Ducky in Mobile, AL

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Travel Day
Still raining…..we both have webbed feet today, and I’m beginning to oil my sprouting feathers. Raw fish is particularly appealing to me, too.

We headed south on our first interstate of the trip, I-65. We meet the best people, even on a travel day! Today, at a rest stope, we parked next to John, a trucker from Easley, SC. He was hauling Dickies clothes for UPS, and told us he’d look out for us on the interstate. He and Stuart had the usual conversation about ‘the girl driving the truck’. This conversation happens frequently as I’m backing the Cottage into the assigned space in the campground. Sometimes, they even talk to me, but usually the conversation happens as if I’m not even there. Guess most women neither drive forward nor backward.

We arrived at our Shady Acres campsite just south of Mobile, on the DIP (Dauphin Island Parkway) in time for a late lunch, and between rain bands. It was great to be able to set up without getting drenched. Rent: $20 a night, with wifi. Well, weak wifi.

After a late lunch of leftovers, we floated our way to downtown, swam through the water to the visitor center, and waded with our Bums and Cabella raincoats, to the local brewery, Hurricane Brewing. Hehehe. We were the only people on the street, not surprising in the downpour. Perfect day to sit inside the local brewery and drink. Our bartender wants to move to Asheville, because she thinks we in NC are much more cosmopolitan than folks in Mobile. The problem, you know, is the people from Mississippi. They have no brain, and are terribly annoying because they are so backwards. She told her boyfriend, who wants to be a cook at a resort, that she could move anywhere as long as she could work at a brewery. She really didn’t want to go back to being a delivery driver for 'Steak-Out’.

Back at the Cottage, after drying out, we scrapped plans to eat out (still raining), and worked on our plans for Mobile touristing. It’s quiet here, and accessible to both the DIP and interstate I-10 to downtown. Mobile's population is about 200,000. Besides fishing, there is a pretty big oil and natural gas industry. If you drive down either side of the Mobile Bay, you can see numerous 'Texas Towers' in the Bay. Natural gas drilling. The support industry is pretty big; miles of hydralic/marine/plumbing businesses all along the DIP.

This is also big fishing territory, and shrimp and oysters are hot products. The sign at the fish market close to our campground is advertising mug bugs. Crawfish. Apparently they are seasonal, like oysters.

Downtown has several historic districts, most of which date from the mid-1800's. Anything built before that either burned in the fires of 1829 or 1836, or have bull-dozed for more modern construction. We'd like to spend some time seeing the old houses, and, of course, eating!