Sightseeing around Mobile

Hi everyone! In the past 10 days we've seen more of the Mobile sights. We toured the USS Alabama, a de-commisioned WWII battleship. It was a really cool self guided 3 hour tour. Amazing what those sailors accomplished with such primitive technology. Included in the tour was a second tour of the USS Drum, a submarine from the same period, as well as a static display of war planes. My favorite was the SR71 Blackhawk spy plane. This huge black bird cruised at 2200 miles an hour at 70,000 feet while taking pictures of the old USSR and China.

Another interesting tour we took was of Fort Gaines, a civil war fort on Dauphin Island. This well preserved place was one of two forts defending Mobile Bay during the civil war. The Union navy attacked the fort in the war, in an attempt to close the bay to Confederate shipping. This battle of Mobile Bay was where Union Admiral Farregut is supposed to have uttered those immortal words: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" after one of his ships sunk following a hit from a Confederate torpedo. One of the saddest exhibits was the series of handwritten letters between a 19 year old soldier and his family, and a later letter from his commanding officer informing the family of his death in battle.

Notice in the pictures above a shot of me sitting in the latrine. At high tide each day the water would rush under the latrine and wash it out to the bay. We've also included pictures of various parts of the fort, as well as some of the recovered pieces of sunken Union ships. Marlene can be seen standing in front of the ovens in the fort bakery.

We've also visited the big flea market in Mobile, which we found to be a lot better than the last one we went to in Florida. After the flea market we had lunch at a highly rated little restaurant called the Jerusalem Cafe. We enjoyed lentil soup, lamb and beef gyros with rice, and the required Alabama sweet tea. Total cost: $17.34.

We had a dinner out at the Golden Corral buffet. We've been to one of these in Arizona, and they are a remarkable value. Just $10 gets you a huge selection of food including fish, shrimp, steaks, pork chops, ribs, pot roast, salads, pastas, and on and on. Only problem: now we're more mature we just can't eat as much as we used to!

For Valentine's day we cooked up some delicious rib eye steaks and a couple of lobster tails, accompanied by rice, portabella mushrooms and a salad. For desert Marlene baked a triple chocolate cake (see pic). It was a great meal, and a nice way to celebrate the day together.

Yesterday we took Ben for a walk on the south side of Dauphin Island, below the fort. The wind was whipping pretty good, and the bay was all grey whitecaps, so after a walk there we moved on to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. We didn't see a single bird, but we did have a nice stroll through the sanctuary to the small lake in the middle. After the bird sanctuary we went to visit the Shell Mound Park, where in the 12th to 15 centuries the local native inhabitants would come to live seasonally, cooking up oysters and fishing in the bay. We thought we'd see the actual mounds, but they've been covered up by dirt and growth over the centuries. Check the picture of me and Ben standing below a great old tree festooned with Spanish moss.

Check out the tall thin houses we saw on Dauphin Island. Maybe intended for tall, skinny people?

The Mardi Gras season is building to its finale on Fat Tuesday, and we hope to take in a Mardi Gras party before we leave here next Wednesday.

Mardi Gras Time

We've had a nice time the past week, despite the rainy weather we've been experiencing. We did go to the beach, and had nice time there, even though it was breezy, we got some sun. It was good being able to take Ben with us. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, while marveling at how close ashore the oil rigs working the Gulf are. (See pic above).

Monday we went into Mobile to the Cummins Onan distributor to pick up parts for the generator. The rain just poured, reducing visibility to a few feet. We saw the results of two traffic accidents. The rain continued overnight and into the next day.

We've explored the area a bit more this past week, seeing a really nice park on the ocean, and a fishing town called Bayou La Batre, where the inspiration for Forest Gump's partner, Bubba the shrimper came from.

On Friday Marlene made a wonderful stuffed roast chicken dinner with all the trimmin's. The five pound bird only cost us $3.38 complete with giblets!

February 21 is Mardi Gras here, as always on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. For the whole month leading up to the day, the many "parading societies" put on their big parades, usually on Fridays and Saturdays. We went to the afternoon parade on Saturday, in downtown Mobile. It was great fun... here the participants on the floats throw strings of beads, candies, stuffed toys and best of all Moon Pies (much like little Wagon Wheels to us Canadians). We caught our fair share (several pounds) of loot. After the parade we drove back to Theodore, where we ate a nice lunch of BBQ at a famous local eatery, Dick Russell's BBQ. We tried the the sampler plate which had nice portions of beef, pork, baby back ribs and local sausage, all smoked over their own pit. Accompanying the meat were coleslaw and BBQ beans, as well as homemade sweet tea. Total cost: $25. It was very good, and a different kind of BBQ from St. Louis.

