The thing about road tripping down here is that it really
doesn’t take much time to go anywhere even if you aren’t using the freeway. I
took the scenic path of highway #9, then in Montgomery after some sleep I got
on the 31 and before I knew it I was skirting the Alabama coastlines in Mobile.
I was in Mobile to see the USS Alabama at Battleship Park and I was hoping that
since it was Memorial Day weekend there would be some fireworks or
something…which there wasn’t, or at least no one I spoke to knew about
them.
But after mulling
over the “what to do” side of Mobile for a few minutes I decided that I would
drive out to Blakely Historic State Park and camp for the night. Now to this
point I have been steadily getting less and less comfortable at night as it gets
hotter. I have a fantastic fan, and I bought a small ground fan awhile back…but
neither of those help when your tin can gets to be 120f inside (just a guess…my
thermometer broke awhile back). So in Blakely I was so happy to find some
shade.
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| Hotter than it usaully gets in Calgary...in the peak of summer (and it's only may) |
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| Camp Howard |
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| Original ramparts from the Battle of Blakely. This was raw war, no cannons, no fancy forts...ditch digging, sweat, blood and tears |
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| Add caption |
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| It was the memorial day weekend and the soldiers had left their uniforms behind. Can you imagine...wearing wool uniforms while digging trenches. The actors wore the same uniform and the one kid from new York said he thought he was going to die...and now he wonders if a modern soldier could do what they used to do without breaking. My vote it...99% of todays people would break if given the tasks these men were charged with everyday just to survive |
Ahhh…
It’s a nice campsite,
full hook ups and all but I found that since I had no way to cool the van
down…the shower that I took was essentially useless as my 10minute bike ride
back to the van just left me sweaty…with wet hair instead of sweaty with dry
hair. I was cleaner…but I was sweating so much I wasn’t sure if it was worth
it. It was at that point I decided that I either had to get something to help
with the heat or I’d need to help north as there was no way I could continue to
be that hot.
First things first
though…Battleship Park!!
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| I only know one Vietnam Vet - Al Garrett - while the reasons for the war may be clouded in murky details, lies and misdirection, anyone from anywhere that volunteered, lost friends and came back alive deserves respect. Those unfortunate souls that were drafted and forced to fight a war of lies deserve respect as well for it was not their choice to go and not everyone believes that running away is the right thing to do when your country calls on you. They were all people, war made some of them animals but the politicians who didn't serve, didn't enlist their children and washed their hands of it afterwards are the real animals. |
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| stickers? Come on guys...if you want something on display at least shoot it for real...it's not like you don't have the technology |
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| Super cool chopper |
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| USS DRUM |
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| You can't help but be affected by the patriotism of the US. Agree or disagree with their current or past actions...the brotherhood of the Marines has stood strong for hundreds of years. |
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| The big guns on the USS ALABAMA |
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| 40mil anti aircraft |
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| This picture really makes me smile. When I saw it I could hear my brother "Saying "Lead em...lead em" from the days of endless video games and fun! |
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| The barber shop aboard the Alabama |
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| You think you have a grasp on how large a battleship is...but you don't. This is one kitchen...bigger than most hotel kitchens |
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| Spare Machine gun Barrels...when you fire that many rounds...they tend to get a little hot |
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| The idea of engineering something like this is wild...every nook and cranny is used, everything was drawn out first...it's about a house x 100000 |
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| AMMO!!! |
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| The Alabama is the only place in the world where you can check out the actual 16" gun turret...look at those shells. Accurate to 20+ miles away... |
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| these guns are fairly ineffective against a fast moving plane...but you see all those videos where thousands of tracer rounds fill the sky...it would be enough to make any pilot shit his pants |
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| Looking down the barrel of a gun some of a bitch gettin paid getting rich....*beastie boys* |
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| Fully loaded |
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| Pretty darn simple ;) |
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| Not so simple...wow...if the engineering on the Alabama was mind blowing...the USS DRUM is just off the hook |
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| I really couldn't say enough about this display. It was eye opening, heart wrenching and if you left it with the same mind you came into it with...you didn't pay attention. It was an awful thing for these pilots to come back to America and be subjected to the colour segregation that was occurring at the time. Segregation is horrible for all involved period. |
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| Big flak cannon on the way out |
Then I drove around
Mobile for a while and checked out the downtown scene, it is a pretty funky
city. I had sent a few people a request
on Couchsurfing but since I am not much for planning, requesting a place to
park on Memorial Day weekend wasn’t something that anyone responded to in time.
