Well, we made it through the 6 days at Deerlick Creek without any real problems. It was definitely a bit of a challenge with our galley grey tank, since we like to wash dishes fairly frequently, but we could have switched to paper plates or done a couple other things to make it less of an issue. Anyway, neither our black tank nor our bath grey tank was filled to capacity, so it looks like we can pretty easily deal without a sewer hookup for nearly a week without a hassle. Nice to know for the future.

Deerlick Creek itself was absolutely wonderful, and we definitely enjoyed the 6 days in the woods to rest and recharge our mental batteries. Civilization is good and all that, but sometimes you just need to get away from it so you don’t go postal. Of course since Lewis does have to work, we can’t go too far off the grid for too long, but as long as we have a cell phone signal, it’s business as usual. And thankfully we did have very good cell reception at Deerlick Creek. It’s only about 25 minutes outside of the college city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Roll Tide!), but feels worlds away. We had a pull-through spot overlooking a branch of Holt Lake and awakened to the pleasant sound of bird song each morning that we were able to have our windows open at night. It was an experience that has hooked us on visiting Army Corps of Engineers parks, and we’ll most likely be doing workcamping at them in the future as well.

A quiet evening around the campfire at Deerlick Creek Army Corps of Engineers park.

Part of the view from our campsite at Deerlick Creek, overlooking a portion of Holt Lake.

After our time at Deerlick Creek was finished, we headed to the tiny little town of Woodville, Alabama, outside of Huntsville, to stay at Parnell Creek RV Park. This RV park is only a few miles from the first attraction we visited during our stay – Cathedral Caverns. Cathedral Caverns is a must-see destination for cave aficionados, having the world’s widest entrance for a commercial cave (126 feet), and one of the largest stalagmites in the world at 45 feet tall and 243 feet in circumference. It was very interesting to take the guided tour through the caverns, viewing the various stalagmite and stalactite formations, the flowstone “waterfalls”, the Mystery River running through one of the “rooms” and a half-dozen or so eastern pipistrelle (a.k.a. tricolored) bats. There were even a couple of megalodon shark teeth protruding from the ceiling.

The massive entrance to Cathedral Caverns. So easy even a caveman could do it?

The flowstone “waterfall” in Cathedral Caverns. Too bad the park service pumps in the water that currently flows over it.

Part of how Cathedral Caverns got its name – the beautiful formations vaguely reminiscent of a grand cathedral’s pipe organ.

More of Mother Nature’s hidden underground artwork.

An eastern pipistrelle, or tricolored, bat (Perimyotis subflavus).

The next attraction we visited in the area was the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. It’s a much-hyped tourist destination, having been featured on such TV shows as Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Oprah, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Southern Living and many others. It’s where lost and/or unclaimed airline baggage and cargo eventually goes for resale to the general public. I can’t say it was a complete waste of our time, as Lewis did pick up a couple pairs of shorts and t-shirts and I scored both a Nikon DSLR camera and a Canon compact point-and-shoot camera at about a third of the price of brand new, but most of what we browsed through was not very exciting to us nor very valuable. I would say that if you’re in the area, it could be worth an hour or two of your time, but don’t bother making a special trip hoping to score a Prada handbag or a Rolex watch for $100 – it’s not going to happen.

We have just over another week here before we continue on to Georgia and Florida, but we still plan to visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, and possibly the Huntsville Botanical Garden, before leaving this area if we have time and decent weather. Until next post…

Even though we had planned to only see two parades on Fat Tuesday, we ended up seeing three instead, purely by accident of timing. We had left the campground a bit early to find a parking space before things got completely crazy. Turns out we managed to get parked and start walking to where we were planning to watch the parades just in time to catch the beginning of the combined Knights of Revelry, King Felix III, and Comic Cowboys parade that started at 12:30pm. So of course we joined the fun and craziness and almost immediately started getting pelted with beads and other throws from the Knights of Revelry.

One of the beer themed floats of Knights of Revelry.

Another one of Knights of Revelry’s beer themed floats.

King Felix III and his Queen, the Mardi Gras royalty of Mobile for 2016, along with their pages. Yes, that’s a bag of beads in the air.

