Tallahassee to Mobile

Tallahassee to Mobile

Before we get started, a little more about last night. When we left our faithful readers,, we'd decided to call it a night and retired to the bed. Both the girls were up on the bed with us. Before long, Wicket jumped down to go to her bed so I got up to turn out the lights. I made my last pit stop for the day and was just about to turn out the lights when I noticed a couple of wet spots on the carpet. At first I thought OMG I should have taken the kids out for one more run. I quickly pointed out the spots to Tina while I pulled my pants back on. Then Tina noticed water dripping from the ceiling. It had been doing some serious "T" Storming outside and as I looked toward the window a stream of water was flowing across the ceiling and dripping down on the floor. Tina grabbed the waste bin from the bathroom and placed it under the major dip and I went downstairs to notify the desk. They immediately gave us keys to a different room and we quickly moved all our stuff a few doors down and then called it a night!!

By 6:30am the girls decided it was time to get up, so up I got and took them downstairs to the dog walk. It was still raining, albeit lightly, but they needed their time and we decided to take a short walk before breakfast. When we got back in the room Tina was up so she gave them their breakfast while I went down for coffee. With some coffee in us we finished packing and went down to a continental breakfast of hard boiled eggs, oatmeal and toast, yum (but it came with the room so we'd already paid for it). After breakfast we loaded the car and hit the road.

Today we only had about 275 miles to drive so we decided to stay on the back roads and followed SR-20 all the way to the Choctawatchee Bay where we cut south to the Gulf and headed west again on highway 30.  This was a low traffic route that wound through beautiful countryside dotted with cattle ranches, tree farms (soft pines, fast growing, used for pulp) and other agricultural farms. Even though it rained off and on all morning it was still much less hectic than driving I-10.

Baytown Wharf Resort - a Typical Resort Condo right on Destin Harbor on the Gulf of Mexico

Twentyfive miles along SR-30 and we pulled into Destin. This is definitely a resort town with high rise condos along the bay and tourist businesses everywhere you looked. Since it was nearing our lunchtime even though it was only 10:30 (we lost an hour crossing time zones) we decided to stop at a Starbucks for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.

Tina on the balcony overlooking the wharf

We pulled into Baytown Wharf and parked across from the Starbucks making a dash for it to get out of the rain. It was a nice break and after eating we walked around the wharf area as long as we were out of the rain - heh, heh! We made the dash back to the car and leashed up the girls to give them a walk, well, I gave them a walk while Tina stayed in the car and warmed up. Did I mention that the temperature was probably in the mid-50's? Once you get wet it's easy to get chilled, no fun, that's why we love our Naples!!

On the road again we continued west along the coast through Navarre eventually crossing the Pensacola Bay Bridge into the city of Pensacola. We continued on SR-30 finally crossing Perdido Bay into Alabama. This was a really beautiful route as it passed beautiful old homes and horse farms. Huge trees filled with Spanish Moss lined the road for the next thirty miles as we passed through lots of small towns, some bustling, some still waiting for recovery. Eventually we turned north along Mobile Bay and connected with I-10 where we headed west once again.

Battleship USS Alabama

Once on I-10 we started across Mobile Bay only to exit about half way across to get on Battleship Way which we followed until we came to the USS Alabama Memorial Park. The Battleship USS Alabama and the Submarine USS Drum are the heart of the Memorial Park along with a memorial to military planes. We parked and quickly too the dogs for a short walk (dry) before we went in and bought tickets to tour the exhibits (see more photos on our photo site http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolaanski).

Manning a Twin 50 Caliber Machine Gun

We toured up and down the Alabama covering 8 or 9 decks from the engine room to the bridge. It's amazing how many ladders you can climb both up and down to cover a ship this size. The entire time we were aboard I constantly marveled at what it must have taken for the engineers and shipwrights to design and built this massive ship. With it's huge gun turrets, munitions handling systems, fire control and all the things it took to keep it running smoothly, it's quite a marvel. Only when you can see something like this up close can you really appreciate what it took for the crews to man the ship and fight it in a wartime environment.

Tina ringing the Ships bell on the Conning Tower

Once we left the Alabama we passed through the Memorial to Naval Warplanes and out to the USS Drum. Once again we went down inside to the main deck where we worked our way from the bow with the torpedo tubes, through the Command and Steering Station and aft past the engines. Along the way were seamens bunks, galley, mess and all the other rooms set up for running a submarine at see for months at a time. Both vessels are really miniature cities at sea with everything needed to make them self sufficient for extended tours. Both ships saw extensive battlefield engagements with many successful missions. We probably spent close to three hours touring the memorial before we returned to the car and headed into Mobile.

I had previously made notes for navigating. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and said we needed to exit at 153 to get to Tillmans Corner where the La Quinta of Mobile was located. Fortunately we realized that it should have been 15B and made the exit without any back tracking. Once checked in and with our gear stored in the room, dogs fed and walked, we changed into warmer clothes and headed downstairs to get directions to a great place for Gumbo! The young lady at the desk gave us a map and told us to head back into town to Wintzell's Oyster House on Dauphin St.

So we headed back to Mobile and took exit 25 to Virginia Street. Unfortunately we should have taken exit 27 so we spent a while trying to figure out a) where we were and b) where we needed to go. With Tina navigating we finally made it downtown and parked right in front of the restaurant! We both had Gumbo while I got a plate of fried oysters and gulf shrimp. Everything was very good but we still think Tina's gumbo is better - heh, heh!

Heading home we followed a different route, driving through the old town along Government St past stately old homes. What a nice evening! Back at the hotel we settled in for the evening hoping for no more surprises!

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski