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The Beach with an Asterisk

We spent last weekend in Gulf Shores, which is about as at-the-other-end of my beautiful home state of Alabama as you can get. We try to go annually, slightly off-season to avoid the throngs, and it's always an enjoyable trip. We stay west of the city proper, toward Fort Morgan, because it gives us the best of everything. We get a peaceful beach to enjoy with our kids, and yet it's only 15 minutes to the touristy stuff and restaurants.

And we do like the restaurants. My older boy loves "that place where they throw bread at you," and asks for it just that way. Mikee's, a block northeast of the end of the Gulf Shores Parkway, is another favorite. It's a total dive—conjure a mental image about half as nice as your average Shoney's—but the food and service are spectacular. Finally, we always try to time our drive going, coming, or both to have lunch at the Bates House of Turkey. If you've never eaten there, you have no idea how delicious a turkey sandwich can be.

Great vacation, for the most part, but yes, there's an asterisk. Now obviously I was prepared to be without Diet Mountain Dew on this jaunt, but I didn't realize my current mistress wouldn't be there either. Apparently the Alabama Gulf Coast isn't a Diet Sun-drop-friendly zone. So I staggered along for four days on an erratic mix of semi-sweet iced tea, Diet Sunkist, and Coca-Cola. Long gone are the days of stopping at the grocery store and grabbing a case of Diet Dew for the condo fridge. Here to stay, for a while anyway, are the days of buying something you hope you'll want to drink, and then not even remembering what it is an hour later because you have so little passion for it.

Jeremy at FightForFlavor.com seems to be doing mostly all right with decaffeinating himself completely. His black day came this past week, as the last of his supply of the previous formula was finally exhausted. It's been two weeks since I had one, and I'm beginning to entertain the idea myself. I rather doubt I'll ever quit caffeine entirely, but as I've written before, I could see cutting my consumption 80%. Perhaps I'll gradually dial it back until I get a headache one morning, then stay slightly above there for a while, then repeat.

We are slipping away, PepsiCo, and taking our purses and wallets with us!

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