The gorgeous trains of the King’s and Queen’s Mardi Gras costumes.

We also admired the elaborate costumes of King Felix III and his Queen, and had a complete blast laughing our butts off at the signs on the Comic Cowboys floats. See, the Comic Cowboys are known for poking fun at local, state, and national news items and other current events with “billboards” on each of their floats. Of course the local ones we didn’t quite understand too often, but the national and current events ones had us in stitches. All told, we had a great time attending a set of parades we hadn’t even planned on watching.

One of Comic Cowboy’s “billboards”, ridiculing current events.

Another humorous “billboard” from the Comic Cowboys.

After that was done, we were able to relax a bit and nibble a couple of the moon pies we had caught while waiting for the 2pm MAMGA Mammoth Parade to come by. At about 3:15pm, we could finally see and hear the parade making its way down the street. While the floats and marching bands weren’t bad, we honestly weren’t as impressed with this parade as we thought we’d be, especially since the information we had said “barrages of throws” and “a real favorite of many revelers”. It appeared that most of the float riders were tossing their throws only to certain groups of people in the crowd, almost completely ignoring the rest. So we barely managed to catch about a dozen strands of beads, a few moon pies, and a couple other snack cakes, while a lot of the targeted groups in the crowd walked away after the parade with their bags overflowing with items. This is one parade we will skip if we ever return to Mobile for Mardi Gras.

MAMGA’s lead float.

MAMGA’s very own Mardi Gras royalty.

Another MAMGA float. We loved the float’s theme of Hey Diddle Diddle.

The final parade of Fat Tuesday had a much smaller crowd than the earlier parades, since a lot of the people targeted by MAMGA had taken their loot and gone home. When we saw such a large portion of the crowd leaving instead of hanging around for the last parade, we honestly wondered how bad the parade would be and if we should head home too. So we were very pleasantly surprised when darkness fell and Order of Myths came down the street. Beads and other items flew through the air in a small storm, and the floats – depicting various festivals and holidays from around the world – were very interesting to look at as they rolled by. We didn’t catch quite as many throws as we did from the set of parades that we hadn’t planned on attending, but the history and detail that was evident in the floats of Mobile’s the oldest continuous Mardi Gras parading group more than made up for it. Too bad a lot of the crowd didn’t stick around to appreciate that history.

The lead float for Order of Myths. It depicts Folly chasing and beating Death around a broken column of Life.

Another of Order of Myth’s floats, depicting the Chinese New Year.

The Mexican Day of the Dead festival float from Order of Myths.

Order of Myths’ German Oktoberfest float.

The Independence Day float for Order of Myths.

All in all, we had an absolute blast attending the festivities surrounding our first-ever Mardi Gras, and now it’s a day for relaxing before we pack up and move the RV to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and the beachfront RV park that’s part of the Silver Slipper Casino.

Most of the things that we caught on Fat Tuesday – way more than any other day of parades we attended.

Right after our last blog post, we headed out of the campground to go to an early dinner before attending our first-ever Mardi Gras parade. Dinner was at Wintzell’s Oyster House, a place known far and wide for their fresh Gulf seafood and their slogan of “Oysters—fried, stewed or nude.” Dinner was very good, and I definitely enjoyed the happy hour special of a dozen raw oysters for half price. And then it was time to go find a spot to watch the parade.

Since this was the first time either of us had attended a Mardi Gras parade, and neither one of us had been in downtown Mobile before, I had researched good places from which to watch the parades. We found a nice spot on Government Street near Claibourne, across from the Mobile Carnival Museum. What makes this a good spot is you actually get to see the parade pass by twice – once headed up Government Street and once headed back down Government as it returns to the Civic Center. We parked ourselves behind the barricades and waited as the crowd grew and darkness fell. The police finally diverted the last bits of vehicle traffic and chased the wandering vendors out of the way and then it was parade time!

Even the trees along the parade route catch beads!

