Mobile, Alabama

March 6, 2023

We managed to survive our journey, despite all the interstate "high wind advisory" signs along the way.

This drive had the highest winds we have yet encountered on the road. The fancy hitch we bought finally "paid" for itself, as we didn't have any sway issues (just a lot of the wind pushing us around). Rick declared the white-knuckle rating a 5.5 out of 10 (10 being the worst). So apparently it wasn't all that bad. 

We settled into our campsite at Meaher State Park where we had a better-than-expected view of Mobile Bay. 

Our alfresco dinner spread, just in time for sunset.

The next day we got up early-ish and headed out to see the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The Alabama had a crew of 2500 and did her tour of duty mostly in the Pacific Theater of WWII. This was a fantastic park, and we ended up spending four hours touring the many decks of the ship.

As to be expected from a battleship, there were a lot of guns on board.

This was as high as we could go.

Most of the areas of the ship were quite cramped.

Officer's quarters-quite posh.

Captain's quarters-even more posh with its own bathroom and phone.

And then there were the enlisted men's "quarters". These cots were only 3-high. In other places they were 4-high.

Course plotting and navigation rooms

A pretty big machine shop

A very small bakery to bake bread for 2500 people.

The main kitchen for the enlisted men

The laundry room

Dark room and printing press

Chapel

Lots of dials and gauges

Really big projectiles for the really big guns. The largest guns had a range of 20+ miles.

The park also had a bunch of airplanes, other vehicles, and the USS Drum submarine. We were getting a bit "museumed-out", so we just hit the submarine.

The USS Drum

And we thought the battleship was cramped inside.

This was the kitchen that served about 60 men. Reportedly, submarine food was of higher quality than battleship food.

Afterward, we went to Mass at the cathedral and walked around Mobile a bit.

The Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Right in the middle of the pews was a spiral staircase to a crypt where previous bishops are buried.

The crypt chapel

Panorama showing the full crypt.

Dauphin Street

The next day we walked around the state park (around 2 miles) and just hung out on the deck because the weather was so beautiful. The sunset was gorgeous.

One can never take too many sunset shots!

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