FTJ, Entry 62: Go Admiral Farragut

As promised, here are photos of our foray to Fort Morgan, located right at the entrance to Mobile Bay. First, a map showing its location.

Basically the gatekeeper for the bay, the fort was completed in 1834. Built in a star shape and very isolated, it is famous mainly for the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, during the Civil War. In August of that year, the Union fleet, commanded by Admiral D.G. Farragut, approached Mobile Bay. The Confederates opened fire. The lead Union monitor, the Tecumseh, struck a mine (known as a "torpedo" back then) and sank within a minute, taking most of the crew with it. This disastrous event caused the Union fleet to hesitate, still taking wicked fire from Confederate guns. At this critical juncture, Farragut gave his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" 

Whether he actually said these words has been debated over the years, however. I like to think he did.

Here are some pictures of what is left of the fort today.

The main gate

Behind Beau is the postern, a tunnel through the glacis (cleared
ground that slopes upward toward the fort, which protected it from shelling from the land side.).

Fort Morgan was surrendered to Union forces a few weeks after the Battle of Mobile Bay. It was dormant until the Spanish-American War in 1898, and was used as a training base during WWI. Deactivated in 1923, it was again reactivated in 1941 and manned by the Navy and Coast Guard during WWII. Right after the war, the fort was deactivated again and turned over to the state of Alabama.

Very cool.

Two more things: One, this darling video of "Speed Racer" in action:

And two, this photo of Beau celebrating the gray (sink and shower water) tank lights finally indicating "empty" on the control panel. First time we have had the gray water lights go into the green since we started our trip. Victory is his at last!  

Only other RVers may understand the significance of this major, major event. (Hey, it's the little things that can make us happiest.)

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 61: Sweet Home (for now) Alabama

We are staying in a lux resort called Heritage Orange Beach in Orange Beach, Alabama, right near Gulf Shores. This is not your typical campground, folks. Situated right on Bayou St. John, it has its own marina. The streets are brick, and all the sites are concrete paved, nicely landscaped,  with a separate coach house (unfinished). The park is full of big, beautiful RVs -- many of which are top-of-the-line $$$$ Prevosts.

The resort is really top notch, as you can tell from the photos. (Sites near the water sell for about $400,000. The one we are on is listed at $240,000. FOR A DRIVEWAY with a little empty house on it? Come on!)

This place is also loaded with Yorkies! Apparently the dog breed of choice for well heeled RV-ers (we are obviously the exception).

As for what we are doing to keep busy here, we got Beau a special recumbent bike (he cannot stand riding on the regular ones -- the seats hurt him too much), and we bought an old fashioned retro "cruiser" (no gears, no hand brakes) for me.  I feel like I am 7 again when I ride it -- I think I might get streamers. Beau wants an ah-ooogha horn for his....

We make a comical trio -- Beau on his trike and me with Buddy in the bike basket. We tool around the park feeling quite foolish. Check it out.

Isn't he cute? Our site is in the background, along with the coach house that comes with it.

Note Buddy's shades.

On Saturday, the resort hosts a party for all its guests. This weekend they had a St. Patrick's Day theme, serving an Irish stew, Reuben sandwiches (not Irish, but delicious), and tea cakes, along with an open bar and snacks. They also hired entertainment. We met a lot of great people and had a really fun evening sharing stories about RV escapades and mishaps.

Oh yes -- we are also enjoying the hot tub here! Ah, life is rough. (Remember this, Bob and Barbara?)

Bayou St. John and the resort's marina are in the background.

Eat your hearts out, Brad and Angelina. Oy.
(I don't think we will be getting this shot framed!)

Over the weekend, Orange Beach had its annual Festival of the Arts show, so we spent the day there with Buddy in tow. Great art, but I don't think too much buying went on. The economy, perhaps.

Glass sculptures. These were just amazing.

Five Years Later, Katrina's Wrath Still in Evidence

Nearby Gulf Shores is a lovely beachfront community. We did see some leftover Katrina damage among the beach houses, though.

Below, a typical row of Gulf Shores beach homes.

And a group of wrecked ones:

Ending with Oddities

We'll end this blog with some roadside oddities from Alabama so far:

Oh of course, the native Alabaman bison! And the representative moose. Huh??

A shop that takes a bite out of your wallet.

Another that traps you in its tentacles.

And the famous home of "throwed rolls" -- a place featured on the Food Channel, actually!

This very classy Mississippi license plate. OMG

And then there is this very strange sight:

Oh baby! Hubba hubba.

Today we drove out to Fort Morgan, the "Guardian on the Bay" (Mobile Bay). You have heard of the saying "Damn the torpedoes..."? More on that in the next blog....

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 60: BUSTED! ... and then Nearly Blown Away

Well, it finally happened. We were asked to leave the Publix grocery store by a manager, all because we had Buddy in a carry bag in the cart. Jeesh. At least she didn't call security and throw us in the hooskow! 