This parade was by Order of Inca, a group that’s been participating in Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebrations since they formed in 1956 (although they’ve only been parading since 1975). We, like the rest of the crowd around us, raised our arms in the air and started yelling, trying to attract the attention of the masked men on horseback – the parade marshals, not the Lone Ranger – and on the floats, hoping they would toss beads and other Mardi Gras “throws” our way. Within only a couple floats, we had both caught our first strand of beads and were grinning like fools. By the time the parade was finished, we had caught nearly 4 pounds of beads, a marshal’s pendant, 3 doubloons, a couple of moon pies (a Mobile Mardi Gras staple), a bag of peanuts, & a nerf-style football. We were hooked.

Our “take” from the Order of Inca parade.

The next parade we attended was a “day parade” the following afternoon, held by the Mobile Mystics and the Mobile Mystical Revelers. We honestly weren’t as impressed with this parade, or with the crowd attending it. Because the Mobile Mystics are known to be heavy throwers, the crowd was much more pushy and grabby, and we seemed to spend as much time “defending our turf” along the barricade as we did actually trying to catch the throws. We left that parade with 3 more pounds of beads, 2 plastic cups, a moon pie, another bag of peanuts, and a couple pieces of candy.

You know it’s Mardi Gras season when you see this going down the street while waiting at a red light.

Waiting for the parade to arrive…

One of Mobile Mystics’ floats. Not all Mardi Gras societies require their members to wear masks.

For the rest of the week, we took a break from Mardi Gras activities and went to a couple other area attractions. The first was Bellingrath Gardens and Home, just a bit down the street from the RV park where we were staying. Purchased in 1917 by Walter Bellingrath, Mobile’s first Coca-Cola bottler, and his wife Bessie, what was formerly an abandoned fishing camp became, within 18 years, an absolutely lovely 15-room brick home and acres upon acres of lush gardens with something always in bloom year-round. The period furniture, porcelains, silver, and crystal collected by Mrs. Bellingrath before her untimely death in 1943 which are on display inside the home were every bit as stunning and beautiful as the camellias and other flowers outside that were currently blossoming. Words cannot do justice to this place, and we fully intend to return sometime in the future.

A gorgeous white Camellia japonica blossom Bellingrath Gardens.

One of the fountains on the Bellingrath property, with part of the home just barely visible to the rear right.

Some of the Boehm porcelains on display in the former garage and guest quarters of the Bellingrath home.

The other area attraction we visited was Battleship Memorial Park, home of the battleship USS Alabama, the submarine USS Drum, a couple dozen military aircraft displayed both indoors and out, a handful of various tanks and other military equipment, and several memorials. Because it was a cold and windy day, we followed only two of the three self-guided tours of the USS Alabama, but were still impressed enough to spend almost 2.5 hours onboard her instead of the 30 minutes per tour that the visitor’s guide suggested. The submarine’s tour was much more straightforward – it is a submarine, after all, with only one deck to tour. The aircraft pavilion was fairly small but still interesting, and even has an A-12 Blackbird, the CIA’s precursor to the Air Force’s SR-71, on display.  On our way back to our truck, we visited the various memorials off to the side of the property to pay our respects to the soldiers (including one for war dogs) and civilians that they honor. The park as a whole was a very compelling attraction and we wish it had been warmer so we could have enjoyed it more thoroughly.

Looking aft (rearward) on the deck of the USS Alabama.

The A-12 Blackbird on display in the Aircraft Pavilion at Battleship Memorial Park.

A memorial for war dogs and their handlers.

A very simple but poignant memorial.

Saturday night was our return to the Mardi Gras revelry, and we attended the night parade organized by the Mystics of Time. This is a very popular parade in Mobile, with over 100k people attending each year. This year seemed to be no exception despite the chilly weather and we could see why. The floats were phenomenal, the fire- and smoke-breathing dragons were amazing and the throws flew so thickly through the air that you would have had to be half-dead to not catch something. At the conclusion of the parade, we had snagged a total of 6 pounds of beads, 3 cups, a couple moon pies, 4 doubloons (one of them from the “Queen’s Guard”), a mini football, a pixie stick, 3 glow stick necklaces, and a squeaky (or is it oinky?) pig dog toy.

One of the “dragons” in the Mystics of Time parade. This one blew “smoke” from its nostrils to entertain the crowd.

