On March 4th we left New Orleans and headed towards Mobile, Alabama. We had chosen Mobile as it was only a two-hour drive from New Orleans and, after spending two months in one spot, we were a little nervous about being on the move again so we thought a short trip would be best. Everything was going well until we found ourselves on a dead-end side street. It turns out that John had entered the wrong address into the GPS. After some creative maneuvering, we were able to turn around and start making our way back to the correct location. That’s when one of the tires on the house blew.
Many people ask us why we drive separate vehicles on move days. The easy answer is that truck is obviously necessary to pull the house but gets HORRENDOUSLY bad gas mileage. Like 8mpg diesel (12mpg when not pulling the house) bad. It is also massive and hard to maneuver in tight spaces. We usually park the truck once we get to our campsite and then just use the car for our daily driving and adventuring. Harley also greatly prefers the car over the truck. The other reason is that John doesn’t have a lot of experience towing things. He had actually never towed ANYTHING prior to building the tiny house. We both feel more comfortable with me following along behind the house and watching for any issues with the tires or for anything that may fall off of or out of the house or truck.
John called and asked me to drive up and check the tires because something felt weird. I was able to quickly confirm that we had a flat on the house. Thankfully we have 4 tires on the house so even with the one rapidly deflating we were able to pull into a gas station that was just ahead of us. Unfortunately, we didn’t yet own a spare tire or a jack capable of lifting the house. We were stuck.
John spent some time calling around but didn’t have much luck. Most agencies like AAA and Good Sam won’t cover us because our house was custom built but we tried Good Sam anyway. They were able to hook us up with one of their service providers…for an extra fee. It took a few hours but the service man finally arrived and made quick work of changing our tire. He did let us know, however, that the other tires on the house were in bad shape and would also need replaced soon. We thanked him, got information for their garage, and promised to contact them about replacing the other tires once we got settled. After a $650 bill and a couple hour delay, we were on our way.
We made it to our spot at Shady Acres Campground. This campground did not offer a lot in the way of amenities (even though it was more like a permanent trailer park than a campground) but it was quiet and we felt pretty safe there. It was also super close to restaurants, groceries, and highway access to get anywhere in Mobile easily. In fact, after two months in New Orleans where we would go to sleep to the sounds of gunfire and drag racing every night, it was too quiet to sleep for the first few nights. It was eerily quiet. After the stress of the move and flat tire, though, we finally drifted off.
For our first full day in Mobile, we took the recommendation of a friend and headed about 45 minutes south to Dauphin Island. We decided to make a full day of it so we had several things on the to-do list: The Alabama Aquarium at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Fort Gaines, and then hitting the beach!
The aquarium was small but fun. It was settled right on the northern shore of the island and had a lovely boardwalk outside right along the water. We enjoyed the touch tank and seeing exhibits containing animals from the local waterways. They also had an ice cream parlor attached so after going through the aquarium, we got a nice cold treat and sat down for a rest to enjoy it.
After the aquarium, we visited Fort Gaines at the far eastern side of the island. This fort, along with Fort Morgan, played a big part in the Battle of Mobile during the American Civil War. These two forts sit on opposite sides of the bay and between the two were able to fire on any ships trying to access Mobile by sea. We walked along the walls, explored areas that had been used for barracks, kitchens, munitions storage, and even the latrine. This fort is kind of small but is very well preserved (you can even see where cannon balls have struck the walls during prior battles) and is very accessible to guests. It offers beautiful views of Mobile Bay and one of Dauphin Island’s public beaches is just below its walls.
Having explored the eastern end of the island, we turned around and drove to the other end of the 15-mile-long island to visit the other public beach. As an Ohio girl, I had never imagined swimming at a beach in early March but the water was very pleasant and inviting. We spent a few hours relaxing on the sand and wading out into the waves. It was a wonderful way to spend the day.
After leaving the beach we were pretty hungry. There are a few restaurants on the island and we chose to visit Pirate’s Bar and Grill. There was a fairly long wait but we passed the time walking the beach outside and watching the sun set. The food and service were okay but nothing could top the view. It was absolutely lovely.
On March 8th, we drove to the Charles Wood Japanese Garden for a walk. We found a small waterfall and spent some time climbing over the rocks in the stream. They also had several koi ponds with some of the biggest koi I have ever seen. When I was growing up, my grandparents had a pond in their backyard and my grandpa was obsessed with his goldfish and koi. Being among these ponds and watching these massive koi slide through the water made me feel so close to him and wish he was still here to tell about it.
