Mobile Alabama... Another City We'd Leave RV Life For (first impressions)

So if you want to visit Mobile, Alabama, there's only a few different ways you could do it by RV. And here's what we've learned so far. There's a Bass Pro Shop and a Cracker Barrel, like within 15-20 minutes. So if you had a van, you could stay there the night before, drive in the next day. But if you have an RV and you want to have a base camp, there's one Harvest Host that didn't look like a good option that's in Mobile. And then there's a couple RV parks in Mobile that didn't have any availability for us to go to. And so actually, the best option, we think, we hope, is the one that we're doing, which is going to the state park. And it's on kind of a cool waterway like this. When I plugged it into the map this morning, I was really excited to see it was down on the water, like in this little squiggle area. So that was pretty cool. Oh, look ahead to the left there. There's the battleship. There it is. We've probably driven by Mobile, Alabama or through it on the 10 here, I don't know, half a dozen times. Easily. Maybe more. We've never stopped, you know, going on year seven of full timing. So it's, you know, again, why we say like, we just keep going because next time there's always something else to see that you haven't seen. Yeah. And on this particular stretch, you know, we're making a really big effort to stop and visit cities that we haven't visited yet. Next time is this time. Exactly. So there's the 10 that we were just on. This is cool. It's been a while since we've been to a nice state park. I think the sunsets and sunrises are pretty amazing. Are we in for a treat? I could only find two nights on a Wednesday and a Thursday. Otherwise it was completely booked. And the other caveat is this is a full hookup only state park, which comes with full hookup prices. Yeah. Ended up being 60 bucks a night. Not horrible, but that's expensive for a state park. Yeah. Is that a tow vehicle? Yeah. Somebody's tailgating. This is for the tow vehicle. Site 104, checking out on the 12th. Well, wasn't he one of the most pleasant rangers we've ever... Actually, I think he was the most. Yes, he was. He was calm, patient, took his time, and he pointed out on the map every single little thing that this park has to offer, which I must say, Erin, I'm digging it. You know, you always pick, for the most part, really great spots, but this seems like a home run. So all of these spots on the water, these were all booked up. You know, look at these amazing views where you can see the water. And the only things that were open are on the other side of the park here, up on the left, away from the water. But I imagine, you know, there's not a bad view in the house once that sun starts setting, right? Right. Yeah. So this is not as nice as being on the water, but it looks like a really nice park. We'll take it. And I bet you can still see the sunset through those trees. Pretty amazing. Yeah. I hope we get a good sunset tonight. We'll have to walk to the pier. Yeah. All right. Drop the Bronco off and get parked. Okay. You ready? Yeah. It's a pretty big site. Yeah, I see that. Okay. Yeah. This is one of the biggest sites I've seen in quite a while, especially for a state park. Wow. All right. This is so nice here. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Okay. Stop. Yeah. Big, huh? Yeah. Wow. And it seems level. Yeah. I'm going to check the level and actually see how level it truly is. Okay. So this was about three and a half inches down in the front. I swear all RV sites slope from the back to the front. I'm assuming for drainage purposes to drain to the street and then out where they want the water to go. But some of the places we go to are eight, nine, 10 inches sloped down in the front. So that's where we need to have those buckets and the level ramps to get level. Home sweet home. That is so easy and it's just so easy to get in and it's great and big and sunny and some days travel days just go really, really well. Today was one of those just perfect travel days. Today was a good day. We started it out by helping a get out of his fifth wheel that was trapped in there at Cracker Barrel. Yeah. He couldn't get his legs down. Yeah. And then we ended up... We've nearly been in that situation ourselves. We have, so we felt bad. And then we ended up meeting some good fans throughout the day as we traveled at Cracker Barrel and at the truck stop. Maybe that's why I'm in such a good mood. We got to socialize with a lot of friendly RVers. Yeah. Do you want to show what it looks like with the slides back there? Sure. Yeah. I think we've, we've showed a few times, but so two people can kind of like squeeze by through here. We do sit at this table at night with the slide in, even though we have like our, our workout bench and the dog toys get stored here when travel, but we just kind of put our feet on top of that. And yeah, you can use like, we've never really done a full demo. You can use the fridge and then back here you can go in