Pensacola Fl to Mobile AL

3/18/2014

On Tuesday the 18^th we drove the jeep to Pensacola, Florida, our main objective to tour the Naval Air Museum. Having been to the crown jewel of military aviation museums (Wright Patterson Air Force Museum) in Dayton Ohio everything else seems a little small but we enjoyed it just the same. The inside displays are very nice and thoroughly document navy aviation History. Millie and I both liked all the early aircraft as well as the state of the art fighters. Like I always do in these places I spent some time gazing at the aircraft I have some connection to,  the OV10  Bronco, O1 Birddog, Huey Cobra and of course the Charlie model gunship that I flew so many hours on.   One thing we both noticed was the static displays of aircraft they have outside are kind of shabby looking. I think the humid salt air is not the best place to have old aluminum aircraft sitting unprotected.

 Gunship

We spent most of our day at the museum but did drive through downtown Pensacola. It’s a smallish city, not very impressive. The waterfront area is undergoing a renaissance and is very nice; some of the city homes have New Orleans style wroth iron balconies but the houses themselves are just plain row house design.

3/19/2014

Wednesday we drove, again in the jeep to Mobile, Alabama and then down to Dauphin Island. Mobile is much smaller than I thought it would be, but it has a huge maritime industry. Everywhere along the shore there are shipyards, bulk unloading docks, and refineries. The highlight of our visit was the Battleship Alabama Memorial Park. In addition to the battleship the park has a Vietnam Memorial, Korean War memorial, war dog’s memorial, and many static displays of aircraft, boats, tanks, and artillery.

The Alabama

We had heard that Dauphin Island was beautiful with sand as white as snow. I think whoever said that was thinking of Detroit snow on the sides of the road halfway thru winter. The Florida Panhandle beaches are the whitest we’ve seen anywhere. For the most part the island is covered with sand dotted with weather beaten stilt houses. It reminded me of the outer banks. We then took the ferry across Mobile Bay to Gulf Shores and drove the coast to Orange Beach and then north to the campground. Both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach looked like nice places to vacation with lots to do in the area.

Mobile Bay Ferry