Delta Explorer

Today Judy had to shove & push me out of bed at 6:30 so we could pick up Dave & Donna at 8 allowing us to be at Blakely State Park for a 9am 3 1/2 hour 35 mile boat ride in the Mobile Delta and port. She is mean, cruel & inconsiderate. We did make it and it was a very cold morning. Blakely is the location of one of the last major battles of the Civil War. It's not very well known because Lee surrendered in the early afternoon and the battle was fought late in the afternoon when the war was already over.

Here we all are huddled up trying to stay warm as we cruise by one of the better local home sites. We passed several shanty's used by hunters and as a get away. Looks like they all got away.

If you have a good memory you can recall in 1993 a barge took the wrong turn

on a foggy night and hit a railroad bridge knocking the tracks 18" out of alignment. Soon after a passenger train passed by and was derailed killing 47 people. This is where the accident happened. It is in a very isolated location.

Here's some pelicans cruising around the bay. We saw lots of both white and brown pelicans.

Here's a docked small Navy patrol boat and the FBI out cruising the port. We waved at them, they waved back and the skipper blew the siren, it was so loud it made all the agents on board jump.

Here's the Peacemaker. We had one member of the crew ride with us from the state park back to his ship. It was built in the 1980s in Brazil and is now owned by The Twelve Tribes. It's a group of young people scattered around the globe living in what sounds like religious communes; modern day hippies?
She is in Mobile to use a dry dock for repairs.

Here's two ships in dry dock for repairs, there must have been 5 or 6 dry docks and they were all in use.

How do you like the helicopter pad on top of the Helix Caesar? The ship is used for deep water pipe laying. It sure does look strange. I assume the other ship is under construction.

Here a tanker being turned around by 3 tug boats before being taken to a terminal. The abandoned Navy ship is used for training exercises such as fire control.

As we were leaving Mobile we passed the USS Alabama and the USS Drum in Battleship Park. Both are National Historic Landmarks.

You can see how cold we were when the boat was traveling fast between sites to view.

As we finished the 3 1/2 hour 35 mile trip the weather front came through and pushed all the clouds away and out came a beautiful sunny day. The front was very pronounced and visible. We rushed to the Olive Garden for LOTS of hot soup.

Water aerobics

Here's a couple shots of the park this morning, the pond by the entrance and our truck in front of our home sweet home so you can see our block.

Here's Judy leading the water aerobics class this morning. I notice them jumping out of the water in one picture, do you think they are excited to see me or there might be a shark in the pool? I think she's pointing toward the shark in the last picture. Judy does this 3 mornings a week, water aerobics not pointing at sharks.

Dave & Donna & Ft Morgan

Today we went with Dave & Donna Driver to star shaped Fort Morgan built in 1833 for coastal defense & the entrance to Mobile Bay. It obviously worked as no one invaded us here, except ourselves during the Civil War. Even then it was outdated with steam powered war-ships and rifled cannon. The fort was updated in the 1890s and used during the Spanish-American War and WWI & WWII.

During the Battle of Mobile Bay 8/5/1864Union Admiral Farragut gave his famous order "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" after his leading ironclad, the USS Tecumseh struck a Confederate mine (then called a torpedo) and sank in one minute killing 90 sailors as it ran past Ft Morgan toward Mobile.

The last time we were here was in 2007 and we are still amazed at the number of oil well platforms in the area and how close to shore several of them are. Drill baby drill.

Pensacola Beach & Fort Pickens

Since my last post we have been doing what we do here, eat out, visit, and partake in the parks activities. Today we went with Tom & Ann to Pensacola for lunch at McGuires Irish Pub for lunch. After lunch we went for an afternoons exploration of Pensacola Beach. We went to the Gulf Islands National Seashore and at the end checked our Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island. The fort is huge and covers many many acres with batteries tucked away out of sight. The only person killed by any of the forts guns over the years was one soldier watching a gun drill when the gun broke off its mount in 1922. The fort was built in 1834 to defend Pensacola Harbor and remained in use until 1947. In 1886 the Apache chief Geronimo was imprisoned here. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan pretty much decimated the area and you can see what it did to the trees. The fort was not damaged too much but the Ft Pickens road was not reopened until 2009.

New Years, Patches & the beach clean up

We had the cozy pleasure of Jody & Renato joining us for 2 nights over New Years.....along with their 2 dogs. The weather was wet so that put a dampener on things.

If you think that the BP oil clean up down here is done....it is not. When we were in Biloxi we saw the same deep sand cleaning. This takes up the top 3 feet of sand and it goes through a screener to remove oil & tar. The sand is then placed back on the beach. These pictures were taken today in the middle of Gulf Shores beach, right at the end of AL59 where it ends at the gulf. They will work all the way (~15 miles) to the east shore of Mobile Bay. I'm sure this is continuing on the west side of the bay.

Patches has had an operation! A week ago she was throwing up for 2 days so she spent the night at the vets being checked and hydrated. When we took her home she was not throwing up anymore but she was not eating either. After 2 days of that back to the vet. An X-ray showed she had a twisted intestine and something was also blocking it. The vet operated last Monday, we visited her Tuesday and brought her home Wednesday. She is doing much better, back to enjoying views from several windows, lounging in the sun, her box, and napping on the bed.

Here at the park Judy has seen the fun the guys have playing poker so she has started ladies poker games on Friday afternoons. There have been 15 to 20+ women showing up to play every Friday. She now leads poker and water aerobics.

Christmas in Biloxi

Christmas morning we all slept in and about noon opened gifts. Mid afternoon Jody, Renato & I went back to his brothers. Judy was feeling like she was getting the flu so stayed home. When we arrived at Ivans the party was still going strong. Two fellows were playing guitars and singing for the rest of the group. The fruit, turkey and ham had a big dent in them and more food was being prepared. These folks also like their beer, and lots of it. When we returned to Jody & Renatos we spent Christmas evening watching two DVDs of the Bahnmiller Family Follies. These where all the movies Judy & I made starting with Jody's birth all the way to Randy coming home for a visit while he was in the Navy, took 3 hours to watch them. Sunday morning Renato fixed some good omelets and Judy & I drove back to Gulf Shores in the afternoon.

Sunday the weather turned real cold, down to 28 at night so we let the water run to keep the lines from freezing.