the bathroom fully. The door opens in. This is where, this is where the squeeze is though in order to get back to the closet. Let's see, what is this? This is like six inch space you got there. I'm just saying you can get through there, but it's tight. Like, but yeah, you can get through. And then once you're through here, it's a little bit better. You can get into both closets, but I, I try to plan ahead. And if I know I'm going to want like extra layers or change clothes, I don't do this normally. That was just a demonstration purposes. This, uh, Alabama sunshine is warm. Very warm. Yeah. The country is finally starting to warm up after that deep freeze. Get some air coming through here. It's hot. Feel it. Yeah, I do. It's nice to see people outside relaxing here. Yeah. We should take the dogs for a big walk. Yeah. After driving for two days, my legs are tight. My hips are tight. So from our last tour video, this is why we keep talking about how much space is in here. That's why I did want to show the, the maneuverability with the slides in to follow up on that tour video. It's 80 degrees in here. Feels nice. Gotta cool it down. Practically all set up already. Okay. Time for that walk. This is why the state parks are much better than a cracker barrel or a harvest host or overnight where you get to be out in nature. I know totally. Even, even just the view from right here. Yeah. It's just peaceful. Yeah. Already. I'm so excited that we're here. It feels so good. It feels so good to be in a different state. Yes. So there's a boat launch here too. There's water all around us. Yeah. This is pretty cool. It feels like it too with the breeze. It's like very coastally windy right here. Yeah. I even have the goosebumps. It's like, it's the sun. The sun is so sunny and inviting. You think it's warm, but then you get out here and it's this water breeze. Feels good to me. I was just too hot. Watch out for Gators, babe. They said it was a little too cold for them to be out right now, but, but you never know. You never know if one of them's wearing a jacket and a stocking hat and he's out. That's true. Thanks for the reminder. Cause yeah. So we're headed over to the, um, I guess it was a nature trail. He kind of called it a, had a word. Yeah. The Delta view. Yeah. So we're going to head out to the Delta walkway. There's your alligator sign. So this, he said was the prize jewel of the entire park, the Delta boardwalk. He actually got really excited when he was introducing this location to us. Yeah. We got to watch out for, for Gators. They also called this the state birding trail. I wonder what kind of birds. I can hear all the birds. Do you hear them? Yep. Lots of birds. This is cool. So we only have one and a half days here, really. Like if you want to cram it all in, you know, we could go out later tonight and check out something quick, but we got one big day that we're going to spend out in Mobile. Yeah. And I feel like this is the type of place that you just, you can't do it all in one day. No. What's nice about this location is where we're camping. It's close drive to everything. Yep. So that definitely helps, but still it's not enough to really do it. Right. We're just going to like make the best of the time we have and get the feeling for it. Get the feeling for it. Careful June. Watch out for Gators. Oh, I'm starting to see some water birds up there on the water. This is pretty cool. So this is the Delta. I think I read that, uh, Mobile has like the second largest Delta in the United States or something like that. What does that mean? It's like the, where the mouth of the river is, where the river meets the ocean type of deal. Feels very much like a Delta here. Delta. We'll have to get the official description. Yeah. The definition. Look at this Delta. You like this Delta? Wow. Are you kidding me? This is cool. Yeah. I would say it's a little too cold for alligators. It's chilly. It's chilly, but it's still like 65, 70. It's just cloudy today. It's a little cloudy. It's almost springtime if you believe that. Yeah. It's February. That's what everyone keeps hoping for spring right around the corner. So there's I-10 again, big tall buildings at Mobile and there's the rest of the RV park state park right on the water. What a great spot. Here we go. Fire grilled oysters. I can't help you with that. Look at this sunset coming, coming out of the oyster house. It's beautiful. That was one of the best meals we've had in a while. A long time. And one of the best sunsets we've had in a long time. That's pretty spectacular. Yeah. The sunsets at this RV park, state park, I should say pretty special. Yeah. Now this is a sunset. This is a sunset and it's so pretty when you see the piers and the woodwork out in the water. So again, this campsite does pretty good for the wind. It's 15 minutes to downtown Mobile and we're really excited to get our first impressions of this city. I'm stoked. We've never been here before and I think this one's going to have a lot to offer. I do too. Big campsites here. So