Our Day in Mobile, Alabama (November 2013)

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A Day in Mobile, Alabama

We spent a very pleasant day in Mobile, Alabama yesterday – that’s ‘Mo-beel’ and not like mobile phone! The town was founded in 1702 by Frenchman Jean-Baptists Le Moyne who later continued on to found Biloxi, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. These early white settlers brought with them Mardi Gras which has been celebrated here since 1704, the oldest of its celebrations and several years before New Orleans was ‘discovered’. The English and Spanish also ruled here and the old buildings and squares reflect their influence also. After a brief stop at the very friendly visitor center located in the reconstructed Fort Conde, we boarded the free circular bus to get our bearings and we immediately given an impromptu tour by a local man riding the bus and were quizzed about accents by other riders on the bus. The bus was like riding a school bus in that all the other riders seemed to know each other and they kept changing seats between stops, and some only rode the bus for one or two stops and they were constantly jiving with each other during the trip. We rode the route nearly twice around and then disembarked at the recommended Moe’s BBQ for Joan to study the menu, then walked the length of Dauphin Street which is the main drag. There are a lot of bars but also quite a few nice-looking restaurants with linen table cloths. We expect that this is because there are several very big hotels clustered at the waterfront just across from the enormous convention center. The town also has a port and a cruise ship terminal. On the day we visited, however, there was neither ship nor convention in town so it was very quiet.

We didn’t go to Moe’s for dinner as Joan didn’t get any good smells coming from their kitchen. We drove out a bit to The Brick Pit which was also highly recommended, and were very glad we did so. Plastic plates piled with ribs and pulled pork, potato salad and coleslaw and beans – all very nice in a place where the walls were entirely filled with graffiti and photos of local sporting heroes. After dinner we went next door to a small coffee shop called Satori. There were puffy couches and armchairs strewn around the place where students worked or played on their computers and tablets. The coffee and chocolate chip cookies were very good and hung around there until about 9 when we started to tire so we drove on to the nearby WalMart and parked up for the night. This new life adventure on the road is rewarding and tiring in equal measure.

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Photos

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Mobile Art on the Oyster Half-Shell

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Inspecting Moe's Menu

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A building being eaten by a plant on Dauphin Street.