Before dinner we did some shopping and took a drive down Hwy 59 to Gulf Shores. It is only about 20 miles southeast of us and is a beautiful gulf resort area. Unfortunately, Katrina made a mess of it.
The recovery effort is well underway and most of the houses along the beach have new siding and roofs on them already. There are some places where no house exists because there was nothing left to put new siding on.
From Gulf Shores you can turn west along the gulf and drive about 20 miles to Ft. Morgan. Ft. Morgan, on the western end of the Alabama peninsula which shelters Mobile Bay, and Ft. Gaines, on the eastern end of Dauphin Island, were Confederate strongholds which guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay. On August 5th, 1864, the Union fleet, led by Admiral David Farragut, sailed between them in the greatest naval battle of the Civil War. During the battle, Farragut issued his famous order: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." Torpedoes were what we call mines today. One of his ships was sunk by a "mine" that was set off by men in Ft. Morgan. The fort was originally built in about 1844 and was closed in the 1920's, only to be used again during WWII for a period of time. Here is a link to some information about it if you are interested. Ft. Morgan
We rode back down to the fort today on the scooter since we got there too late yesterday to do any sightseeing. It was about 80 miles round trip. Since it was only in the mid 50's today we wore down jackets, long johns and gloves which helped keep us reasonably comfortable, but I don't think Dianna is up for anything much colder. We still had a good time.
I hope you are out of the paths of the tornadoes and heavy rains.
ReplyDeleteKeep traveling and seeing things. In 20 years, you won't feel like it, but stored memories are great.
I want to eat at Lamberts! Looks (and sounds) like delicious fun.
ReplyDelete