we are going to drive past the USS Alabama battleship on the road that we're on, but we're not going to stop there first. We really want to get downtown and make sure we have enough time to spend there. And then we can always stop on our way home or we have tomorrow morning too if we just want to quickly visit it. It's 8 45 in the morning and the fog is almost worse now than it was early this morning. Yeah, I would agree. We're coming up on the oyster house that we ate at last night and that's going to be one of our favorite memories for a while. That was good. Got such a great sunset view in there. Good spot. It's huge. Look how big it is. Yeah, it's big. So much water around here. This is a such a unique area. I think I would want to spend like at least a week here. I would like to spend more time in Alabama in general. I would really like to go to the Gulf Shore. Yeah, we've never been to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Sounds like a good spot to go. Yeah. Oh, this takes us through a tunnel. Oh, I've heard about the famous underwater tunnel. This is underwater? I think it is. There is a underwater tunnel, but I don't know if this is. We did the underwater tunnel in Virginia. Yeah, but there's one in Alabama. I'm pretty sure it's Mobile. All right, let's find out. Oh, I see the tunnel right there. Bank Head Tunnel. I don't think it goes underwater. Well, there's water right on the map. Oh, maybe it does go underwater into Mobile. We're not giving up on this underwater tunnel yet. There's only one way to find out. Bank Head Tunnel. No semis, no HC. What's that, high clearance? Yeah. It's 12 foot. See, this is like where we would probably just take the RV here and we wouldn't even notice. Well, this is where, okay, so taking 10 in was an optional route, and I took 98 because we haven't been on this. Do you see those big smashes up top there? That's never a good sign. So we're not quite under the water yet, but we're about to be under the water. And just like that, we pop out from underneath the water and right into downtown Mobile. The day's already been made. We got really lucky, I think, on today's weather. It's like cloudy with obviously some sunshine popping out here and a high of 71. And for it being April, no not April, and for it being February 10th or whatever it is, that's pretty good. The biggest thing I'm excited for today is to see all of the decorations for Mardi Gras because we are in peak week of Mardi Gras. Yeah, you see big stages for parades. There's the Carnival Museum right there. Oh, I want to go there. That's on my list. I pinned it. This certainly has a New Orleans type of feel already. I was imagining that it would. First impressions? Pretty cool. Pretty good. And sometimes it's good when you miss a turn because then you get to just see more. Oh, we're taking the scenic way there, right? I would be concerned if I said no. Are there bells ringing right now? It's a nine o'clock a.m. It's gonna ding nine times. So we found our way right onto Dauphin Street, which is kind of the main downtown. And this early in the morning, it's pretty quiet. Yeah, nine a.m. Not many people are out. Do you want to get coffee still? Yeah. Okay. I could use coffee. Let's find out where the coffee shop is. That's Bienville Square right there. Yeah, they do have some open spots here. I'm gonna pull into... No pressure, no pressure, no pressure, no pressure. Nailed it. I don't know. I'm liking this vibe here, Chris. I am too. This could be another city we could add to the list of places we might want to move to. I seriously would consider Alabama. Would you consider Mobile or would you have to go to like Gulf Shores? Well, I have to see more than this. Ask me in a couple hours. Yeah, lots of murals everywhere. Yeah, I read about that. I read that there's tons of murals. And actually, there is like a little mural type location. I don't know if it's an alley or just a dedicated spot, but I also pinned that so we can go find it and look at it. I'm also digging all the cool decorations for Mardi Gras. That was what I was most excited for to see all of because we are in peak season right now. Mardi Gras is on Tuesday. Today is Wednesday, so it's six days away. This is the big ramp up where there's lots of parades, celebrations. It'd be really cool to be down here at night because all the parades start at like 6 or 7 p.m. that I've seen listed. And the decorations are everywhere, even just like behind us. Look at these beautiful window decorations all the small businesses are putting out. At the Oyster House last night when we pulled in, I saw the Christmas tree and I'm like, oh, these guys still have their Christmas tree up, but it's a Mardi Gras tree decorated with Mardi Gras. So it's just everywhere. The flair is blinging. I'm going to be taking a million pictures today. Did we mention that Mobile is supposedly the birthplace of Mardi Gras? Like, this is where it all originated here in the United States. We did not mention that, and it is no supposedly. It is. It is