WWII Immersive

This long ramp leads up to the Battleship USS Alabama. She was the fourth and final member of the Dakoka class fast battleships. After a brief time in the Atlantic supporting convoys to the Soviet Union, she moved to the Pacific in 1943 serving mainly as an escort for aircraft carriers. She took part in Gilbert, Marshal Islands and Philippines campaigns and later transported troops back to the US. 

 Over 3 days we have been immersed in the WWII both in Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, LA. Our first day was spent at the SS Alabama Memorial Park in Mobile and then we spent two days at the National WWII Memorial Museum in New Orleans. They complimented each other. At the first we toured the actual ships, the USS Warship Alabama and the USS Submarine Drum. At the second we spent almost 7 hours listening to the men and women who served in the war, read their stories, and saw them on film. We followed the progress of the war in print and film, all from the perspective of America. It was truly an immersive experience!  

Looking back from the bow of the USS Alabama

Looking towards the bow on the USS Drum deck

The galley on the Drum felt so real, although
the dummy didn't!

The corridors were narrow and the bulkhead
doors were hard for Scott and I to manage. In
real life the men ran down these and jumped
through them!

The SS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park was established in 1963 after the USS Alabama was ordered scrapped. After citizens of Alabama, including school children, raised the money, the Alabama was towed from Seattle all the way to Mobile. It was joined by the USS Drum in 1969 and was moored behind her until 2001 when it was moved to land. A collection of notable aircraft and vehicles are on display in an aircraft hanger and on the grounds. Several films and artifacts illustrate parts of the war effort. We were particularly impressed with the film and photos of the Tuskegee Airmen and their contributions, narrated by Morgan Freeman. Another interesting highlight was the stories of the Red Ball Express Supply line, manned mainly by African American soldiers which operated at it's peak 5,958 vehicles after the D-day invasion. 

The Alabama is huge and although very interesting, felt, inside at least, more like a museum than a working ship. It was really a small city of  2,500 officers and enlisted men! Touring the Drum however, we felt we were in the actual thing and it was eerie and all too real. I for one could never serve on such a ship. I felt claustrophobic even in this safest of all situations. All the many movies we've seen of submarine action came back to us and suddenly, we were there!

Major James Ellison reviews the first class of cadets at the US Army Air Corps basic and advanced flight school in Tuskegee, AL.

We stayed for two nights at the Historic Blakely State Park, near Mobile. It is a huge place but the RV section, although very well spaced and all pull through, was poorly maintained and didn't have a bathhouse. It took us a long time to find a spot to park on our site that the RV was capable of being leveled with our boards. One additional place in the area we visited was the very pretty town of Fairhope, where we enjoyed a good lunch at the Dragon Fly restaurant and admired the extensive mini gardens that decorate the town.  

It was a late lunch so we treated ourselves to a
local beer

These little pocket gardens with spring flowers
lined every street and corner downtown.

On the way to New Orleans we stopped at The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS again for lunch. On my Roadtrippers national map, this is one of the little photo highlights so we made a special stop on our last trip west two years ago. It's a huge rambling place with every doodad and memorabilia you can imagine. They have live music a lot and it must be a jumping place in the evenings, but for an early lunch, it was very quiet. The BBQ is excellent. 

Scott and our huge BBQ lunch, enough 
leftover for a second meal. Ribs, brisket, hush
puppies, beans and collard greens.

We were also returning to the French Quarter RV Resort in New Orleans, for 3 nights. This is a very lovely place with a pool and hot tub. Last time we mainly walked all over the area, and again, last summer when we spent 5 days in New Orleans. But this time we concentrated on the National WWII Museum. We spent 3 hours there the first day after lunch at their Backstage Canteen and were so interested in everything that we only made it through half the museum. Happily they have a special price for a second day so we got there first thing in the morning, after a wonderful breakfast at the Ruby Slipper, and spent over 4 hours. Even then, we still missed one section. This is one of the best museums I've ever been to. It takes an enormous amount of material and presents it in an entertaining and moving way. We could have spent a third day and still not seen everything. In most museums we feel we have had enough in two hours at a time - not so here. It was hard to tear ourselves away after 4!

Here's an example of one tiny section of one of the buildings (there are 4) - the China, Burma, India Gallery. There are multiple films, artifacts with explanations, terminals where you can listen to individuals tell their experiences, brief bios of the principal players, and texts explaining the timetable and battles. 

The main hall of the American Sector Building with planes hung from the ceiling. The architecture of the museum is beautiful both within and without.

The courtyard between 2 of the buildings

The exterior of the American Sector Building

Our second night we had a terrific evening with our youngest son Sean's friends Jesse and Sarah. They are in New Orleans for one year with Jesse's job. Sarah is able to work mostly from home. They chose the Peche Seafood Grill for dinner and it was excellent. Later we had a glass of wine in our pergola next to our RV. They had just spent New Year's with Sean and Will up at our time share at Sunday River.

Jesse, Scott, Sarah and I had Peche

Baby and our pergola at the French Quarter RV
Resort - very nice site as you can see.

Today we head for Lafayette, LA for 5 nights, staying at Harvest Host locations, 2 distilleries, 2 historic homes, and one swamp tour. More on my next post. 

Just In Time!

