Shrimp Fest and dodging political ads

I don't know if L.A. (Lower Alabama) is the Festival Capital, but it certainly seems so. We are in the mist of a string of weekend festivals. Two weeks ago was Jubilee festival, last week Bayfest (see Oct. 10 post), this weekend was Shrimp Fest, next week is the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival (the fish, not the haircut) in Niceville, FL not to far down the road, and the week after that the Fairhope, AL Art festival.
The shrimp fest was a lot more laid back than Bayfest. First off, it is more about the food than it is the music. Also there is an art festival component. This was my first look at the famous beach in Gulf Shores. From what I saw, it is a very nice beach; very wide, white sand, clean, and it has relatively easy access. I also got to see such Gulf Shores icons as the store with the great big shark, the one with the huge purple octopus and the Pink Pony Pub. I had a shrimp pita for dinner. Outrageously expensive, but it was tasty and when you couple it with the fact that there was no charge for parking or admission, it still ended up being a pretty cost effect evening of entertainment. The featured music act on Saturday, Molly Hatchet, one of my favorite bands when I was in high school. They put on a very solid show and since it was basically free, it was very entertaining. They saved Flirtin' with Disaster for the encore, but they also threw in their cover of Free Bird. Southern Rock in the south. Nothing like it. All though the purest say that "all rock" is southern so Southern Rock is actually redundant. The interesting observation of the evening was that a Jimmie Hendrix-esque version of the National Anthem was played as part of the lead guitarists featured solo by the warm-up band for Molly Hatchet (Les Jeans), then Molly Hatchet, and then on the over the P.A. after Molly Hatchet as the crowd was leaving. I haven't formulated any conclusions on this yet, but I thought I would pass on the observation.
Speaking of things national. This week I realized that I have managed to avoid living in states that would be considered "battle ground states" and thus being barraged by political ads. Indiana was the first state called in 2004 (I believe that CNN called it for Bush at 6:06 PM), so who would have thought it would become a state that would be considered "in play." Alabama may take the mantle this year, so neither candidate is spending much money down here. Did I mention that I think that money spent on political campaigns has to be one of the biggest wastes of money imaginable. I know that our system has made it a mandatory piece of puzzle, but wouldn't it be nice if a candidate took the 20 million dollars a month they raise and did some "good" with it rather than having to buy television ads? For most charities and "good causes," 20 million is real money. Some real problems could be solved rather than just trying to convince people who would be better at solving the problems. OK, I done with that for now.
Good news of the weekend is that a gallon of gas has dropped below $3 per gallon locally. It almost makes a drive back to Indiana for one of the upcoming weekends look attractive. But then I would have to deal with those political ads.