the birthplace of the original Mardi Gras. Happy Mardi Gras! Our first stop of the day, Cerda's Coffee Company. You know, the city's not awake and maybe we aren't either, so it's time to... I think we're going to see a lot of these old cool details today on the... Yeah. Smells good. King Cake. We're gonna have to get King Cake, but I think that that King Cake is a special coffee. Got Christmas trees everywhere. Yeah. That was fast. Yeah. They don't mess around here. Oh, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. So I got nothing fancy. Regular iced latte with those fun coffee cubes that we showed in Key West. Well, I did get something fancy. Yeah, you did. I got the King's Cake Latte. King's Cake is a big deal, especially during Mardi Gras week. Yeah. So the flavorings are cinnamon buns and then also there's hazelnut, which hazelnut coffee flavor is my favorite too. So my two favorite things packed into this hot latte. Yeah, and if you've never had King Cake, it's something you gotta try. Yeah. And you'll see it at grocery stores and everywhere. I don't know if it's year-round or not, but especially in this area of the South here. And if we run into some today, it'll be hard to pass up. Did you try it yet? Not yet. Letting it cool? No, I'm just excited. I'm building up the anticipation. Got a big day at being a tourist today. I have a lot of eating to do. I need my my taste buds. Yeah, don't burn the taste buds off. But if you can't taste it, then you just have to try more, right? Oh yeah. Oh man. The first thing is just straight cinnamon. I love cinnamon. I don't taste the hazelnut as much as I do the cinnamon, but that's fine with me. It does taste like a giant hot cinnamon roll. It is delicious. Do you want to try it? Yeah, I'll try it. Look at the balcony behind you. I've just never really seen that architecture besides here and New Orleans, I think, right? It's metal roof. It's like a double balcony. A double balcony. They're made out of metal with a metal roof coming off. You know, there's a lot of places that we haven't been though, so there very likely could be some places. Is it sweet? Not overly sweet. It's very lightly. There's no like sugar in it, right? I don't know. I didn't ask. But it doesn't taste overwhelmingly sugary. No, it just tastes like a flavored coffee drink. Yeah. You're going to try to find this now in the stores. King Cake. Actually, you've had King Cake flavored coffee before, no? Yeah, I have actually. Uh-huh. That just gave me a little flashback from like the smell and the taste. I'll be making it for you in the morning. Do you think, which I'll give you one guess which one is better, the store-bought that I got or this? That's pretty good. You like it? It's good. Okay, let's take these coffees and head down Docking Street. What's left of my coffee. I have a hard time sipping it when it tastes so delicious. This is kind of the main downtown strip. We're going to check it out. Such a cool building. Mobile is a really old city. It's the oldest city in Alabama. The very oldest? Yeah. It was actually a city I think 100 years before Alabama was even a state. Wow. It was one of the early, I think it was French settled but. Because of the port. Yeah, because of the port. Yeah, and the city itself is over 300 years old. 1702 I think I read. So old. Yeah. Love those. I think it's gas. They used to be oil but. But now they're gas. We're on our way to check out the Welcome Mobile mural. So the theme of right now is kind of like Mobile versus New Orleans because they are so comparable, right? So when you look them up, and you can get a sense for this if you've ever been to both, but you can get the feeling that Mobile is smaller, a little bit more intimate, a little bit less chaotic, a little more budget-friendly, a little more family-friendly. Less touristy. Yeah, I mean New Orleans is fun but it is like, it is a commitment to go there. Like you have to really enjoy night life and chaotic activity and just like really high energy stuff. This is definitely more of a chill feeling. Would you agree? Yes. Yeah. Mobile claims to have the very first Mardi Gras established 1703 and New Orleans was 1718. So that's 15 years later. Actually our very first time to New Orleans, we basically got out started walking and we saw some pretty bad stuff. We can't talk about what we saw. Right off the bat just what people are doing on the street there. It was a little off-putting but we survived. We're still here to talk about it. Because this city is so old there are operating chocolate shops that are over 100 years old and I pinned some of them. 1917 it says. This is probably one of the ones that I pinned but I think it is so cool that you can go anywhere, well not anywhere, you can go to places like Mobile and walk into these stores that are a hundred years old and think of all the people that have been in there, working in there, living in there, laughing in there, telling stories. It is just so heartwarming when I think of all the all the lives and the souls that have