Last night Marlene created a concoction of veggies, cream, and fresh caught gulf shrimp. It was fantastic.

Driving around the Mobile area we have noticed a glaring difference between Alabama and Florida: in Alabama there is plenty of open access to the water, and it is not all built up and commercialized. Alabama is really in its natural, unspoiled state, and we like it a lot. We enjoy the wide diversity of housing here, everything from antebellum mansions to tar paper shacks. Near the water the houses are built on stilts to protect them in the storms and hurricanes. It's easy to see why this area is popular as the "Redneck Riviera".

We're not the only snowbirds here right now. As you can see in the pics above, a couple of Canada geese have dropped in to visit the local resident white goose. They hang out together and honk at the ducks.

Stay tuned for more, y'all.

Life in the South

Our trusty old Dodge van was running a bit rough, and getting reduced gas mileage, so it was time for a tune-up. Picked up some spark plugs, and decided to devote an afternoon to improving its performance. Cleaning out the throttle body was a simple task, but replacing the spark plugs turned out to be a real chore. I'd like to meet the auto engineers who decided it is OK to mount the motor so close to the firewall that you can't see the rear spark plugs from on top or underneath. You have to work by feel, and that is hard when you have to contort your arms to fit in the small space available. And who's idea was it to mount the alternator over top of one of the rear plugs? AAARRRGGGHHH! Oh well, after leaving a pound of flesh on the sharp underhood parts, the job was done, and the van runs nicely now.

On Wednesday we found a great little produce market with lots of fresh veggies and fruit at reasonable prices. Got a HUGE bunch of collard greens for just $1.99 (check the picture to see how much we got). This was a far cry from the tiny bunches available in the stores in Florida for the same price. We've also found that here we CAN buy fish fresh off the boats. Looking forward to that. We took a drive south to Dauphin Island, where we checked out the lovely beach. It's a pleasure to see a nice place that has not been over commercialized. We also like the fact that Ben can go to Alabama beaches.

On Thursday we woke to pouring rain and high winds, and the TV news was telling us every 3 minutes that we were under a tornado watch. As the intensity of the storms picked up the watch was changed to a warning, and the sirens started blaring in nearby Theodore, AL. With no basement or other safe place to retreat to in an RV, we mixed a drink and watched the storm roar through. Luckily no tornado! We cooked up the collards, freezing half for the future and serving the other half with large hamburger steaks that I had to cook indoors due to the inclement weather. Marlene also baked a couple of loaves of nice fresh bread.

Friday we went out looking for spark plugs for our generator. It too needs a bit of a tune-up. No luck with the parts, but we met some really nice people in the parts stores who have directed us to the local Cummins Onan dealer for the parts. We then picked up some nice big Gulf shrimps and some flounder too from the wife of a local fisherman. For Friday night Shabbat dinner we enjoyed 1/3 of the shrimp (marinated and then cooked quickly on the grill) along with rice and beans and a mix of tomatoes onions and green peppers, and a cucumber salad. All accompanied by Marlene's great bread and a nice bottle of Spanish wine (a splurge at $3.97 for the bottle).

Yesterday we went out for lunch to Mary's Place, the oldest operating restaurant in Alabama. It's a fish shack not far from where we are staying. We enjoyed the fresh catfish and oysters, fried quickly and served with fantastic home made fries and cole slaw. We also enjoyed some of their famous home made sweet iced tea. A real bargain for $23, and the interesting artifacts throughout the restaurant made it really cool.

Local Mardi Gras celebrations are now starting. We hope to go into Mobile to experience some of the parades and food. There are also parades by various groups at the weekend on Dauphin Island.

We are liking it here in Alabama. Although the temperatures are a few degrees cooler, the scenery is fantastic and the people are REALLY friendly. You must leave extra time to accomplish things here, because everyone likes to yak... asked about spark plugs in one place and got a 15 minute explanation of the area in Mobile that we should stay away from (Pritchard, as Miss Ruth at RV Parts Warehouse told me, is full of thugs, and after 1 pm they all get up and go out "thugging").

When I asked the manager in the RV park office why there was a mysterious $5 charge on our bill, I got pulled into a wonderful discussion about the crooks at the Yankee banks! I really like these people!

Marlene said good morning to one of the residents here, and got into a ten minute discussion about the geese coming into the duck pond and terrorizing the ducks. At least, that's what Marlene thinks they were discussing... sometimes its hard to tell with the heavy accents around here! They might just as easily been discussing presidential politics!