So I stayed another night in the area, meeting a guy who was also a vandweller
albeit a more permanent one who lives full time at a local campsite. We talked
about how to survive the heat and he said mount an a/c unit in the back window.
Only problem was….no saw and no way to cut the mount. So we shook hands and
parted ways…I headed down the road towards Dauphin Island where the reality of
the heat sunk in.
To say that I enjoyed
Dauphin Island would be a gross understatement. I found myself at the end of a
dead end street parked right on the Mobile Bay side of the ocean. It was about
4:30…it was damn hot (95) and I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive. Back
home you might catch yourself out in -25c and wonder how you will survive and
that is literal as freezing to death takes a lot less time than cooking to
death…the slow cooker is what I should paint on the side of the van :)
I decided that I
would not be camping on the island (in a camp site), every review I read in
Mobile on the Dauphin island campground was just horrible. I don’t always
listen to reviews but out of 10, 9 said it sucked…those are some pretty bad
odds so I skipped it.
While reading and
enjoying the white sand (small) beach a local came up and starting asking about
the camper. He was great and lived in the house right at the end of the dead
end. I told him my plans to just stay parked there and he didn’t seem to have
any concern over it so I was good. Ironically the sheriff’s station is about 2
blocks away down the same street…but I figured that with no trouble there was
really no need for them to check out a dead end street…and I was right! :)
So there I was, in
heaven, weather was fantastic, view was fabulous and I could do very little but
just smile!! In the morning I grabbed some breakfast (since it’s so hot I
haven’t cooked anything in ages…just fresh fruit and sandwiches) and headed
back to the beach. Now if you knew me you might think that at this point I
would be as red as a boiled lobster…not so mon cherie, it appears that my time
spent lounging in the loving rays of the Okanagan sun has awoken something
within my flesh and I now am…tanning…what the flip? Sure enough, it was may 27
and I had a sandal tan line…unheard of in the life of Brian Howard. I am a
little shocked myself though that I haven’t burned and my stay outside on the
beach switching through umbrella shade (I’m not dumb) and a single application
of spf30 cream (I know…it was silly to not remember to do it again…6 hrs
later)..I was just fine.
I say umbrella…we’re
not talking about an awesome 6ft beach umbrella…nope, all this white boy had
was a rain umbrella bought back in Tennessee AFTER being rained on in the Smokeys
and not having one. Rain gear is one thing…but having an umbrella is so much
nicer than being pelted directly by savage rains. I had the same experience in
Tofino but the winds there would have made short work of the umbrella. That
said, I was thankful to have bought it, cursed it for being 3ft and praised it
for saving me from a blistery grave. (and…I went and bought a real beach
umbrella as soon as I got off the island, hindsight doesn’t always lead to
foresight and that’s a bitch, on hindsight).
But night two brought
a fabulous sunset, some local fried shrimp and a smile…a smile that spread like
the grinches smile when Christmas entered his heart. I was on the beach man….again!!!
I wrote a list down last
September. “I have never ……. “ and the number one thing I wrote was “never
spent the day on or at the beach just to be there, to enjoy it, to bask in the
sun and to just be”. I remember writing it…I was laying on the beach in
Summerland, BC after visiting the bench that was donated to my Uncle Al and
Auntie Bunny. I had places to be, my sister was waiting for me down in Seattle,
the road was there, the van was ready…but that time on the beach, hopefully I
will never forget that. For the first hr I kept thinking about everything, too
much thinking, then the sun started to bake me, thinking stopped, took a
swim…pure enjoyment began. Peaches, sand, stillness and zen….