been inside of this store. That looks kind of festive right? That looks pretty eclectic. Yeah let's keep walking. Oh look at the old theater down there. They have these schedules blasted all over the city at like all of the establishments. You can see the parades and the events start way back on January 17th because Mardi Gras itself is on February 17th. So it's a full month of celebrating and ramping up and building up to the main event of Fat Tuesday, which is the end of the carnival. The last day of the party. Yeah the last day of the party. Here it is. Welcome to Mobile, Alabama. Welcome to Mobile. It's actually nice to catch a break in the shade right now too. The sun is heating up. Starting to heat up. Okay so we have the battleship. Yep there's the battleship. We have the Mardi Gras. Dauphin Street, which is what we just walked. The carnival festivities. Don't skip the moon pie. They drop the moon pie on New Year's I want to say or maybe it's during Mardi Gras, but they're big ball drop. Plus the moon pie is like a southern dessert. Is it? I was gonna say what's a moon pie? Yeah like almost like a Hostess Debbie or something I think. Okay lots of good sweets here in Alabama. This one we'll have to come back to. Yeah. This looks like a fountain with some beads. That's in Bienville. Oh in Bienville Square? Yep. Oh crawfish. Southern style seafood is a big deal and barbecue is a big deal. I'm not sure what that yellow character is. The E and the B. We'll have to learn what those are during the day. That won't be our scavenger hunt assignment of the day. One more mural. Check. We're gonna keep looking for those murals all day long. Just some good old charm here. Lots of historic buildings. What did you say it was? It's the Mobile Budget Department. Oh wow. Which is ironic because it doesn't look like they were on much of a budget when they built this building. We see where the budget went. The budget went all into the infrastructure. Yeah there's lots of walking to do all around this downtown area. Much better angle of the Harriet Tubman mural. It's really a cool mural. Strength, strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars and change the world. Pretty powerful. It is. I want to get up close again. I think I found the B. It's right there babe. So we spotted another identical fountain at the base of this church and we haven't been into Bienville Square yet so that might be the same thing. It's not quite identical because this fountain has one, two, three tiers and that one has four, five tiers. Yeah. But it's very close. It's very similar in its appearance. This little scavenger hunt we created is quite fun especially since we have pictures of the mural so we can refer back to when Aaron was like oh there's the B. I was like what are you talking about? Okay so this is Cathedral Square that we're currently in which would make sense for this is the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Historic Catholic Church built in 1711. So this makes sense that it's Cathedral Square in front of the Catholic. Yeah. One more mural. That one's got all types of people. No this one is, I'd like to get up close and try to identify. Oh I do want to buy postcards. Yes we need some postcards. We need some postcards. All types of people on this one. I don't know what this restaurant is but this looks to be like the most festive. The beer garden. In the city. Load up. Oh yeah the beer garden. I did actually see somebody said go to the beer garden. You can see why. It just looks, it just like pulls you in. Yeah. Look at that exposed brick. Yeah this is a cool building. Old, all those kegs sticking on the top. Love it. I love the the music that they're jamming. Yeah. Look at these. Yeah. Little beer keg flowerpots. That's cool. Old theater. I like the tree-lined streets up here. Yeah. We've never seen these. I don't know what these are. I'm guessing that that's for a parade. See that thing will pop up and shut off. Oh to close it. Yeah to close off automotive traffic. For traffic control. Yeah. And then they, so it may be during certain weekends. On certain timers and clocks. Yeah it's just all pedestrian. We haven't walked down this way yet. No. We're in a cool little pocket here. Yeah. They're kind of loud but. Yeah I know. They're loud when you drive through them too. So I'm seeing RVs all over the place here. Are these just here for the parade or, like this is a big pay lot but there's a bunch of RVs parked in here. Temporary for the parade? Maybe for the carnival? I was just wondering if we could park our RV in here and stay overnight. That's what I was wondering. I don't know what the story is with these RVs. Yep that is definitely the fountain we saw on the mural. That is definitely the fountain. The number of tiers lines up and it is much larger than what I was expecting. This is Bienville Square. Does this remind you of the pineapple fountain at all? It actually does remind me of a lot of the squares that we saw in Savannah. Yeah. And the pineapple you're talking about