Woke up in the Pensacola Walmart Parking lot. Not a horrible sleep, but not great. The weather was super humid and cloudy which did not bode well for our Blue Angels practice viewing.
Kids did schoolwork/math drills and Ollie emailed his teacher. Amelia painted Jonathan’s toenails. Jonathan and I made a Harvest Host reservation at the Faubourg Brewery just outside New Orleans.
Just before 10:30am we heard and saw on Blue Angel Jet fly over as a test run, but then the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour. There would be not Angels practice to admire. Bummer! By 11am we left as there was no hope of seeing them with this terrible weather.
Drove to Perdido Keys strip. The ocean was churning… drove along the strip with dunes on either side in the wind and rain, Past Perdido State Park. It was 27c outside and so muggy and overcast.
11:15am we crossed the state line and saw the “Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama” sign. Lots of large, fairly new looking, hotels along the beach front. We pulled in at the Gulf State Park so we could set foot on the ground in Alabama! It was pretty stormy out on the white sand beach and very humid.
Highway 135 State Park Road, past Shelby Lakes, R AL59 Gulf Shores Parkway. We drove by a cotton field (first one we’ve seen) in Baldwin County (and also passed a strange little Spear Hunting Museum).
By 1pm we were merging onto the I-10 towards Mobile, Alabama. Super windy on the highway and fast. Drove over a loooooooooong bridge into Mobile.
Within 15minutes we were driving up to Battleship Park ($5 parking fee) and spent just over an hour wandering around the outside of the property looking at the various old war tanks, planes, helicopters, fighter jets, and the USS Alabama. Noting also the signs about gators in the water. A great spot to stop for for a much needed lunch and walk around. While we were looking at the small fighter planes, a volunteer walked over and started chatting with us. Cool older guy with a TON of knowledge about the planes. Like a TON. He gave every piece of information with asking us a question first, “Do you know how much fuel that jet fighter takes?”… It was super cool to talk with him.
4pm stopped in Gulfport Mississippi for diesel at the Flying J. This was our only stop in Mississippi. What a stop. Filled with water and propane. When Jonathan and Ollie went into the gas station to ask about water fill up, he said there were two women behind the counter and one was dancing away. They were having a hoot. She said we could get potable water from between the pumps. Jonathan asked another worker outside about the propane. It was difficult at first to understand him with his deep southern accent and lack of teeth, but we figured it all out and he had referred us to a different water tap. When kids and I went inside the station to pay, we browsed the interesting selection of wares for sale. The baby gator heads were interesting to say the least. The clientele were also very interesting. I don’t think that anyone had many teeth left in their mouth. Friendly as the dickens though and that’s all that mattered.
Sunny again and got back on the road around 4:30pm after filling up. Next stop was to be New Orleans Louisiana. On hwy 10 still, we passed the John C Stennis Space Center, Mississippi and NASA just before the Louisiana state line.
5pm we passed the Welcome to Louisiana /Bienvenue a Louisiana sign as we crossed the Pearl River. Again we were driving along a long raised highway over the river/bayou to New Orleans. “Naturally N’Awlins” Bridge. Our stop for the night was the harvest host: Faubourg Brewing Company via Downman and Old Gentilly Road. Arrived around 5:40pm to the brewery… it was massive! Very different from the little harvest hosts we have been to before. This was a huge, beautiful brewery and grounds.
Parked where a handful of other rigs were parked in the far parking lot within the gated property, then walked over to the Brewery where Jonathan got a beer and the rest of us had pops. Jonathan and Meems played some disc golf with our frisbee, and I challenged Oliver to a game of bocce (they had about half a dozen bocce pits) but after I won the first throw, he bailed.
After enjoying the nice evening, we walked back to our little home and put some more of our travel stickers on the rig side panel and did some hula hooping. As you do. With the stretch of evening ahead of us, we decided to have an impromptu uber drive into the French Quarter to see what it was all about. This was around 7pm and our Uber driver picked us up… super sweet college age girl took us into town to Frenchmen Street. The nightlife was definitely different here! Streets were all broken up and the sidewalks were uneven and narrow. Bars were not quite buzzing yet, kind of the in-between time I think… and the nightlife just getting warmed up. Meems was pretty tired and not into the scene. We walked around a bit, avoiding a couple streets that looked unappealing. Kids were fascinated watching the scene through a tattoo parlour window where two people were getting tattoos done.
We found a place called Favela Chic with live music that also allowed kids until 10pm. It was almost empty inside and the music was great but way too loud without a crowd to dampen it so we moved outside to the picnic tables along the front wall of the restaurant. Our tattoo’d waitress was super lovely. Jonathan had a beer and I enjoyed a very spicy/pickley Favela Bloody Mary that had pickle vodka. Oliver ate the biggest and “best burrito” he’s ever had. Meems enjoyed a cheese pizza and Jay and I had shrimp tacos. Yum.
Uber’d back around 9pm with another lovely female uber driver, Tanitia, who was on speaker phone with her sweet 6 year old daughter trying to arrange plans for the little girl’s Halloween costume. Very cute.
Back at the rig, Oliver’s pesky molar was bugging him. It had been bothering him as it was not quite loose enough, but had a sharp point digging into his gums.
Amelia did more crafting (as usual) - wanting to finish some work she started before we went out for dinner. Jonathan fell asleep while we were hanging out. Big driving day for daddy.
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