The next night, we took a murder mystery dinner cruise through Mobile Bay on the Perdido Queen. The show was put on by Bay Cities Improv and was a little chaotic but super fun. John was even chosen to dance in the musical number. Thankfully, the song being performed was “All that Jazz” from the musical “Chicago” with which he is very familiar so he was able to sing and dance along so well that I think he surprised the actors! The food wasn’t that great but it was a fun experience being on the water. We failed to solve the mystery but did enjoy ourselves.
Toward the end of this week, we also got to eat at Happy Sushi which was our first restaurant with a sushi train! We ordered the Auburn Roll, Chicken Teriyaki Bowl, and Shrimp Tempura Bowl and were delighted as our food arrived on the little train that ran on a conveyer belt next to our table. And, on top of the cool method of food delivery, the food was amazing!
We also opted to visit downtown Mobile and do a little exploring for dinner. We put our name in at Wentzell’s Oyster House and spent the time waiting for our table by exploring the area. We found an amazing art gallery – Lupercalia Art Society. We had a great time talking to some of the artists whose work is featured there. They were the nicest people! They also had a cool speakeasy in the basement. We would have loved to spend more time but we had to get back to the restaurant for dinner but we plan to visit them the next time we are in town.
Side note – did you know that Mardi Gras was actually being celebrated in Mobile BEFORE it was every celebrated in New Orleans? We had no idea! I bought another handcrafted mask to add to my collection and a small cat painting.
Dinner at Wentzell’s was okay. Nothing to write home about. After dinner, though, we walked to Mo’ Bay Beignets for some dessert. We had eaten tons of beignets in New Orleans but these were probably some of the best we had had.
On Sunday, we drove to Gulf Shores to visit the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. It was a smaller zoo but the exhibits were nice. This zoo has an inspiring history, however. They had suffered back-to-back hurricanes in 1997 and 1998 which caused extensive damage to their property. In both cases, they had to evacuate all their animals to a safer location further inland. Having worked at a zoo, I cannot even begin to imagine that undertaking. Both times, they came back and rebuilt. They were also featured on the documentary series “The Little Zoo That Could” on Animal Planet in 2006.
They had some beautiful birds and a nice selection of primates. We ran into a staff member outside one of the exhibits and he spent a few minutes talking to us about one of the monkey exhibits – the animals there had come from a science lab and were now living out their retirement at the zoo.
Our favorite part of the visit was the Lemur Encounter. For an additional $24.95 per person we were able to go inside the Lemur exhibit and spend about 15 minutes with the animals. At the time of our visit, the exhibit housed both ring-tailed lemurs (like King Julian from the movie Madagascar) and black and white ruffed lemurs. The ring-tailed lemurs were a bit standoffish and chose to keep an eye on us from afar. The ruffed lemurs were incredibly curious and friendly and swarmed us almost as soon as we sat down. They held my hand and shamelessly solicited belly rubs. They inspected (and chewed on) our shoes but they were especially interested in our phones. John eventually put his phone in his pocket but that didn’t deter the little stinkers – they started chewing through his pants to get at the phone inside! This was an incredibly fun experience and we felt that it was very fairly priced.
On the way to Gulf Shores, we also stopped at our first Buckee’s. For those that don’t know, Buckee’s is a chain of gas station/convenience store locations mostly located throughout the south. They are huge stores and offer pretty much anything you can think of! They have your typical candy and chip offerings that you would expect to find in any gas station or truck stop but they also have sections for clothing, home décor, an entire wall of jerky, a stand where they fresh-make fudge all day, a fine selection of roast nuts, an ENORMOUS variety of fountain sodas (in addition to Coke and Pepsi options, they also have their own brand and the black cherry soda is to die for), and quick service counters serving hotdogs and fries, burritos, bbq sandwiches, and more. And their mascot is a beaver.
During our time in Mobile, we also got to experience Foosackly’s which has become one of my favorite fast-food locations and something that I miss very much. They seem to only exist in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle but I wish they were everywhere. They are very comparable to Raising Cane’s or Zaxby’s but their sauces. MMMMMM their sauces. They offer their signature Foo Sauce, Real Honey Mustard, Buttermilk Ranch, Sweet & Spicy Kung Foo Sauce, Smoky BBQ, and Classic Buffalo. I didn’t know what to pick so I asked the man taking the orders which ones he preferred since it was my first visit. That kind soul gave me one of each. For the record, the Honey Mustard or the Kung Foo Sauce are the right answer, although they were all very good.
We spent our last night in Mobile (St. Patrick’s Day) by having dinner at Squid Ink, a local bar/restaurant in the downtown area. We had deep fried devilled eggs, a hot chicken sandwich, and an Avocado BLT.
We chose Mobile completely because it was a bigger city and was a short drive from New Orleans but we ended up falling in love and actually plan to spend some time there again next winter. But for now, it was time to say goodbye and move on to our next stop – Auburn, Alabama.