is Charleston which. Yeah. It did cross my mind but it feels more like the squares in Savannah. Oh that's the bathrooms. They got public bathrooms here. Oh nice. It's a cool little spot. It's definitely, there's nobody here right now. We're still in the city sleeping phase. There's like four groups of individuals in here but it's very quiet. It's actually refreshing when you get splashed on. Wow. We didn't I think mention parking was free up to two hours downtown. This morning there was free parking everywhere. There were a lot of open spots. I don't know what it's going to look like now closer to noon but. But it is time. Our two hours is up. We need to move so we are going to drive. We're not going to eat yet. No we're not quite hungry. We're going to drive to the Museum of the Carnival or the Carnival Museum which is only like a four minute drive. It's very walkable but since we need to re-park we're going to park over there, reset the two hour clock, go to the museum and then work up an appetite while we're there. If there was like numerous hours of free parking this would be a great spot. It's very centrally located. It would be a really great spot right next to the park here. So we found some free parking across the street from the Carnival Museum right down here. Looks like it's all free, no signs, no meters. There she is. Okay let's check out the museum. There we go. They like to make you go in through the gift shop strategically. Ah that makes sense. This is cool. Hey we could get you a Mardi Gras shirt. So unfortunately they didn't allow any filming or videos inside the museum which you know some museums don't. Yeah and that's okay. We were able to snap a few pictures and there's a lot to see in there. It's very overwhelming. We kind of need like a concise dumbed down version of exactly the history and what it's all about but I think it's it's spanned for so many hundreds of years that there's so much to it. There was I would I would agree there was too much information in there to process easily. I really enjoy the tours where there's a real live guide that just walks you through and gives you the high level cliffs notes those like key moments. This is a great museum. I was not expecting as many costumes. There are so many costumes in there. Very elaborate. Very like just in of significant importance and it's cool because there's a wide variety of who wore the costumes. There's a lot of the kings and queens. Because of how many years it's been going on. It's not like you know the history of it is so long. Yeah. So it was an audio tour that was in there and an audio tour it was basically just a AI version reading the plaques that were on each of the sections and they kept mispronouncing mobile. It kept saying. And Aaron said I can't listen to this anymore. I can't. I imagine the people that you know are from here are like quit mispronouncing it. Yeah. So it was cool. Definitely you know something interesting to see while you're here. The price is right to go in there and check it out because you could really enjoy it. Yeah for eight bucks it's something to go check out. Lots of history there and you could spend a couple hours in there if you are really interested in everything. We were probably in and out in about 30 minutes. Half hour. Yeah. All right. But did you get hungry during that? Yes. We got to figure out where we're going to eat and that's going to be our next stop wherever it is. All right. We snagged another free parking spot. There's lots of free parking. Yeah and parking is all about luck. So we had to do a couple circles but we got one. And it's you know right on this doffing street and right around the square. I mean there's just this is where you want to be. Just park and like right now we have three restaurants that we had our eye on that we can you know hit them up and if one of them busy you go to the next one. So we're looking at Roosters which is a Mexican style restaurant. We're looking at Mama's which is a southern style restaurant and we are looking at the beer garden. The beer garden. Which really isn't about the food that's more just like that outdoor atmosphere. We're crossing that off. So yeah we're gonna walk the route and see which one looks best. Go to where the locals are eating. Which is probably not on this block at all unless you're unless you're having a business lunch. We're seeing the work crowd here for sure. So I was just going to point out Mama's right there. Roosters right across the street and the pictures of Roosters tacos look really good. They do look really good. But we would feel a little silly getting tacos while we're here in the south in Mobile. Yeah I kind of feel like we the right thing to do would be get some good southern food. Yeah and we did get some good southern seafood last night. We did and I think that's that kind of scratched that itch a little bit which is why we're more like yeah we don't have to get southern today but it would still it would feel good to get some good southern food. Mama's it is. Yeah okay