Mommy, daddy, is this war?

We will always remember Alabama for pouring rain. At some point it reminded us of our last days in Dominican Republic. For those of you who don't know the story we'll write about it soon.

After day spent in hangars of National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, where getting from the parking to the museum was a challenge (of course you could drop off the family at the entrance but the traffic jam was really discouraging) we hoped for a nicer next day. And then we went to Mobile area to see USS Alabama - Second World War battleship transformed into a museum almost 50 years ago. Of course we got some rain but it was not as heavy as in Pensacola.

USS Alabama is tempting from the first moment you see skyline of Mobile. It's sitting proudly just by Interstate 10, which leads you to the town from the east. And having not very attractive Mobile as a background it looks really great. Maciek seeing the ship with tanks and planes standing around asked surprised: "Mommy, daddy, is this war?". Where did he learn this word anyway...?

Japanese dream over 60 years ago. Never really came true...

Entrance fee is 15 USD, but with a coupon (found at Welcome Center on a state border) we paid 13 USD per person. Kids are free. Parking is 2 USD, no matter if you just have a car or you're towing a trailer. Parking is large so it's easily accessible for RVs, plus the ship is just by the highway so you don't have to drive around town. We went there with a trailer and we were fine.

First thing that we can see when buying tickets is that it's much more "southern". Few people told us that Florida is not south of the USA. It's mostly Canada with some American seniors plus Orlando and a few other exceptions. Real south starts in Alabama. It's much more hospitable, but there's also a sense of  disorder, sometime poor maintenance and chaos. Seems familiar, we thought. In Florida all the attractions (maybe except for the Keys) were poshy and neat. Giftshops well thought through, here the building by the entrance had not well maintained toilets, giftshop full of cheap toys and fast food restaurant that not only served fast food but also it was bulit and opened really fast. It was a bit of culture shock, even stronger if you had been to Pensacola a day before.

Valves and buttons

You can see USS Alabama just by walking around (arriba abajo al centro al dentro - as Mexicans in bars say), or in a bit more organized way - by three routes. One focuses on living quarters of Alabama, second on engine room, different control rooms and third one on higher levels. Infortunately we didn't climb to look down at the deck. We ran across it quickly, it was cold and pouring rain. Going up would be quite slippery and not really enjoyable. Good thing about the crappy weather was that everone stayed at home so it was not crowded. Probably if it wasn't Saturday but for example Wednesday, we would have had all ship to ourselves. But as it was Saturday, we had to share it with a just a few more visitors who we would pass every once in a while in a small corridors.

Ship is very impressive. You can take a look at huge gun caliber 410 mm but you can also see them from the inside, from control room, storeroom with shells and all the corridors shells were moved. Empty shells are still on board, so you can get the warlike feeling.

There are also some interesting details about life on board, like for example x-ray machines in dental clinic (instead of showing them in the museum they could donate them to some Polish hospitals), water fountains that looked exactly the same as they look now, and on the plates they were the same brands: Coca-cola, Nestle bars, Kellogs cereal, etc.

On-board shopping

Engine room  is surprisingly small and claustrophobic. Maybe we imagined it differently based on some old movies, but there was more space because they needed to keep coal there. Here were also steam turbines but they used diesel as a fuel. No-one had to swing a shovel and you didn't have to keep a room for coal, just a hidden tank for diesel.

Engine room

We hoped Maciek would enjoy the ship a lot, but our son decided to adjust his mood to the weather and was whining all day. However we do recommend the ship especially for older kids (and very big kids, like us:). There are lots of places to hide or get lost, but if you keep the kids in your sight and let them explore, they will have a lot of fun. Ship by the way is an important place for boy scouts. Organized tours can stay on the ship overnight sleeping on sailors' bunk beds.

Another place to see is a hangar with planes, but after Pensacola it just doesn't impress us at all. Hangar is small, maybe a dozen of plane, the most spectacular of them is A-12, which we've seen in other museums and probably we'll see it again.

A-12

Last but not least we went to USS Drum submarine, that after one of many hurricanes was taken ashore and placed on concrete bed. There we felt like home. Tiny spaces reminded us of our traier. If only Eddie had torpedo launchers...

USS Drum

Submarine has quite an impressive history and when it comes to sunken enemy ships it landed 8th on the list of American most successful submarines. It's surprisingly small inside, although we've never seen any other submarine in our lives so we can't really compare.

Torpedo tubes

On USS Drum you can get stuck in narrow corridors and steep staircases. If you have someone not so fit in front of you or someone with small kids you have to be patient and enjoy for example Walt Disney's wartime art. It seems that besides making kids happy he was also taking care of war enthusiasm among fellow Americans.

USS Drum by Walt Disney