NOLA Part 1

OK so my last post was way back on the 16th, but we have been very busy from sun up to sun down and finding the time and energy to make a sensible post has been very hard.


The drive to New Orleans was short and uneventful. Finding the Pontchartrain Landing Resort was also quite easy. Once again we made a wise choice of places to stay. This resort is all brand new since the previous park was wiped out by Katrina. Everything was very clean and well kept. The service was outstanding from the escort to our site all the way to check out. Very friendly staff and a big plus is the free shuttle service to and from the French Quarter several times each day. We generally took the 10 am shuttle into town and returned on the 7 pm shuttle.


By spending the whole day in town we got a chance to see a lot more than if we had not. This also meant that lunch and dinner had to be in restaurants but the food was all worth the added expense. The biggest problem with eating in a different place each meal is that you tend to forget all the names. Every meal was a treat and we enjoyed each. We were told that it is almost impossible to get a bad meal in the French Quarter. If you go there the only real choice you will have to make is how much you want to spend, but don't worry there are lots of reasonable priced meals to be had.


You will note I titled this post NOLA Part 1. Because we saw and did so much there I thought it best to break it down into smaller posts rather than try to cover the whole week in one big long post. I am sure I would leave out some important details if I tried to cover everything at once.


I know some of you look forward to seeing the pictures I post so I just had to include a couple of the Pontchartrain Landing Resort. It is a big job getting all the pictures processed each day but I have managed to keep up. I plan to set up a place where I can post all of them for those of you that want to see. I'll let you all know when it is up and how to get there.

Big Boat Big Float

Our second day of seeing the sights in Mobile finds us heading due West on I-10 and crossing the bay at the north end. This route gets you quickly into downtown Mobile and all the action. Our fist stop is on the East side of the Mobile River at Battleship Memorial Park.

Battleship Memorial Park is home to the USS Alabama Battleship, the USS Drum Submarine, a aircraft pavilion with planes, helicopters and a PBR river boat as well as other military vehicles, and both a Vietnam and Korea Veterans Memorial. There is a lot to see and I suggest if you go that you plan to spend four or more hours to see everything.

We have taken the tour of the USS Missouri Battleship in Hawaii that we found very informative and interesting, but the self guided tour of the Alabama was by far the better of the two. There are many more areas of the Alabama that are open for viewing. The tour is self guided and has three routes that cover all areas of the ship. The Red tour covers below decks in the aft part of the ship. The Green tour covers the forward part of the lower decks, and the Yellow tour covers all the upper decks. The Plan to spend two or more hours for the tour and be aware that there are lots of steep stair cases and narrow passages to traverse.

The tour of the submarine is much shorter and involves some very tight quarters and small passage doors. Being a contortionist is a big advantage. The tour of the USS Drum takes less than an hour.

The aircraft pavilion contains many restored aircraft from WW I all the way through the Gulf war. It includes one of the U-2 type spy planes and a second generation CIA spy plane. The building is also home to one of the PBR river boats used in Vietnam, and an exhibit of what life was like for POW's in North Vietnam. The grounds outside include dozens of other aircraft, vehicles, tanks, and artillery from all eras. The grounds also include memorials to Alabama's veterans of Korea and Vietnam.

Back on the road to Mobile takes you through one of two tunnels under the Mobile River. I again imagine driving the motorhome through here. It seems narrow and low clearance but knowing that big trucks pass through with ease makes me feel better.

Our next stop for the day is the Mobile Carnival Museum. The museum highlights the history of Mardi Gras in Mobile. We were surprised to learn that Mardi Gras was first observed in the US in 1703 at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the first settlement in Mobile Alabama.

The Mobile Carnival Museum is home to many of the lavish costumes and robes of former Kings and Queens of the Mardi Gras. The Den contains several Mardi Gras floats used in past parades. The Museum has a self guided tour but we were quite lucky to visit on a day that one of the docents was there to give us a personal tour. The docent is a member of one of the Mardi Gras Societies and are very well versed in all the history. Our docent was a former Mardi Gras King and his wife is a former Queen. There are currently over 50 societies in the Mobile area and many are represented with displays in this museum. The Museum is only open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday so plan your trip ahead of time.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will be leaving Mobile, Alabama and heading to New Orleans, LA. We are meeting up with our good friends Roger and Barbara there and have a very full week of activities and sightseeing planed. See you all next week in the Big Easy.

A Fort, a Ferry and a Home

The weather has been a bit better with clear skies and sunshine so we decided to see some of the sights. We took the long way around and went south on the east side of Mobile bay to Gulf Shores and then West as far as the road would take us. With the Gulf of Mexico on our left and Mobile Bay on our right we passed many homes built on stilts and looking so very vulnerable to the many hurricanes that hit the Gulf.

Our first stop was Fort Morgan at southern most tip of Alabama. Fort Morgan was built after the war of 1812 as part of the Third System Coastal Defense. In August of 1864, Union Admiral Farragut led his fleet past the guns of Fort Morgan destroying much of the fort in the process. This enabled him to sail on to Mobile and capture the city in the Civil War.

The fort was later fortified with concrete gun bunkers and fully manned during the Spanish-American War, WW I and WW II. In 1946 the fort was deactivated and turned over to the state of Alabama. Fort Morgan is currently administered by the Alabama Historical Commission.

Fort Morgan is at the end of the road and to continue on to Mobile we had to hitch a ride on the Mobile Bay Ferry. The ferry runs daily year round with double the number of ferries during the summer season. The trip across to Dauphin Island takes about 45 minutes and passes by some of the natural gas and oil rigs situated in Mobile Bay. Prior to this trip I had never been on a car ferry. We were surprised to find that the Ferry cost was only $20 for the car and two passengers, a real bargain for the amount of time it would potentially save.