Dragons are popular theme elements with Mystics of Time.

Our boxer, Ginger, enjoying her Mardi Gras throw from Mystics of Time after we returned home.

Sunday was Super Bowl 50 and although we seriously considered it, we decided not to attend the Joe Cain Procession, often considered to be one of the best in Mobile, because we were afraid we might not get back to our RV in time for kickoff. After witnessing how the boring the game and the commercials were this year, we probably should have gone to the parade after all. But hey, we still have Fat Tuesday itself to enjoy, and we’ll be seeing not one but two parades that day – the 2pm MAMGA Mammoth Parade and the 6pm parade by Order of Myths (the oldest continuous Mardi Gras parading group in Mobile). We’ll probably have so many beads weighing us down that we won’t be able to move!

The (relatively) short drive from Florida Springs Campground to Payne’s RV Park in Mobile, Alabama was uneventful, although I did wish I’d had my camera ready when we passed the exit for I-110 to Pensacola. The bridge supports had wonderfully detailed and painted bas reliefs of the Blue Angels on them (Naval Air Station Pensacola being the home of that elite Navy and Marine Corps demonstration squadron). I found a picture online to show how it looks:

Not one of my pictures, but still pretty neat. (photo courtesy of SoutheastRoads.com)

On Monday we visited Dauphin Island, about 20 minutes down the road from Payne’s. Dauphin Island is known as the Sunset Capitol of Alabama, but there was way too much cloud cover to even think of seeing a sunset later in the day. Instead, we went to two very different attractions that were located on the far eastern end of the island: The Estuarium and Fort Gaines.

The Estuarium is a small but interesting take on an aquarium, giving visitors a very good understanding of the local estuary of Mobile Bay and its ecology. Even though the attraction seems to be geared more towards school-aged children, it still offers a very good experience for adults. After an 8 minute introductory film, in which we learned that Mobile Bay is only an average of 10 feet deep and receives more rain annually than Seattle (over 5 feet!), we proceeded to tour the rest of the exhibit area, trailed by a docent named Neil who was quick to give more information on any of the subjects covered. The exhibits proceed from fresh to salt water, much like the Mobile Bay estuary itself, with each of the couple dozen aquariums containing varieties of fish, amphibians, reptiles, and shellfish native to that particular zone. About midway through our perusal of the exhibits, Neil informed us it was just about stingray feeding time, so we hurried to the outdoor touch tank to view the proceedings.

A scorpionfish and lionfish (both invasive species for Alabama) at the Estuarium.

The touch tank contained several varieties of stingray, a couple skates, a small school of mullet, and a fairly friendly bonnethead shark. The docent for the tank (I didn’t catch his name) gave us a bit of information on each of his charges, let us dangle our hands in the geothermally heated water so we could touch the rays and shark, then threw a small bucketful of chum into the water for the animals to slurp down. After that, we trooped back inside to continue through the remainder of the Estuarium.

A stingray, bonnethead shark, and school of mullet in the Estuarium touch tank.

After we finished at the Estuarium, we headed a short distance down the street to Fort Gaines, a Civil War era fort that was definitely much more impressive to us than its sister fort in Charleston, Fort Sumter. Unlike Fort Sumter, Fort Gaines remains pretty much the way it was back in the Civil War, with only a few relatively minor changes having been made in the intervening years. A very detailed walking tour is included in the brochure you are given upon entry, and following it can reveal some striking details regarding the construction and daily life that took place within the fort. A Master Blacksmith was even on hand to demonstrate his craft within the same portion of the fort that would have been used by the garrison blacksmith. The area surrounding the island and fort were the site of The Battle of Mobile Bay, during which Union Admiral David Farragut is rumored to have proclaimed, “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.” The fort itself was surrendered to Union forces on August 8, 1864, after 4 days of fighting.

The front of Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island in Alabama.

Sighting down the wall of Fort Gaines.

Ouch.

A view of the intricate brickwork in the curved ceiling of a bastion magazine at Fort Gaines.

All in all, it was an interesting day of sightseeing, with much more to come in Mobile, especially as Mardi Gras season progresses. Stay tuned.