Fort Morgan and Mobile Alabama
3/15-19-2014 – I woke up to a little sprinkle of rain-enough to motivate me out of the tent to pack up before everything got wet. I then managed my longest hike in quite a while. I walked sandy trails and roads for about two hours after the showers ended, thinking I earned that second donut. I was off for Gulf Shores, Alabama, which was just about 40 minutes down the road from Big Lagoon SP, Florida. Technically I stayed in Fort Morgan.
First, I had to stop at a legendary “joint”. Just before getting to the Alabama state line, there was a massive traffic slowdown, which usually means I’m getting close to something of some significance to somebody. I found a parking place across the road from the world famous Flora-Bama, which unlike the legend, actually sits entirely in Florida. It is a massive, sprawling complex of bars, patios, decks, and restaurant. But still, I barely waited more than a few minutes for a beverage and their oyster sampler(baked/grilled with different toppings). It was a little rainy and windy, so watching the ocean was interesting. I went back inside to see the band playing-yes, at lunch time- and people watch. It was there I learned from a long time seasonal patron that this is the new place, rebuilt after Hurricane Ivan blew away the old one, apparently of very lightweight material(wood and canvas? I didn’t catch it all). Still, it was a great experience, one I learned later that inspired Jimmy Buffet to write “Bama Breeze”. Funny, I didn’t get the same vibe from the place as the song.
After finding my home for the next four days-still too early to check in-I drove to the end of the peninsula that is the southeastern boundary of Mobile bay to Fort Morgan. It was fascinating! Started in 1819, it was of the same design as the Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine (started late 1600’s) and is named for the hero of one of my discoveries of Revolutionary War battles-Daniel Morgan of Virginia, the Commander of the American Army at Cowpens. The fortress was continually modernized, but never really modern, until it was decommissioned for the last time in 1946. Its most historic moment was when held by Confederate forces when the Union decided it wanted Mobile back. It was besieged by land and bombarded by sea, destroying the old wooden structures and original citadel. It was during this battle that Union Admiral Farragut, his ships taking a beating from the fort’s guns and Confederate ironclads, decided he had to move his fleet forward into the bay despite the extensive minefield, called torpedoes then. It is still disputed whether or not he actually said “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” but what he did in conjunction with ground forces was amazing-capturing the navy, the fort, and the strategic port of Mobile. The facilities are both eerie and beautiful. Today they look out over oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (closer than I thought).
I managed a short walk on the beach that night and began a nightly ritual of soaking in the hot tub outside my building, spending quality time at a great little bar and grill called the Sassy Bass eating great seafood and enjoying good beer and "house specials" mixed by two of the greatest bartenders on the planet, and talking to college students who were here for spring break and locals who are amazingly cool in putting up with all of us.
Those interactions were the highlight of my time here, because the weather was awful. After church on Sunday I headed to the Coleman store about 20 minutes away and the downpour began-flash floods and thunderstorms. I sat in the hot tub that night thinking if we had that much moisture at home it would have added up to feet of snow.
The next day it was just showers and cold, so I headed up the highway to get a haircut and visit Mobile, about 45 minutes away. I stopped in a place I had been once before-The Original Oyster House on the causeway. I sat there thinking, first wishing all the commuters stuck in traffic on I-10 well, since I was reminded of sitting in traffic on the interstate at the other end of the country (I-90 for the uninitiated) and then thinking that I really didn’t remember this place looking like it did. Later I discovered that the original was mostly blown away by Katrina and they moved and renovated. That cursed storm wiped out lives and memories for 100 miles. Next I ventured into Mobile, trying to stir recollections of the last time I was here. I had a friend that lived here and I visited once, about this time in 2005. I was also thinking of him while eating oysters and looking out over Mobile Bay. We started a final road trip down the Gulf Coast to New Orleans here after he gave me the news. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t remember where his house was at all. After living around the world-we met in Wyoming and worked together when we were both in the Air Force on Guam-Idaho, and various parts of Alabama, you see, this is the last home my friend Steve McBride had. He died of esophageal and liver cancer here in 2005 at the age of 41. I will honor his memory, I hope, with stops in Biloxi, though that damn Katrina wiped out the places we knew there, and at the Chalmette Crawfish Festival(we went in 2005 before The Storm leveled that town too), and New Orleans, where the good memories will keep me afloat.
I have no more words today, so I have to borrow someone else’s:
So when the loss is profound For those no longer around I just remember to look up at night
The Delta moon is a lantern over you Like a porch light hung in forever It will be left on because we're always going home And we'll meet up again on a great gulf wind
-Sonny Landreth, Great Gulf Wind