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The Flora-Bama

The Flora-Bama Lounge and Package on the Alabama side of the state line opened in 1964. During the summer, you will know you are almost there when traffic begins to crawl and the parking lots ahead are full on both sides of the highway.

If you're looking for something fancy, this isn't the place. Hurricane Ivan destroyed the the hangout in September 2004. Closed for a year, when it opened for business again it looked just as beat up and battered as before. Once the new decking had weathered, it looked like it had been in business, uninterrupted, since 1964.

The hangout is a popular place for tourists to gather. Locals like it too, but they are more likely to show up when a favorite musician is performing or a for a special event.

Undoubtedly, the most well known special event is the Annual Interstate Mullet Toss in April. Everybody is welcome to grab a dead mullet and toss it from Florida to Alabama. If you're traveling down Perdido Beach Boulevard during the mullet toss, you might as well pull over and grab a mullet. You aren't going to get past the crowd that could number as many as 50,000 during the three days of festivities. Other events during those three days include the Mullet Man Triathlon and the Great Gulf Coast Beach Party.

The hangout hosts the Annual Polar Bear Dip each New Year's Day. Those who are brave enough join hands and wade into the cold water of the Gulf of Mexico. The reward for that is a free bowl of black-eyed peas.

The Annual Super Chili Bowl Cook-Off is held near the end of January each year.

In 2006, the bar was the inspiration for the Jimmy Buffet song and video "Bama Breeze." In the song, Mick Jagger stops by the place in 1984 and writes his name on the ladies restroom wall.

The chorus: "at the Bama Breeze you are one of us down there, you never drink alone down there, good God, I really feel at home down there."

One October day, I recently dropped by the Flora-Bama had took some pictures. There wasn't a lot of stuff happening, but it made it easy to take pictures of the place. The next Flora-Bama page will have photos from a busy summer night.