Anyway, today we're taking it easy, and hope to go to the beach tomorrow. Bye for now Y'all!

Sweet Home Alabama

We left Bradenton on Saturday, and drove north to Ocala, where we visited the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. Now, any of you reading this with an interest in drag racing will appreciate this: the museum contains 50 years of drag racing history. A huge collection of not only Don Garlits' cars, but those of other famous racers. These were the people I looked up to as a boy of 13. Check it out at www.garlits.com .

After touring the museum, plus the added extra of Garlit's personal car collection, too huge to fit in the building, we headed up the road about 40 miles to Gainesville, where we stayed in a nice spot at the Walmart Supercenter. I made pasta with a 4 cheese oyster and clam sauce. Yummy. A surprisingly quiet night passed, and we left for our next port of call in De Funiak Springs, Florida. Another nice spot in a pretty good Walmart.

We could smell Chinese food cooking, and Marlene found a little take out place in the strip center next door. After a while the smells drove us a little crazy, and we called an ordered some food. Ten minutes later I watched the chefs put our food directly from the woks into the containers which I rushed back to the rig to eat. We had curried chicken, beef and chinese vegetables, house special lo mein, steamed rice, spring rolls, and a freebie they threw in: deep fried won ton stuffed with lobster and cream cheese, and of course, fortune cookies. There was enough food for three meals, and that is what we'll do with it! Oh yes, only $23 including tax.

This morning we left De Funiak listening to the tornado news on the radio, as we battled fierce crosswinds on our way to Mobile, Alabama. At one point it rained so hard even the semi-trailers were slowing down to 30 mph. Wipers couldn't keep up!! We soldiered on, and eventually cleared the storm and got to our campground in Theodore, part of metro Mobile. On arrival there was no one in the office. A phone call brought a friendly but un-helpful fellow who pointed out a spot to us... right next to a trailer filled with barking dogs. We got out to inspect our site, and found mounds of dog doo everywhere. Marlene was quite perturbed, so we got the van off the trailer and drove 1/2 a mile down the road to another park. Much better, with a nice duck pond and our pick of beautiful sites. It cost us an extra $50, and no cable or swimming pool, but who cares, we're happy.

Pictures above are from the car museum, and our chinese feast.

Returns

We decided to go back to South Beach to see the Art Deco buildings all lit up at night, and to have a drink and snacks at one of the Ocean Drive sidewalk restaurants. We were hoping to catch sight of some celebrities, or at least some of the weird denizens of this place, but everyone looked just like us... tourists looking for celebrities! No matter, we decided to have a drink. At the first place we stopped into the service was TERRIBLE (actually non-existent), so we moved on to the Carlyle Hotel where we were served by a very professional, attentive waiter named Andrea. He was a young Italian fellow, working in the US for a year now. He has traveled North America widely, and was a very personable fellow. You can see him with Marlene in the pic above.

We decided to take advantage of their happy hour specials: 2 for 1 drinks, so we ordered a couple of Mojito's. Andrea explained that we had to buy the first round, then we get the second round free. Well, the drinks came in small fish bowls, and were very strong. We ordered some calamari to nibble on ($3.99), and worked our way through our first drinks while people watching. Lots of nice, expensive cars cruising by on Ocean, including a new Maserati and several Bentleys. We actually found a rental place there that rents these fine cars!

After finishing our first drinks, we decided to take advantage of the deal, and ordered our second round. With our new fishbowls we also ordered a gourmet 12" pizza topped by fresh made mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, Italian sausage and a fine sauce. The pizza was great, and we gurgled our way through our drinks. When the bill came we noted that the four drinks were $44! At least here we didn't mind as much that they add 18% tip to the bill automatically because Andrea earned it with his friendly service. We wobbled our way back out onto Ocean Drive where we strolled some more before taking the one hour trip back to our place in the everglades.

We were looking forward to going to the Florida Keys for a day, and we drove there early one day, picnic lunch packed away and Ben excited too. Unfortunately, the keys are so overbuilt you can't even get a glimpse of the meeting of the Gulf and the ocean. All the beachfront is private, enclosed by fences and warning signs to stay out unless you are a customer or resident. Just endless miles of tacky tourist stuff. We stifled our disappointment and took the long drive back.

Back at our place, we were getting tired of being woken up at 2 am by guys taking out their airboats onto the glades. Don't know what they do there at night, but they sure make a racket. Also, the drinking water there is kind of green and stinky. They take it from the glades and run it through their own treatment plant, but it still stinks. We have our own inline filter on our water, but it STILL stinks. Our coffee and tea are slimy with it. Only good thing: the water made Marlene's hair really nice!

