Hello. I took a vacation last week, and I was so busy by the end of the week, I really didn't even have time to post about going on vacation, and then I figured what's the point. My wife was dead-set on going on vacation at a place that the kid could play on the beach, so she decided on Gulf Shores or Orange Beach, Alabama. Had a great time. It is very family-friendly. I read Smart Football's new book as well as Steve Belichick's "Football Scouting Methods" from 1963. Quite a contrast in terms of offenses and defenses and when Belichick wrote that book, film was brand new.

So now the wife and I have traveled through five southern states and here is my ranking of those states.

1. Tennessee: Absolutely loved Nashville and we spent a ton of time in the Smokey Mountains and Big South Fork. Just a beautiful state.

2. Arkansas: I like to hike and have been to Arkansas in the fall to hike. It's really spectacular.

3. Alabama: We were only in the very southern most portions of Alabama so we really didn't see much of the state, but having the Gulf Shore area is really awesome.

4. Mississippi: We really didn't spend any time here. Just drove through the state, but it's really nice and very pretty. I don't think I realized how wooded the state was.

5. Louisiana: We did stay the night in New Orleans on our way to Gulf Shores as the wife had never been to New Orleans before. I really like New Orleans, more during the day rather than at night. But I just didn't think it was all that pretty. I was not expecting that Monroe was going to be as big of a city as it was and was also surprised that Lousiana Tech (Raton) and Grambling (Grambling) are within 5 miles of each other.

All of these rankings take into account that I love West Texas and think that the drive to Lubbock is one of the best drives that there is.