So they have a cute harborfront area here called HarborWalk. We went for their Fat Tuesday celebration, but, because of the cool temps, high winds, and lack of entertainment beyond one band and a few parrots, it was a bust.

But this is what the area looks like:

You might be able to make out the HarborWalk area below Beau.
(Sorry the photo is so dark.)

Wish we had a beach house! Would have bought a few of these.

A jazz band played for onlookers, but that was about it for Fat Tuesday entertainment.

One of the restaurant facades.

Ah, Youth!

On the beach back at the old homestead, we noted more action -- spring breakers! They were adorable -- and crazy, out in their bathing suits when it was barely 60 degrees and worse yet, going in the freezing waters.

 

Their fun was short-lived, however, in that the weather was about to change. On Tuesday, as noted, the wind had already come up big-time....

And on Wednesday, the storm came barreling at us, along with some pretty serious tornadic activity. We ultimately decided that the rec room here at our campsite -- which is rated for 200 mph winds -- would be the best choice to wait it out.

At first, we hid Buddy in his bag (one guest told us dogs were not allowed), but soon the place was crawling with people and their dogs.

No way we were leaving our child in a 36-foot fiberglass box during a tornado warning!

Most of these people have dogs on their laps or on the floor.

Beau often takes a blurry photo -- anyway, here we are at the rec room "shelter."

And here is the storm coming at us. We're right where it says Miramar Beach

Fortunately, other than finding a leak in the RV, we suffered no damage here. Lots of rain, thunder, lightning, wind.

Back to normal! Buddy is begging for food here.

It seems fitting, I guess, that this morning we are leaving Florida. We're Alabameeee bound. Let's hope that the weather improves!

Our last sunset here at Camping on the Gulf (pre storm).
Note how the sun seems to be "melting" into the water.

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 59: Scenes from Destin Area (Beau's debut blog)

This is my first attempt (prior to Ms. Editor getting her final say) at writing a blog. See Jane. See Bob. See Bob chase Jane. See Bob try to grab Jane's.....See Jane slap the snot out of.....oops -- never mind.

Anyway, if you haven't gathered this already, we are quite enamored with the panhandle of Florida, and in particular this Destin area, so most of this is pictures of the sights we've enjoyed here. One thing that we find most appealing is the bright, white sand of this area, "sugar-white" as the locals call it. I (me, Beau) went to the Destin Fishing and Historical Museum yesterday and learned a bit more about it. It's a unique "silica" sand, deposited on the south coast of the panhandle by the Appalachian River (had never heard of it), and it's the product of the glaciers grinding on the quartz in the Appalachian Mountains . Who'da thunk it?!? It then was pushed around and distributed along this part of the Florida coastline by currents, tides, and storms. According to a tour guide at the museum, who happens to be a direct descendant of one of the founding families of the area, it is considered by experts to be the whitest sand in the world. We don't disagree.  Below are some new pictures of it.

The above are RVs at our park, right on the sand.

Hard to see, but there is a jellyfish in the middle of all this.

 

Another thing we have thoroughly enjoyed: the sunsets...

Here's a photo (below) of me watching the most spectacular one yet! I had run outside because I saw what was happening with the clouds, but got down on the beach and realized I had forgotten the camera. Laura had stayed behind but decided to come out later and thankfully remembered the camera and at least caught the tail end of it. 

The colors were absolutely stunning, caused by the interaction of the sun with the varying formations of clouds -- the sky had areas of deep sea blue, blue-bird blue, turquoise, iridescent green, pink, orange, lavender, glowing-red like lava, and of course, that brilliant yellow ball. It was definitely the most beautiful sunset I have witnessed in my entire life, anywhere!

Of course, the ocean has many moods. Here are some shots from today, which I call "Surf's Up!" with about a 25-knot wind blowing out of the southeast (in fact, it's shaking the whole RV as I write this!), cloudy and cool, and a bit showery this AM.

These pics really don't do the wave sizes justice -- they're a lot bigger and more violent than the photos show!

A few miscellaneous sights: Below is a view from our RV site looking south toward that magnificent beach:

A C-130 Hercules at VERY low altitude on patrol:

Way above us, an antique B-24 (WWII vintage) flying over (that's my head at the bottom): 

We also had a B-17 and a P-51 fly by but the camera wasn't ready. There are two Air Force bases plus the Pensacola Naval Air Station in the area -- we're kind of surrounded by them. We get fly-overs day and night, including C-130's, F-22 Raptors, F/A-18 Hornets, F-15 Eagles, F-16 Falcons, and even the exotic Osprey, a controversial vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL for you aviation-types) cargo/troop carrier.

Below is another view of our beach -- that's not a cloud you see, it's smoke!  The state does many controlled burns in the forests (which are abundant in this area of Florida) to control underbrush and undesirable species. One fire we experienced was so big that there was ash falling like snow!

This is our large, comfortable site here at Camping on the Gulf. It's the only direct beachfront RV resort in the whole area. 

I think we will be back.

Tanks, Panky

P.S. from Laura: I believe I should take a vacation from blogging. Beau does a really nice job!