little shopping. I was content to sit in the car and wait. Then, it was back to Terri's house.

It was nice to take the day off. Since we are fine tuning the house now, we should be able to do this more.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Stephenville, Texas: Cowboy Capital of the World


Not all who wander are lost.