Since we had some time to use exploring, we decided to spend our 3rd day driving the 50 or so miles back to Mobile so Hank could take his tour of the USS Alabama, the submarine, the USS Drum and Naval planes from WW II vintage to Vietnam era! Everyone else in the area decided to go to the same site today-got caught in a traffic jam getting into Mobile-finally got through the tunnel and when we got to Battleship Park we were in another traffic jam, but we eventually made it. Compared to the destroyer class ship that Hank was on when he was in the Navy, this battleship was huge-had 2500 crewman/sailors/marines in WWII between 1942-45. We toured the ship extensively and still saw nowhere near all of it. Upon getting inside the ship in varous locations, we were both struck by the familiar smell of the ship! Now, Hank was discharged from the Navy 9/5/67 and that smell on board came back to both of us immediately! It was mostly air conditioned, but on deck the temperatures hovered around 95 and very humid-we got tired very quickly. Before we ran out of energy altogether, we went through the aircraft pavilion which houses at least a dozen different types of aircraft from WWII to Vietnam war vintage planes. ( Ben, we have many photos of all the different planes for you to see when we get to NH). Hank took a ride on the flight simulator-said it was good, but not as good as the space flight take off simulator at Kennedy Space Ctr. Then we boarded the USS Drum-WWII vintage submarine. Once inside, I knew that it was too claustrophic for me-I could never have served on a sub! It was incredibly interesting-as long as I knew it was above ground! This whole experience couldn't be duplicated and we were both so glad we decided to go back for the tour! Back in our Redneck Campground it is cool in our camper and we're looking forward to looking for a Greek Restaurant that we enjoyed when in Biloxi in Feb. We drove past the house where we built the porch on our last trip here-it looks great and the owner-a dear black lady whose name escapes me at the moment-was sitting on her porch when we drove by and we waved, but am sure she didn't recognize us! We were heading to LeBakery where we enjoyed raspberry turnovers-to nearly die for! Must visit that place again before we leave Biloxi...