I felt the same way
down here in Dauphin…maybe it was the island being so laid back, maybe it was
just the moment…or maybe it actually takes practise to let it all go. You can’t
just wake up in the morning and change it like you do your sheets…there is a
process to everything and I believe that I am still in the beginning stages of
finding a way to drop the weight that we all carry…but if it feels this good, I
will keep practising it for the rest of my life. (not drop as in discard, more
like, repack, move the heavy stuff to a lower center of gravity so it’s easier
to carry. Breathe…space…more room for the new or enjoyment of less, which ever
you prefer).
So after two days on
Dauphin I jumped ship (ferry) and crossed over to Fort Pickens ferry. Before we
took off I spent some time checking out Fort Gaines…again the path of conflict
has led America to where it is today. Will there ever be another civil war?
Really it depends on who has the money. I think it’s important to look at the fundamentals
of the civil war. It wasn’t about slavery, that was a part of its outcome and
everyone has this view of the south like the entire south whipped blacks by the
thousands and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in ridiculous
irony the north was allowing the practise of slavery after the south had
outlawed it.
No the war was about
control and a means to control someone is to give them what they want…at a
price. Not that at the time it gave any advantage to the blacks of America
anyway, slavery or not, they were designated second class citizens and nothing
would change about that until the days of MLK a few hundred years later. It did stop them from being items of
property and through the never ending determination of some, the seeds that
were planted back then sprung forth and finally changed (it didn’t break it but
it changed it)…the horrible cycle that black americans had been living in.
Today has brought
some relief; the opportunities now are individuals for the taking for the most
part. People can no longer hide behind the pain of the past and must now create
a better future or choose to continue a stagnant path. Since I’m down here it’s
important to note the “pursuit of happiness” in the threads of the American
hemp paper document that so many refer to. While this has not always been the
case today it is. Sure there are ghetto’s, their remains racism, there
continues to be a divide between the haves and have not’s. Putting some pepper
into the traditionally salty pool of riches does not indicate liberation. As I
saw in the Red Clay “Trail of tears” display…you can play all the ball you want
but in the end the umpire decides the call and no arguing you can do will
change it once it’s been decided on. Do
I think that rights will ever be taken away on a civil level like that, not in
my lifetime. But does it mean that people should drop their guard and allow the
gov’t to do things like remove privacy rights, add surveillance allowances,
create illegal jails, remove constitutional rights…all of these things spell
bad things for the individual who wants to make change in the future. All of
these spell trouble for those who are asleep working 9-5 just to survive in a
constant cycle of time for money exchange instead of viable goods or production
for money. An example – A sign above Churches Chicken in Detroit reads “Bridge
Cards now accepted” (like a debit card loaded with your social assistance
money)..This is not a productive economy. Allowing the social assistance money
that has been gifted to you (hopefully temporarily) to be spent on a franchise
that employs people at the lowest wages possible, which then pays it’s CEO mega
bucks for making a cheap shitty product palatable and desirable to the American
consumer, which makes the shareholders happy…is not productive at all. Now
people need to eat, that’s a given…and in a free market, who am I to say how
people can spend and corporations can make their money. I’m just pointing out
the negative cycle that a transaction like that makes and if you are so
inclined you can think it through to the end.
What brought this
on….I guess the Fort, the overabundance of civil war history down here and…the Tuskegee airmen video that I watched while touring the Aviation section at
Battleship Park. I didn’t know anything about these guys until I watched a
video there. I’ll wrap it up in a quick condensed version….black pilot who was already dealing
with the racism in America comes home from Korea after becoming an ace pilot
and performing heroic feats…waiting at the bottom of the gangplank of the
aircraft carrier was a simple sign that says it all…hundreds of years later
“Coloured Soldiers ---> Wow……that made me well up a little after all
the tales they told about the airmen (the only black air squad in the war as
far as I know…hopefully that’s right) and their heroic deeds, all the same as
any white soldiers, just not glorified as much. It was a sad thing to see.
Last words…I figured
since I was in the thick of it now I had better read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by
Harriet Beecher Stowe. First printed in 1852 it contains many of the
stereotypes we use see and remember today. It has never been out of print
(although it has been hard to find at points), never banned and has been
translated into 37 languages. Obviously I’m not done it yet…but I’m working on
it and so far it is a great novel. You won’t get a book report on it but I may
mention it in the future if I remember.
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