Island Days

 

 

  Took the ferry from Fort Morgan over to Dauphin Island to spend the day biking around and seeing the sites.  I left my car behind and took my bike instead.  Aboard the ferry I met up with some other bike riders out to enjoy the island for the day.  Along the way dolphins played beside the boat but getting their picture was just not possible for me.  I just decided to enjoy them.

Notice the gulls hitching a ride on the ramp?

 Also, the fee is $15.00 each way per car.  My solution was easy.  I parked my car in the lot and loaded everything I needed into my backpack or in the basket of my bike.  No matter how many cars they load, there's always room for a bike and rider.  Plus the fee if $5.00 round trip!  My kind of math for sure.

The trip across to the island takes about 35 minutes and if you pay attention you will see dolphins playing alongside.  But getting a picture of them was impossible for me.  I finally just gave up and enjoyed.  Once I got to the island my first stop was of course Fort Gaines where once upon a time Stephen Farragut damned the torpedoes. 

The bike ride to the western end of the island is about 3 miles.  Along the way I enjoyed seeing the different types of houses on the island: some vacation condos and lots of year round residents.  I decided to go out on the pier at the western end and have my lunch there.  Off on the beach I could see a wedding taking place.  Of course spring breakers were plentiful but not as much as on the mainland.  Before long I realized it was time to get back to the ferry landing.  In fact, there were so many returning bike riders I almost had to wait for the next ferry.  That was cutting it close for sure since there was only one more ferry for the day.  It was such a beautiful day and the people watching at the beach was so great, well, I barely noticed I had ridden over 13 miles!  By the time I got home today I was ready for a shower and a nap.  But I will miss that place. 

Bike Tour of The Crescent City

Since I was in the neighborhood, well sorta, I took a 3 hour drive over to New Orleans today to check out a place that's been on my must do list for a while: National D Day Museum.  For those not in the know, a  big part of the D Day landings was played by the Higgins Boat, a special landing craft built ini New Orleans by the Higgins Boat Co.  The former factory is now home to the museum that occupied most of my day in the Big Easy.  The museum spans 3 buildings and includes wonderful exhibits, a movie narrated by Tom Hanks, a 1940s style diner (with more than generous servings) and that's just in one of the buildings.  They are also adding more construction.  It's truly an amazing place and the timing was awesome since my brother Mike has just begun to unravel the wartime travels of our father in the South Pacific aboard mostly Liberty Ships that supplied the big warships.  Though I must admit my one disappointment was that I saw only one mention of the Liberty ships in the museum.  In the museum shop their computer showed that they did carry a book about the ships but the clerk nor I could find it.  Oh well, brother, I tried. 

After lunch in the diner I decided to leave my car in the lot since it was paid until nearly 9pm.  I took my bike off the back and headed to that little place where they play all the big football games.  It sure is big and at night they light it up in purple. 

Keeping in the vein of WWII I made a stop at the Molly Marine statue in the middle of Canal Street.  She's been there proudly being the "woman behind the man behind the gun" since the 1940s. 

Just step through the gate and turn left.

Next I went down the road to the grave of the one and only Marie Laveaux.  Even in death she commands a large daily crowd.  Fascinating. 

Next stop Bourbon Street of course.  It was amazing to ride down the middle of the French Quarter in the late afternoon sunshine dodging spring breakers and the other few tourists who braved the area during spring break (bad planning on someone's part).  Finally I cut across Jackson Square, past Cafe du Monde (also full of spring breakers) and over to the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood House where I had a delightful dinner date with my wonderful nephew Chad. 

He's been living here in the quarter for a year now and loves it.  I haven't seen Chad this happy since he lived in DC.  He's just a big city guy unlike me.  I did enjoy the day and the sights, including the small impromptu parade that came down the street during our meal, I am ready to retreat back to the small quiet country spot where my seeker rig waits for me.  But all the city hassle was worth it to see the parade and enjoy my visit with Chad.  Hope we get to meet up again soon.

Family Vacation Revisited

One of my favorite movies is Family Vacation.  I'm always amazed at the idea of a mom, dad, and kids getting in the car and going off on some great journey together.  We never really took a family vacation.  All summer long we stayed in tents at the lake and fished, swam, water skied, cooked on the campfire, and played.  Tough life, huh?  Actually as a kid it was great, but for the adults, the sober ones, it was no picnic I'm sure.  But we kids didn't care.  We had a summer paradise.  Until the one summer my father decided we needed to take a trip to Frisco City, Alabama to visit his big brother Ray. 

