Damn the torpedoes - Full speed ahead!

Damn the torpedoes - Full speed ahead!

Who said those famous words? How about Admiral Farragut aboard the USS Hartford during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864.

Yesterday Barb and I decided to get away from the "house" and go for a ride. I looked at the map and thought about taking US 90 west along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana. We've been as far as Bay of Saint Louis, MS this winter but not any further. Then I looks at the map and thought there's one place I'd like to explore, going east on US 90. That was Dauphin Island in Alabama. I don't know what's there and besides it would be a nice drive along the coast.

When we first left out turning on US 90 about a mile from where we are staying, you couldn't see anything from the fog that had rolled in. Well I though this wasn't going to be much of a sightseeing ride but it got us away for awhile and the best thing, Barb and I was spending some alone time together.

By the time we were 10 miles away, the fog had lifted and it was a nice sunny day. I knew as soon as we crossed the Mississippi-Alabama line, not just because the sign that read "Welcome To Alabama", but because US 90 turned from a nice 4-land highway to 2 lanes. "Yep! we're in Alabama" I said.

I've always liked driving the back roads of Alabama because it was like stepping back a hundred years in time. We followed US 90 to the town of Grand Bay, AL where we turned east onto Alabama Highway 188 and then south on Alabama Highway 193. That took us to the 3-mile bridge going over Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island.

Dauphin Island was first known by the French as Massacre Island until they changed it name in 1707 to Dauphin in honor of heir of the French throne: "Dauphin." The island was also the first capital of the Louisiana Territory.

On Dauphin Island, one can catch the ferry across the entrance of Mobile Bay to a long peninsula on the other side of the bay going to Gulf Shores, AL. We followed the a 4-lane boulevard going past the ferry loading docks. Coming around a bend in the road was the Civil War military post of Fort Gaines. I remember reading somewhere about it but it had totally slipped my mind that it was located there. The last old military fort that Barb and I had visited was Fort Frederick on the Island of Grenada. We had nothing else to do so we toured the old Civil War fort.



After we left the fort, we found a little place to get dinner before heading back "home." While there Barb told me that she wanted to live somewhere near the water. I asked her, "where near the water?" "Somewhere it doesn't snow", she said. Pointing out the window of the cafe where we were I ask, "like this?" Then she said, "I'd even go live in Hawai'i with you." We've talked about Hawai'i before. You see, I lived in the Hawaiian Island for 9 years, 2 years on the Island of Oahu, where Honolulu is, and 7 years on the Island of Hawai'i, the Big Island. After I left Hawai'i in 1986, I've always said, "I'd never go back", knowing that if I ever did, I'd never want to leave again. Well....... Boat for sale or will trade for land on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Stay tuned.

Barbie and Ken's Hawaii Adventures

Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall

Yesterday I visited the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall as it came into Marinette, WI. The Moving Wall will be in Marinette from July 2nd until July 6th.

Presidio Christmas Parade

Today is partly overcast and cool here in Presidio. As the residents of Ojinaga are staying in their homes, fearing from being shot because of the war between the Mexican military and drug lords, across the river in Presidio, the residents are enjoying their annual Christmas parade.

Leading the parade was the Persidio City Police and the Presidio County Sheriff.

Following closely behind was a horse drawn wagon.

Then a wagon with a live nativity scene from the Catholic church, celebrating their first Christmas Mass in 1683, which is now Presidio, Texas, .

Before the Spanish arrived here in 1683 were the Native Americans who inhabited the area.

The Mexican Consulate.

Spencer Brothers Department Store.

The Presidio Chamber of Commerce and several others.

Trailing the parade was the U.S. Border Patrol on horseback and some other local riders, but, unfortunately the batteries on my camera gave out before I could take their pictures.

Mexican War Zone

The once unspoiled border town of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico has been sucked into the ongoing Mexican drug war zone. The word on the streets here is to stay out of town this weekend. The word has it that anyone caught in the streets of Ojinaga will be shot! We don't know where this warning came from but according to an Associated Press story, as of July 25th, over 10 people have already been gunned down this year in Ojinaga, a town of 20,000, and several more have been gunned down since then.

This hardscrabble Mexican border town welcomed 400 soldiers when they arrived last March to stop a wave of drug violence that brought daytime gunbattles to its main street.

Photo by Guillermo Arias / AP

But then the soldiers themselves turned violent, townspeople say, ransacking homes and even torturing people. A couple of weeks ago, two severed heads were found hanging in the town square and one was found in the possession of one of the soldiers.

There's nothing we need anymore from Ojinaga that we can't get on this side of the border. We'll be leaving here right after Christmas heading to the Serendipity Bay Resort RV Park and Marina in Palacios, TX.