 Scott has been trying to get an appointment for the COVID 19 vaccine since we took off from Vermont. Florida had a wide-open policy for over 65 with no need for residency. But each of the 67 counties had their own system (or lack of system) so it's been difficult and involved lots of hours online. On Tuesday morning early he suddenly got a hit - the first chance was 2 PM on Wednesday, Woops missed it. Then a second opportunity for 8:45 AM on Thursday and he got it! In all the excitement I thought to ask, "Where?" I guess the answer could have been worse - it was Melbourne in Brevard County. We were currently in St. Petersberg and had planned to head north on Thursday morning. So lots of work to be done rescheduling our lunch with friends in Homosassa and all our reservations for the next week. 

We were staying with my first cousin Joanie and her husband Kent in their beautiful historic home in St. Petersberg. They were happy to have us stay another night and it was easy to change our luncheon with Richard and Debra to Friday. Our Thursday night stay at a Harvest Host farm couldn't be rescheduled so we booked a KOA in Perry but the Southern Grace Lavender farm had no problem. As did the French Quarter RV Park in New Orleans. So it just meant getting up at 5 AM on Thursday to drive across the state. We arrived at 8:15 and got in the line of cars stretching 4 blocks long. In a half-hour, we entered the big parking lot behind the Health Center and stopped at several check-in locations that took our paperwork and looked us up on their computers. Now we were a little nervous because the day before, on Wednesday, the Governor had announced that the vaccines would be for residents only. But that was not true when we got our appointment. When questioned though I said we were "winter residents" and after a hesitation, she let us continue. We never got out of our car - the vaccines (Moderna) were administered at our windows and we were monitored at parking spots for 15 minutes before getting our next appointment papers - February 17 at 9:45 AM. If we can't get our second shots where we end up then, we'll fly back to Orlando, rent a car, and go to our appointments. The Governor has said that all 2nd shot appointments will be honored. 

So let's go back to our cruising narrative. From Duck Key we drove over to Bonita Springs to visit our long time cruiser friend Barbara Craig (formerly Barbara Gilmour from Enkidu and Bonaire). Bonita Terra was the RV park where we spent 3 nights. We left the trailer there and stayed with Barbara for 2 nights and then returned for the last evening. The weather was good so we walked on the beach, around her huge very attractive gated community, and enjoyed the pool & hot tub. And of course, some great meals. 

Next, we had 3 nights with my cousin in St. Petersberg. We were very impressed with this beautiful city and the historic area where they live near the Bay. Their home was featured in "Fear of Rain", a new movie with Katherine Heigel & Harry Connick, Jr. coming out in February. As usual, we had long walks with them around the city and great meals. It was quite exciting driving into their narrow driveway and even more so, backing out. Luckily one of the neighbors helped out by moving his car. We had to stop traffic!

On Friday we drove north to Homosassa, the home of Richard & Debra Boileau, cruiser friends from Tango. They are on a creek leading to the Homosassa River and have a Grady White motorboat at their dock and a lovely view of undeveloped forest beyond.  We caught up on our lives since we last saw them in Cartegna, Columbia over a long lunch of Cuban sandwiches and salad. Then it was off to a KOA RV park in Perry - long stretches of nothing in between the two locations. We went 40 miles without seeing a house!

We were really looking forward to our next stop - the Southern Grace Lavender Farm in Southport, FL, a Harvest Host location. Jason & Kari Leabo and their two children have a small farm and shop where they sell a large variety of lavender products, many of which they make themselves. We shared the location with 3 other RVs and struck up a friendship with Eli, Kelly, Dakota, and Isabelle Pyke. They are living in their big motorhome and have made two documentary films about their adventures available on Vimeo - The Far Green Company and The Far Green Company - In the Twilight. You can watch the promo on either Vimeo or Utube.

On our way there we stopped for a lovely walk in the Ecofina River State Park and the next day we had lunch mid-way to New Orleans at the famous BBQ place, The Shed. It's been on a number of food TV shows and the food was great (and huge portions, we ate the leftovers that night for dinner). Our home in New Orleans is right in the city - the French Quarter RV Park. After settling in, we walked through the French Quarter down to the River. Of course, we had to pay respects to the Old Man. Parts of the city were crowded, like Bourbon Street, and other parts felt deserted. We did a lot of dodging non-masked people and kept our's on. It was fun to sit at an outside table and have a drink watching the action from a distant enough location. We're getting good at spotting these places. Nervous at walking back in the dark (there is a deserted empty area to go through to get back), we called Uber (the driver was masked and we opened our windows).  

Today we'll explore the city some more and tonight we're going out with New Orleans locals and cruiser friends from our Marina in Guatemala - Roy & Dale Ross of Wahoo. More to come in another post!

Scott and Barbara at her condo in Bonita Springs

Scott and I try out the spiffy new rocking chairs
James & Morgen gave us for Christmas

Barbara grows orchids on the trees around her
condo!

Cousins Heather, Joanie & Mary - our
mothers were sisters.

Just blocks from Joanie & Kent's home are miles
of parks along the Bay. They are right in the
 middle of the historic district and within walking
 distance of everything.

This is their home and over on the left, you can see our trailer. The truck is in front and the end of
the trailer just cleared the sidewalk. 

Richard and Debra's home was beautifully 
decorated with items from their travels all over
the world.

Richard & Debra Boileau

A view from the Blue Trail at Ecofina River
State Park where we stopped to hike.

Another view, this time of the marshes

The Shed BBQ in Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Our great lunches of BBQ and various sides.

The Bayou at The Shed

Our new friends we met at the Southern Grace
Lavender Farm - Eli, Kelly, Dakota, and Isabelle