let the good times roll at Mama's. Fried chicken, chopped steak, hot mama chicken, fried pork chops, banana pudding, fried pickles, onion rings. Nice little spot in here right? Yeah. Well you wanted southern food this looks like you got it. I got it and you know what this place this is called Mama's. It's on Dauphin and they do fresh local southern food. They are only open for lunch from the hours of what did you say 11 to 2? Yeah 11 to 2 30. They do Monday through Friday. And they do daily specials which is really cool. So today's daily specials you could get like fried chicken, fried pork chops, country fried steaks, not in that language, and then hot chicken which is fried chicken in buffalo sauce. So Aaron and I both were like interested in the fried chicken. The waitress told us it's the best fried chicken in the state of Alabama. So we said okay we'll take two of those. She said we only have one left in the entire kitchen so we said okay we'll take one of those. So we're gonna split the fried chicken and then as a backup order Aaron kind of scrambled we got the fried pork chops but it looks pretty tasty. Yeah. You can pick either two sides or three sides so I got cabbage and squash casserole which were the waitress's top favorite recommendations. And I had to get mashed potatoes and gravy. And then Aaron got mashed potatoes and gravy and mac and cheese. So we have a smorgasbord of sides, hot protein. My mouth is watering. Now we've had Pugin's Porch's chicken. I don't think anything can be better than Pugin's Porch. Yeah that was pretty good chicken. That looks like a good piece of chicken there though. Let me just say it's amazing. We never, we only eat fried chicken in Salt Lake and we haven't had it for a couple of years. And that bite right there was incredible. It's like super flavorful, super crunchy, super juicy. Yeah. Super everything. My mouth is watering just eating it. It's a very like flaky crust. Yeah interesting pounded out pork chop, huh? It's really good. You don't see a pork chop like that very often. And I love pork chop. I love, I love having, it's almost like a good thing to, as soon as they said that I ordered the last fried chicken, I didn't hesitate. I said Aaron we'll share it, order anything else and we'll split it. And I always get a kick out of sharing. So to get all the sides with the two different proteins and it's like, it feels like you're at a down home, like it feels like you're at home. Yeah that's why I said it doesn't feel like a restaurant. It just feels like good home cooking food. Yeah. Love it. Good choice. Mamas. Best fried chicken in the state of Alabama. Look at that. That's pretty cool. So our plan after lunch is to go to a happy hour up on the 34th floor of the the Dauphin building. But we got about an hour until happy hour starts. So we figured we'll just bounce the five minutes across the water to the Battleship Memorial State Park. Hello. So we got about an hour. We figured we would at least come to the grounds and you know park, walk around. I mean just get up close to the ship. Like even the, like are these real? These Coast Guard airplanes are real? I think so. Because they look fake. They look so cool. Look at the tank. Even just driving in here it's like worth five dollars to look at all these things on display. Korea Veterans Memorial. My grandfather was in the Korean War. Yeah he was wasn't he? Yeah. Look at how big that ship is. I mean. Yeah that would, I know it'd be cool to like go on. Do you know how much it costs to go on? I don't. We'll have to check in the gift store. Wow. So there's the USS Alabama. So how many of these battleships are there in the country that like if you could go see in other states? I mean they're just insane. Look at all the height levels on it. Yeah pretty impressive. Very much. I know you love a good gift store. I do. Guilty. Clearance. I went straight to the clearance. They do sell tickets in here. Look is that an, is that a propeller? It's like a jet engine is what it is. At first I was going to guess an engine and then I felt kind of silly. I think it's what goes in the back of this. I think that's, what do they call that? The like SR-51 Blackbird or something like that? That's exactly what I was going to guess. That used to be a pretty fancy plane back in the day. Yeah it still looks fancy today. Remember like the B-52 stealth bomber and the Blackbird? Like maybe you don't. Yeah I do. You don't remember. These are cool. Yeah you know what makes a plane look even cooler is when it's jet black like this. Yeah. It's just super stealth. Yeah. And gnarly looking. That's where the thing goes. Right? Yeah. I mean I can see it. I can see it just popping right in there. Wow. This is pretty impressive. So we would probably, I think if you know if we're going to go on the ship we need to have a little bit more time to like come back because this is somewhere you, look how big that ship is. That's at least. It would be fun to, it would be fun to go on there and just get lost. That's like a couple