Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Visiting the Battleship USS Alabama

During our travels from Arizona to Florida on I-10, we traveled through Mobile, AL where the WWII battleship Alabama is berthed as a museum. I had seen it from the interstate several times and this time, I wanted to be sure that we could stop and pay a visit. As we drove into the park and saw this great ship, I was delighted we had made time for a quick stop. This is especially true since this is the sister ship to the battleship South Dakota.

While there is plenty of room int he parking lot for our coach, we spent the night in a Mobile RV park and then drove to the ship in the morning. Wow -- is this ship BIG! This shot shows the 16" guns on the bow and you can just see Orinda standing next to the turret to give a relative size. These guns can fire a 2,000 pound shell some 20 miles! Glad I am not on the receiving end of this.

You can tour throughout the battleship -- including the brig where this errant sailer was being punished! I will have to see if I can get Orinda sprung out!

In addition to the Alabama, there are many other great exhibits including the USS Drum, a WWII submarine that you can tour completely. Orinda did not want to tour given the close quarters, but Rick could not wait to check it out.

This is a great tour! This is a remarkably preserved vessel and you get a great feel for how subs operated in WWII. Here, Rick is in the aft torpedo room.

Rick is not as young as he used to be as he learned when crawling though these hatches. Glad I don't have to run through these!

Finally, there are a number of historic aircraft displayed including this A-12, a fore-runner of the famous Blackbird (SR71) . All in all, this has been a great tour and one that I really enjoyed. If you are traveling though Mobile, be sure to take a few hours and visit this great museum.



2 comments:

squawmama said...

It is a great place to visit... we were there many many years ago... Where will you be staying in Florida?
Have fun & Travel Safe
Donna

Chuck and Anneke's RV travels said...

Good tour, we have visited others, but need to see this one, as well.