It is a short drive over the bridge across Heron Bay from Dauphin Island to the Mainland. Heading north on Highway 59 toward Mobile we come to the Bellingrath Gardens and Home. The home and gardens were built in 1935 by Walter and Bess Bellingrath as a summer home. Walter was a self-made man who amassed his fortune after buying a Coca Cola Bottling franchise. The 15 room home sits on over 65 acres of beautiful landscaped gardens on the shore of the Fowl River.

The Bellingrath Home showcases Bessie's collection of treasured antique furniture, silver, china, crystal and cut glass. The home itself features handmade brick and ironworks salvaged from a landmark 19th century Mobile hotel. Even though we were there in the winter we saw many varieties of flowers in bloom. If you decide to visit be aware that there is a lot of walking involved in touring the gardens.

Bumps in the Road

As with anything in life we run into little kinks in our plans and not everything goes as it should. So it has been with our trip so far. First you will note ie has been some time since the start of our trip and I have not posted. It has not been an easy five days but it has been interesting.

We did not get started as soon as we planned on the 3rd so we only made it as far as Southern Indiana. We stopped for the night in Columbus at a very nice small campground called Woods-N-Water. It was still cold with temps in the low 40's to upper 30's and just to make it fun it was raining. We managed to get backed in to our site before the dark came but finished our set up in the cold dark and rain. To top it all off we found we had a leaking flush valve on the toilet so we had to go without water.

Tired, wet and without water we went to the local Bob Evans for dinner, and then to bed. We rose early the next morning and again went to BobEvans for breakfast. We got on the road quickly and headed south once agin, hoping for better weather.

Sunday January 5 found us stopping for the night in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham South Campground. If you happen to be on the road and in the area of Birmingham I would recommend you make the Birmingham South Campground a stop on your way. It is a lovely park with a staff that will go out of their way to please. All the hookups are easy to get to and the concrete patio and walk at your front door is great in inclement weather. The staff was so wonderfull and after telling them of my water problem, they gave me the name of a repaiman to call.

It was late on Sunday by the time we got set up but I gave a call to Lyle (the RV repairman) on his cell phone in hopes he could help. Next morning Lyle called and after a few questions went to see if he had the part. He called back a short time later and said he had the part and could install it that day. Lyle did an excellent job at a reasonable price.

Should you find yourself in a position to need some work done I would recommend Lyle, you can reach him at 205-668-9975 or his cell at 205-368-5847.

I must apologize for my lack of pictures to accompany these reports but with the rain and gloomy weather I just did not get to it. When we woke up Tuesday morning (1/6/09) it looked to be a good day and I did snap this picture of the well lit entrance to the Birmingham South Campground. As the sun came out we got on our way again with hopes that our trip today would be better than it had been.

As we headed south on I65 once again it became apparent that our luck had not changed but shifted in another direction. The rain was gone and the temps were begining to rise but some very heavy winds made the driving quite stressfull. I understand we had gusts of up to 35 miles per hour. I had to keep a deathlike grip on the steering wheel just to keep us on the road. I have never driven in such a hard wind before. Even the professional drivers in their big rigs were having a hard time keeping in their lane. If a big gust came up at the wrong time you had to fight to stay on the road and in your lane.

The trip from Birmingham to the Mobile area only took 5 hours but it felt like I had been driving for ten hours. We pulled into the HillTop RV Park in Robertsdale, Alabama around 3:30 in the afternoon and were once again greeted with a friendly smile. This too is a very nice campground but they have very few mature trees and I suspect it would be quite hot in the summer.

Pictured at the left is the entrance to the HillTop RV Park. Our plans are to stay here till the 17th of January when we will be heading out to New Orleans.

The weather has been cooperation for the last two days and we have had some great sunshine and the temps have been hitting highs in the upper 60's to the low 70's. I think I am going to love winter around this area. By the way that picture to the Right is Marsha sitting in the sun getting caught up on her reading. She really needs to slow down since she only brought 12 novels with her to last till we get to Texas.

We plan to spend the next few days doing some relaxing, some sightseeing, some relaxing, some reading, and maybe even a bit of relaxing. It looks like there are some fun things to do and some neat stuff to see here in the Mobile/Pensacola area.

The Weather Looks Good

A check of the weather for this area looks quite good for Saturday January 3, 2009. There is no snow in the forecast but we can expect some cold temps.

The past few days have been spent getting all those little ducks in a row. While I am not an environmental wacko we have converted most of our bills to paperless so it will be easier to monitor and pay them. We have also finalized all the other little things that need to be done before leaving home.

So with the weather cooperating and all the duck in a row, it looks like we can get started on this adventure first thing in the morning. All the clothing and dry goods have been loaded and stored in the motorhome. The boxes of liquids are sitting on the living room floor ready to go. Both the cats seem quite curious about what is going on. Diablo seems to be a bit worried that we are leaving him behind, in spite of our assurances we are not.

I am hoping to be able to get everything shut down here before noon tomorrow. Draining the hot water heater and the water system should be a snap, and after unplugging everything and turning down the thermostat we should be done. I chatted a bit today with several of the neighbors and told them we are finally ready to get going. John, across the street will inform the UPS driver in case something comes we are not aware of. Jim, our over the fence neighbor is a Sheriffs department Deputy so he will be keeping an eye on things while we are gone. The mail is set to be forwarded, so it seems we are ready to leave.

Everybody keep your fingers crossed.