hours I would think that you're gonna be, I mean look at people are wandering up everywhere. I would feel like we were on a movie if we went in there. Yeah so if we come back tomorrow morning then we'll go on it. Okay deal. Is that a submarine? No I don't think so. No? I wouldn't want to go underwater in that thing. Yeah there's a lot to look at here. What is this? Butt can. I think you go to the bathroom in there. Oh it's for your cigarette butts. Not a, not a squatty potty? Not a squatty potty. Don't try to go to the bathroom in the butt can. Hey buddy. Oh these are little places you can leave your dog while you go look at the ship. Yeah. I've never seen that before. No. Like a little temporary kennel. They're well-behaved dogs. Nobody's even barking. Yeah they're just looking for their owners. Yeah. Yeah. Okay here's where we can go. Coast guard stuff. Okay. What is that a missile? It looks like a missile. I know that's exactly what I was locked in on. Stick your head in here. Is this a prank? You want me to stick my head in the missile? Smells old. I see a lot of old rusty cut wires. Those dogs are barking though. Poor little doggies. And look at this helicopter. Almost looked like it crashed at some point but I think that's just the shape. That's just the design of it? Yeah. It's just got the propellers in storage mode. That is crazy. Wow. You never really get to get this close to like fighter jets and things like this either. Yeah it is cool to Did you stick your head in? Yeah. Hello. Watch your neck. Okay Chris cue the Top Gun music. Well all I know is that's Iceman's rig and we're not allowed to touch it. I don't even know what the Top Gun song is. Highway to the Danger Zone? You know what? You might want to learn that one. Top Gun I was a little I was a little younger. Might have just been a little too cool for you. Let's go with that. It was a little too cool for me. I was a little too young and being a girl I was into more girly movies. Like don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. Oh this is a cool line. Oh yeah this is the this is the line right here. This is it. I would say you need at least a couple hours here to like look at everything. This is it's not small it's big. I would and I would agree and I would and I would say if you were to come here take the tour on the ship. Pretty impressive vessel. Calamity Jane. So this is a B-52 bomber. Long range strategic bomber. Do you remember hearing B-52 bombers? Yeah I remember hearing Calamity Jane. You know you're a badass lady when you get a thing like this named after you. Oh yeah it's got the horseshoes right after it there. There we go. Four big 50 cals or whatever they are. Geez. Yeah you really don't get to see this type of equipment every day. All right so the Battleship Memorial Park. Highly recommended. You gotta leave a lot of time for this. This is just a big area to cover. You got a lot of walking around. You got the whole grounds and then you got the submarine and then you got the Alabama itself. Like yeah you need a couple hours to come here. I would actually enjoy going on the Alabama itself. Next time. Next time. We always like to leave a little bit of things to do next time so it gets us coming back to these cool places like this. Some reasons to lure you back again. Although I must say Mobile is luring on its own. It's pretty good. Pretty good. We'll have to discuss if this is going to be one of our top spots that we really like in the country or at least the area. But we have one more spot we want to go to quick and that's just to get up to I think it's the 34th floor of Dauphin's fine dining restaurant. It's kind of fancy. I can't wear a hat. You gotta have a collared shirt and we were just gonna go up there for a drink. You're taking me on a hot date. It's supposedly the best view around. There it is. Guest parking. Dauphin's. I was like I know we're not going to the bank. We almost went to the wrong one. Parking. Parking in Mobile is spot on. Yeah. It's pretty good. It's been pretty accessible all day. Now can you bring a dually in here? Ah so far. So far. So far. This might rub your hip. That's a tight little s-curve but I think it's doable. You know it's a parking garage. Most people avoid them in a dually anyways I guess right? Yeah. Yeah I would say we have a good foot above the bronco. It's not bad. We got a foot above the bronco. Good. It certainly doesn't feel like that. Yeah the tremor was almost seven feet tall. Nice little spot. Squeeze in there. The dually definitely would not fit in there. It's a tight fit but we fit. It actually feels good to put a skirt on. The day was hotter than the forecast called for so. Remember the rooftop we went to in Savannah? Yeah all the way to the top. 34. All the way up. Oh it's Mardi Gras themed. It feels like a casino inside of here. Looks like the back of a limo. Wow look at this Ben. Yeah. They say it's the best view in Alabama. Ever wonder where the name Irene Iron Travels comes from? 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