Gulf Shores State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama

April 5 - 19, 2008

Ever since we left Central Florida and started heading north, we certainly have had our share of "severe weather" while traveling. We awoke in Navarre Beach expecting some thunderstorms coming out of the Gulf of Mexico and hitting all areas of our planned route. We were all prepared to leave and kept an eye on the weather channel as well as weather.com to watch the progress of the storms. We picked a time to leave just as a cell of thunderstorms was making its way towards us. I have to say I feel like a true weather-watcher as I've become pretty good at following these storms...I'm just not comfortable with picking out a tornado if there is one. Anyway, we made it "through the cells of weather", through the tornado and flash flood warnings and made it here to Gulf Shores State Park without incident.

The Gulf Shores area of Alabama was hit in the fall of 2004 by Category 4 Hurricane Ivan. It suffered quite a bit of damage and you can see a lot of new construction in the area. The park here still shows some affects from the storm with trees that look like they went through a forest fire.

Our site is located on a small canal between Middle Lake and Lake Shelby. We are within walking distance of the beach on the Gulf and there is an 18-hole championship course at the Park. We hope to work on our game a bit these next two weeks.

We played golf Monday at Gulf State Park Golf Course and I'm happy to say we can still play the game. I had my doubts there for awhile, but we have somewhat pulled ourselves out of that terrible black hole we were in and pulled off a decent round. Of course, the golf course was also in much better shape than the last one...there was actually some grass on the greens! We may even try our hand at a more expensive course next week (if the sun ever comes out) where there may be some delineation between the fairway and the rough!!!

As I said, we haven't had great weather since being here. It's been overcast and windy, but the temperature is remaining in the high 70's. So, we've spent a lot of time (and money) shopping and checking out the area. I don't know if it's because of the past hurricane damage or if this is just a growing area, but most buildings seem fairly new and everything is very neat. Route 59 contains every kind of store and restaurant you could possibly want. Route 182 (the beach road) is again lined with high-rise hotels and condos as well as your obligatory surf shops. For the first time we have seen red flags (high surf and/or strong currents) as well as purple flags (sharks, jellyfish or other harmful marine life is present). So, I guess we'll stay out of the water. The beach is absolutely beautiful though. Again, that soft, white sand.

We had lunch at Lulu's at Homeport Marina. Lulu's is owned by Lucy Buffett, Jimmy's sister. It has the same atmosphere as the Margueritaville Restaurants opened by her brother. A must see if in Gulf Shores as this is the only Lulu's there is.

Ken has been enjoying the sunsets along the beach!!

Today, we visited Fort Morgan at Mobile Point at the entrance to Mobile Bay. Fort Morgan was one of the last Confederate forts to fall to Union forces. At dawn on August 5, 1864, an 18-ship Union fleet commanded by Admiral D. G. Farragut steamed toward Fort Morgan and the entrance to Mobile Bay. The Confederate defenders of the fort opened fire. At 7:30 a.m., as cannon fire reached a crescendo, the leading Union monitor, the Tecumseh, struck a mine (known as a torpedo during the Civil War) and sank within a minute taking most of the crew down with her. This sudden disaster threw the Union fleet into confusion causing them to hesitate under the guns of Fort Morgan. At this critical moment, Admiral Farragut gave his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" which led the remaining vessels past the fort, through the minefield, and into Mobile Bay. I remember the name Farragut, and the Tecumseh, and, of course, I recognize the phrase (which, for some reason I had associated with a different war), but standing at the fort today made the whole thing real and not just something read in a book during history class. What a great teaching tool...too bad we can't all visit these places where our history was made.

As I've said previously, the coastline along the Gulf, both in the Florida panhandle and here in Alabama is quite different from what we're used to on Cape Cod. Not that I'm prejudiced, but the Cape is much more quaint and inviting. The beach houses on the Gulf are, of course, built up on stilts to avoid possible flooding and I'm sure that the building codes are becoming more and more strict so they can withstand the hurricanes common to the area. But the one real blight on the area is the oil platforms that pop up. We didn't notice them at first (they were hidden by all those high rise hotels) but once you get to the beach, there before you is this awful piece of machinery. As much as I support alternative sources of energy, these oil platforms have convinced me that I do not want to see anything blocking the beauty of Vineyard Sound. Those windmills have to be put somewhere else where they cannot spoil the beauty of our natural resources.

Here we see two oil "whatevers", a pleasure boat, and (look close in front of the oil platform) a dolphin fin!

Since I have gotten so "wordy" in this blog, I'm going to publish it early. I'm planning a trip north to Loxley (where my mother was born) and Mobile (where she lived and her parents called home) this week. So we'll have a lot more to talk about then!!!

(By the way, I need to explain that I have not yet gotten the blog formating down...what I type and where I place the pictures sometimes come out totally different after "publishing". Since I'm an old-school secretary, this really bothers me...so bear with any of these unusual placements and just try to enjoy the contents. Hopefully, in a couple of years, I'll have it all figured out!!!)