We were going to go on the airboat ride, but decided to forgo the $50 cost. The alligator compound was disappointing too. The poor gators in there have to be woken up just to perform for the people. Anyway, we decided to return to the Gulf side of Florida for a week of beach relaxing. On the way across alligator alley we spotted pink flamingos and lots of gators in the water. The whole of alligator alley is fenced in with electric fences to keep the gators and other animals from venturing onto the highway. There are endless varieties of birds around, making a very pretty sight.

Back in Bradenton again, we've already been to the beach, taken Ben to the dog beach and gone out for another great supper at Ceviche', courtesy of Miranda and Colin. We also watched the sunset over Lido beach in Sarasota. The crowds are a lot smaller here, the prices a little lower, and the beach is only 15 minutes away instead of an hour. And, no fee for parking at the beach.

We'll leave here on Saturday and start north, with our first stop in Ocala, then on to Mobile, Alabama where we'll check out the Gulf beaches there. We know the weather will be 10 degrees cooler, but since its not their big season it might not be crowded with tourists. Definitely not as expensive to find a place to stay.

Pictures above are of our Mojito's and food on Ocean Drive, a couple of airboats, a tour group of school kids on an everglades field trip taken from our door.

Down in the 'Glades

Happy New Year everyone! On New Year's Eve we packed up and moved from our cramped RV spot in Bradenton and headed south east. Our destination was the Everglades Holiday Park, the cheapest place we could find. The drive here was fine, the interstate six lanes wide, and we quickly crossed the state to end up just west of Fort Lauderdale.

Everglades Holiday Park is located on the eastern edge of the everglades. It is a tourist destination, with airboat tours of the 'glades, gator shows, store and fast food, as well as the RV park. Our first impression was not favorable. They tried to stick us beside the trash and the laundry! After some grumbling we got a much better spot. Over half the people in the park are here permanently, or at least semi-permanently. It sometimes feels like we're in a sequel to the movie Deliverance. On our first night here, we went to throw our garbage in the bin, and a family of five or six raccoons jumped out squealing. Marlene jumped right off the ground! We later found out that some of the residents are feeding the darn pests.

Last night Ben started running around and barking. I took him outside and he immediately got on the scent of some animal, but we could not find it around our rig, and I wasn't going to let him go searching. This morning Marlene spotted the critter under our neighbour's trailer: a possum. There are also a whole flock of beautiful peacocks and their hens living here.

The people here may not be wealthy, but they sure are more friendly than the snowbirds at the last place. They come up and introduce themselves, and make us feel welcome. Unfortunately, the air boats make a lot of noise, and they seem to go from about 6 am to 9 pm, with some running as late as midnight. It's like living at general aviation airport, all those buzzing propellors.

The last few days we have visited a huge flea market, and bought fresh veggies at the farmers market end. We have driven to Fort Lauderdale beach, and found it horrendously busy and congested with traffic. It has been cold for a couple of days, with highs below 60.

Today we went to Little Havana, in Miami, found not much to see, then we went on to Miami Beach, to South Beach to look at all the Art Deco buildings there. They are very cool, and a favourite of mine. We were lucky to find a parking space, so we could wander around. Eventually we got hungry and stopped at a Cuban restaurant for lunch. Marlene had the lunch buffet of Cuban foods like stewed pork, Cuban rice, plantains, corn soup, etc., and I had a Cuban sandwich, Cuban bread filled with ham, pork, cheese and pickles. The food was good, and the price reasonable at just $23 for the two of us. We saw places where a bowl of soup is $12.

In fact, the east side of Florida is expensive. You have to pay to park by the beach, sometimes as much as $10. Gas costs more here too, and you spend a lot of time sitting in traffic jams burning up that precious resource. No wonder we could see the brown smog haze hanging over the coast from 50 miles away.

We are always annoyed when we have to pay road tolls, and here there are a lot of toll roads. It doesn't sound like much, to pay $2 to drive 10 miles, but multiply it by two or four times each time you go somewhere and it starts to add up. Another annoying Florida thing is the llllooooonnnnggggg traffic lights. You can sit for 8 or 9 minutes waiting for a light to change.

The pictures above are of me at Miami Beach, Marlene being pulled by Ben in front of the art deco buildings on Ocean Drive, peacocks at our RV park, some other cool little green birds and one of the draw bridges that tie up traffic endlessly.