Gulf Shores, Alabama - Oct. 30 - Nov. 13, 2006

On October 30 we decided it was late enough in the season to head for the beautiful beaches on the Gulf of Mexico without fear of a hurricane evacuation.   We headed south from Chattanooga through Georgia and spent a night at Oak Mountain State Park just outside of Birmingham, our halfway point.  The next day we moved on south arriving at Luxury RV Resort in Gulf Shores in late afternoon.  We had an easy set up except for the voracious biting insects that found Bill to be an exceptionally tasty morsel.  The first sign we saw as we pulled into the resort was "Please Don't Feed the Alligators".  Fortunately it was a bit too cool for alligators to be out; otherwise they would have been after him too.

Bright and early the next morning we headed for the beach just a few short blocks from our temporary Alabama home.  It was so incredibly beautiful - white sand, blue sea, dolphins in the surf, shells and warm morning sunshine.   Susan immediately had her shoes off and her saltwater starved toes in the sea.  Since it is the off season there were very few people on the beach, just some fishermen and a very pleasant woman that gave us tips on where to shop and dine. 

As we walked the beach we admired the beach homes and sympathized with many of the homeowners still struggling to repair their hurricane damaged homes - or had just given up.  In September 2004 Hurricane Ivan hit the gulf coast of Alabama and Florida destroying communities and infrastructure.  Then in July 2005 Dennis made landfall in the same area.  In November 2006 the lingering damage attests to the power of nature. 

As Californians we learned to live with earthquakes that hit without warning every couple of decades, but how does one learn to live with the all too frequent devastating occurrence of hurricanes and tornadoes.  Frankly, hurricanes and tornadoes strike fear in our little mobile-home-dwelling hearts.

Luxury RV is located adjacent to a mangrove wetland and bayou area, and is very near Gulf State Park; which is one of the reasons we selected this park.  The state park was struggling to repair from hurricane damage so the hiking and biking trails were still closed, but walking the beach and biking the coast roads kept us happy.  Unfortunately, towards the end of our stay Bill's camera, along with most of the Alabama photos we had taken to date, fell off his bike and were lost to us forever - thus we have precious few photos of this beautiful area.

Our first expedition was to attend the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival  in Pensacola, Florida's historic village.  What a beautiful day in a wonderful setting.  The architecture in the historic village reflects the French and Spanish colonial influences - think of a scaled down New Orleans.  There was a lot of great art and camaraderie lubricated with champagne and Bloody Marys.  The attendees were clearly enjoying themselves. 

We returned on November 11 to attend the Blue Angels anniversary air show at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.  Since Susan is an air show novice it was quite exciting for her.  She got quite a thrill from the F/A-18 Hornet's bombing and strafing demonstrations, and their earth shaking roar.  There was some excitement and tension when the F/A-18 fighter jet landed and blew a tire.  The pilot did a great job of controlling the plane and safely bringing it to a stop.

We took the scenic route around the bay to visit the lovely southern city of Mobile.  Driving around the bay was beautiful, and we highly recommend visiting the upscale, artist colony of Fairhope.  We are so sorry we lost all of our pictures from Mobile and our visit to the USS Alabama that is permanently docked in the Bay.  We never realized how enormous a WWII battleship was or how intimidating the big guns were.  We're amazed that the men that served on these ships weren't all deaf by the end of the war.

Keeping with the military theme, we visited two historic forts in the area.  Fort Morgan, the "Guardian of the Bay", was built after the War of 1812 and served to protect the southern coastline through WWII.  One of its claims to fame is the famous quotation "Damn the torpedoes!  Full speed ahead!" shouted by Union Admiral Farragut when leading the attack on Mobile Bay.  (During the Civil War mines were called torpedoes.)

Ft. Conde is a replica of a French fort established in Mobile in the 18th century.  It contains many artifacts from the original fort and photo and newspaper exhibits of early Mobile including early Mardi Gras celebrations, the plight of African-Americans from Civil War to Civil Rights and early industry in the region.

While on one of the downtown trolleys we chatted with the driver that proudly served as our tour guide.  She advised us on places not to miss and showed us some of the damage that was done by Hurricane Katrina and the storm's high water marks.  Downtown was clearly still recovering from the hurricane and there were numerous businesses that remain closed.

We really enjoyed the Gulf Shores area and the southern hospitality exhibited by the Alabamans.  Hopefully we will return to the region some day, but it is getting cool so we are off to climes of Port Richey, Florida via Tallahassee and Wakulla Springs to visit the manatees.