Sweet Home Alabama

With a side step in Mississippi –

Do you like driving at night? What if you were pulling 10,000 pounds with your car or truck? For the first time we had to do it. When Raleigh took off in Florida, it pushed our leave time so late that our small 3 hour drive was largely done int he dark. Not a big issue on the highway, there are lots of lights, but the side roads that lead into a state park are different. First, we missed the entrance into the park. So, we had to do a U-turn. Not an easy feet with that afore mentioned 10,000 pounds trailing behind, but Ben found a place and did it.

We pulled into Meaher State Park near the city of Mobile, Alabama in pitch black darkness. Luckily, our site was a pull-through spot with large grassy areas around so setting up wasn’t too much of an issue. After a drive, our kids are always crazy – truly, sometimes I don’t recognize their personalities – so they appreciated the space to run and let out some energy. We were all good, and Raleigh was safely locked inside the camper.

Meaher State Park is interesting. It is very small and lies on an inlet from the Mobile Bay, just outside of the city. Significant for us – all of the sites were paved and there were paved roads. This is important because we were here after and during some large storms. Paved site = no mud. We really liked this little park and enjoyed the short nature hikes they offered. We even stumbled along some bee boxes (and stayed far away) that really peaked the kids interest. The bay reminded us of home, but there were many differences as well. It was more swamp like than in Maryland, but the water also seemed much clearer.

We had few plans for Alabama, but we arrived during Mardi Gras and found out that Mobile lays claim to hosting the very first Mardi Gras – they even have a Carnival museum. I had read about that thanks to a book given to me from my old neighbor Lori (thanks!). That was the only must do (maybe) on our list. The museum was not open until Friday, so it had to wait.

We have a map tracking the progress of our adventure (2 actually – 1 inside and 1 on our door). Lots of campers have these and everyone has different rules for adding a state. For us, our rule is simple. We must do something in the state – visit some site or do an activity – and our camper wheels must role through. We were staying in Alabama as a layover before Louisiana. We had no plans to stay in Mississippi, but we were going to drive through so we decided to make a quick trip during one of our afternoons in Alabama. I did a quick search, and the closest town with anything of significance was Pascagoula. The google search engine told me there was a water side walk with a Hurricane Katrina Memorial. We packed up the kids and discussed what happened during Katrina on our 45 minute drive. As we drove, we passed several ramshackle homes and run down businesses and the sky turned more and more gray. Ben and I questioned our decision. Once we found the memorial site, we also found a huge playground. I love my children because this was a highlight for them, they are always able to find a silver lining. We played for a while and then walked down to the memorial which explains the height of the waves and sustained water levels. It’s difficult to explain the significance to the kids, but we tried. The wind picked up, but there was a really long pier that called to us so we walked it. The pier had great views of the industry on either shoreline, hmmm. Highlight – we got very close to a Pelican! It started to drizzle so we beelined for the car and headed out. One last stop – Ben needed gas and we needed a few groceries so of course we stopped at Walmart, ugh. Did you know that in a Mississippi Walmart wearing a mask correctly means wearing it under your chin? Now you know. Consensus – um, you do not need to visit Pascagoula.

Back to Alabama, and to celebrate our anniversary in a better way, we dressed up and went out to dinner in downtown Mobile. We’ve never gone to dinner with our children on our anniversary before – but sitters are not an option right now, so they came along. Ben always finds good restaurants and he did it again. Due to the rain, we would have to eat inside – it had been nearly a year since we had eaten inside a restaurant. We had reservations for 5 pm, we were the first table. It was empty and we felt fine. Dinner was amazing and having the kids with us was lots of fun. They were sweet, silly, told lots of jokes, had great manners, were a little loud, spilled drinks, got in an argument, ordered expensive dishes (but ate all their food) – we all had a good time. The rain slowed so we walked to a fountain and watched the lights change on the buildings for Mardi Gras.

The next day we were able to visit the Carnival Museum. Ben and I have been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. No, we did not watch the parades on Bourbon street, we watched from the more family friendly uptown. But the children have never been. The museum was great because it allowed you to see (and touch and climb on) some of the real Mardi Gras floats. There were the gowns, crowns and scepters to see as well as a rich history of Mardi Gras in Mobile. I still don’t think I’ll associate Mardi Gras starting there – although the first truly was – it didn’t grow until New Orleans. Due to covid, parades were cancelled, but they held something called, “Yardi Gras.” So we drove to see some porches in the rain. Good time overall, but we had come to the end of our time in Alabama and we were all ready to get to New Orleans and the home of our real Mardi Gras.