Gulf Islands National Seashore is a series of barrier
islands that protect the coastal areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Northwest
Florida. In Texas they also have the
Padre Islands National Seashore. On our
first winter’s trip, we blogged about camping on South Padre and also at the
northern end of that chain of islands.
See “Previous Florida Blogs” for our last visit here, too!
The four inches of rain from last Sunday finally quit coming
down but the solitary 2-lane road that leads from the park entrance gate, past
the check-in building, and on to the campgrounds was flooded and took 5 days to
dry up! Our campground loop was fairly
high and the water drained pretty quickly but the other, larger campground loop
did not fare so well! It’s a good thing
that all of the electrical boxes are mounted 4 feet off the ground on tall
wooden posts.
We’ve already gone thru the main part of the fort before but
on each visit we find more to inspect and learn about. This time we’ve checked on the World War I
Cooper’s Battery that held the disappearing canons. These canons popped up, disappeared and reappeared like jack in
the box! According to the sign nearby,
this battery held 2 6inch rifles mounted on disappearing carriages. When the guns were fired, the recoil
automatically lowered them behind the concrete wall, which protected the crews
while they reloaded the guns.
Counterweights then returned them to the firing position.
Flooded park roads did not hold us back from venturing out
to explore Pensacola and surrounding areas.
On Pearl Harbor Day we headed back to Mobile and the Battleship Memorial
Park where we toured the battleship, USS Alabama and the submarine, USS
Drum. Alabama is 680 ft long and 108
ft wide! She carried 9 16-inch guns in
3 main turrets, 20 5-inch guns, 48 40mm guns and 52 20mm guns! Her crew numbered up to 2500! We followed the self-tour signs thru the
lower two levels past the galleys, bunks and even the bathroom area which was
what amounted to a long plank w/toilet seats attached
H chose to return to our base via a different route – a
ferry boat from Dauphin Island - a barrier island south of Mobile to Fort
Morgan Island – another long narrow barrier island on the east side of the
bay. On both sides of Mobile Bay are 2
more restored forts and each faces the Gulf of Mexico and had once protected
the mouth of the Bay. Out in the open
water were imposing oilrigs on tall metal legs. We passed fairly close to one set of two that were joined by a
small bridge. As we rumbled past and
approached the commercial channel, our captain had to throttle back and wait
for a long slow moving freighter to pass by and head out to the Gulf of
Mexico. Those of us who were up on the
observation area of the ferry got an extra bonus when we watched 2 dolphins
leap up and out of the water as they chased along!
We’ve met some neat folks – Wanda and Ed are from the Mobile
Bay area and filled us in on some of the local lore. We shared a walk on the
beach and a gorgeous Gulf Sunset with them.
Another local neighbor is an armadillo who wanders along and thru the
scrub bushes behind our “home”! We’ve seen eagles and osprey and have listened
to all kinds of little birds that flit from one tree to another! And then there are the jets that take off
and land all day long from the Pensacola Naval Air Station - right on the other
side of Pensacola Bay. This morning we
heard an exceptionally loud roar above us and looked up just in time to see the
Blue Angels fly over in formation. Before we leave – I MUST get a picture. IF I am successful – that picture will be
the first thing you see on our next blog!
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