By this time Mike and Pat had gone off into their military careers and Clint was old enough to stay home without us I guess.  So it was just me and my little brother Ronnie in the car with my folks.  I was excited to see some place that wasn't in Tennessee.  Yeah, I know, a dumb country kid.  I'm sure we drove highways all the way (no interstate yet) and of course there was no air conditioner in the car.  Strangely I don't really remember much about the drive down or back so I guess seeing another state for the first time didn't impress me much.

I do remember that my Uncle Ray and his wife lived in a small house in a small town which reminded me of my grandparents old farmhouse in Lebanon.  Ronnie and I played with a boy from next door and I'm told he fell out of a tree and broke his arm.  Again, I really don't remember too much about that either.  So was I an amnesiac for the whole trip?

No, what I do remember is following my daddy all over the USS Alabama in Mobile Bay.  Now Daddy never served aboard a battleship during the war (he was in the Naval Armed Guard and served mostly on Liberty ships) but you would have thought he gave birth to this ship.  He was so excited to tell about it and I was eager to see him so happy that I ran my legs off keeping up with him.  Most of all I remember looking from the upper deck across all that water and thinking it was the ocean.  The water was so wide I couldn't see where it ended.  Daddy held my hand and stood looking out at it for a very long time too. 

So today I returned to Mobile Bay and the Big A.  I really enjoyed the Korean and Vietnam War memorials that have been added.  And of course lots of aircraft and tanks are on display which I like to look over.  But I couldn't bring myself to go aboard the battleship this time.  It just wouldn't have been the same without my enthusiastic tour guide.  I guess I've lived long enough now to know that some memories are best left alone.  Before leaving the park I walked out to the end of the fishing pier to look back at the old warrior and found myself looking out across the water.  I've seen a few oceans since that long ago summer and yet the water of the bay today seemed so wide I couldn't see where it ended.  So wide I could almost feel Daddy's hand in mine.

One Final Florida Siteseeing Trip

It's finally time to say farewell to the sunshine state, but not until I visited one place I've had on my list for a long time: National Naval Aviation Museum.  You might know it better as Naval Air Station Pennsacola or better yet, the home of the Blue Angels.  In fact, the interstate overpasses at the exit off of 10 are decorated with the Blue Angel Jets just to make sure you know you're in their territory.

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY BLOG TODAY!!

Airplanes to the left, to the right, even over your head!

I was surprised with all the national security measures in place that visitors to the museum simply drive up to the gate of the base, show a photo ID, declare if you have any weapons in your vehicle, and then place the visitor pass on your dash.  Amazing.  Even more amazing - it's free.  Of course donations are accepted, but even a $10 donation is well worth all the hours of history in this massive museum.  Of course I really liked all the WWII exhibits.  There was even an "on the homefront" exhibit that I scored as very accurate.  There was more WW I info than I've seen anywhere except maybe the WWI museum in Kansas City.  And most surprising thing I learned?  That makeshift carriers were used on Lake Michigan to teach pilots how to land and take off at "sea".  Of course a lot of those rookie pilots missed which means Lake Michigan is littered with aircraft ripe for the picking!

There were 2 floors of exhibits and displays: the history of naval aviation and the base, displays on famous naval aviators, even the role of navy aviation on world events.  Also included, for free, was a 45 minute trolley ride around the tarmac with a guide explaining all the aircraft.  I don't know much about airplanes but I really enjoyed all the historical displays.  I even caught the end of a retirement ceremony for a sailor retiring after 20 years active duty.  So I won't try to explain all the planes I took pictures of since I'm not sure I can.  But if someone like me who doesn't know much about planes can be enthralled here for 4 hours imagine what it's like for someone who is a plane nut?  If you ever get in the area you really should visit.  And if the budget doesn't get cut (current events don't look good for that) the Blue Angles will begin practicing here in a couple of weeks and, you guessed it, a seat to watch is FREE!

One of the first boats delivered to the Navy.  Had to empty
water out of the floats every time you landed on
water.

 

Gondola for early "air ship"

 

Firefighters were practicing on the tarmac while we
toured.  Look closely and you'll see
the burned dummy.

Kermit is a large cargo helicopter

The top floor exhibits circle the bottom floor which means
you begin at the balloon exhibits and come all
the way around to the space race. 
Really interesting walk.

 

No, not a UFO.  Early radar/weather plane.

 

 

A trainer plane pulled out of Lake Michigan.

This was a very informative exhibit about using
Lake Michigan for carrier qualifications
during World War II.



I certainly recognized these in the Vietnam POW
exhibit.