Perhaps as a way to beat the Texas heat, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Orange Beach, Alabama, this past week. It was one of those unplanned, spur-of-the-moment vacations to enjoy a change of scenery and some of those cool saltwater breezes along the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The 10-hour or so drive didn’t seem like it would be too taxing especially since we broke it up into two five-hour driving days. It was, we believed, much less hassle than trying to fly in mid-summer with this year’s ever-increasing chance of delay or cancellation, lost luggage, and those invasive pat-downs.