Into and out of Alabama

From Ocala, we headed to Foley, Alabama. We've enjoyed our time on the East Coast, but after turning onto I-10 we both commented on how good it was to be heading west again.

The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile passed us near Pensacola. Note the wieners on buns in the area of the instrument cluster and the glove compartment. I'm still not sure I liked being passed by a weenie.
We were now back where leaves were turning in deciduous forests.

Where else but Alabama would you find a Spear Hunting Museum.

Here along the Alabama Coast, cotton fields like this one blended easily into luxury condominiums and hotels. Those piles under the tarps are cotton. We saw a couple of cotton fields that remained unpicked.

The times have not been kind to the Alabama Gulf Coast. Many of the large high-rise hotels and condominiums were mostly unoccupied. I counted a grand total of six cars in the parking lot of this one. We don't think everyone could have gone home for the holidays. Actually, kinda spooky.

We stayed at the Bella Terra, a nice RV park near Foley, Alabama. It is new, and very well done. When these Palms and the other plantings mature, it has the potential to be something special. Winter temperatures here average only about five degrees cooler than Southern Florida, so they are positioning themselves as a place for snowbirds to alight.

Foley is not far from Mobile, so we decided to go there one day. Hurricanes have played a significant part in shaping this area. In the Gulf Shores area, it was Ivan. Here in Mobile, it was Frederic, commemorated here. Of course, not too far away, Katrina wreaked havoc.

In Mobile, the remote past, the recent past, and the present seem to meld easily into each other. These two interesting high rises were near the Mobile waterfront.

Only a few hundred feet away, these historic homes recall a different time.

This plaque commemorates one of the more shameful eras of our past. One of the largest slave markets in the south was at Mobile for some time.

Mobile has a large military presence. Here, the past and the present also merge. This is the USS Independence. It is an advanced member of a group known as LCSs or Littoral Combat Ships. It was built by the Austal shipyards here. It was designed to perform multiple missions in as little as twenty feet of water at speeds in excess of forty knots.

This is Fort Conde'. During the American Revolution, it was wrested from the English by our allies in that war, the Spanish.

Representing World War II is the battleship, USS Alabama, permanently docked in Mobile Bay. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific, seeing action from Sicily to Tinian. Although there were casualties aboard her due to accidents, and she was damaged in hostilities, she never lost a man due to enemy action, thus her nickname, "Lucky A".

You may remember that Mobile Bay was where Admiral David Farragut is alleged to have uttered the immortal words "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" during his successful assault to close the Confederacy's last major port on the Gulf during the Civil War.

This Phantom jet is a reminder of the Vietnam Era.

From Alabama, we went to New Orleans. There are long causeways such as this one along both the eastern and western approach to New Orleans.

We are, as we post this entry, at the French Quarter RV Resort. This is the view of downtown New Orleans out our front window. Out our side window, just across Rampart Street, is the French Quarter.

Let the good times roll.