Destination: Pensacola

Today was a bit difficult. I had to leave New Orleans unfinished. More than unfinished, I didn’t do the city justice. To make it worse I have to pass by Café Du Monde on my way out of town. Had there been parking I would have stopped and passed an hour just people watching.

I headed south around 920. The landscape didn’t change much. Scrub trees, swampy grasslands, and causeways more than freeway roads. 

I stopped for lunch at one of the destinations I had planned for. Lulu’s at Home Port, Gulf Shores Alabama. Someone I met a few weeks back, had mentioned this place after discussion involving, Jim Morris, Jimmy Buffett, and this trip. She had mentioned that Jimmy Buffett’s sister had a waterfront restaurant somewhere down here. Google helped me find it. I left the Interstate and took a state road to get here. I was glad for it. There were strip malls, car dealerships, junk shops, and fast food places. I guess these are the usual suspects in Baldwin County.

Lulu’s is an open air décor kind of place on the Intracoastal Waterway, something else I wanted to see. It’s actually a lot larger than I had imagined.

After perusing the beer options I choose to bypass my beloved Land Shark Lager, and try the Crazy Sister Honey Ale. I also ordered a Cheeseburger with cheddar and grilled onions.

It came with fries, mayo and mustard on the side. A fair sized chunk of meat filled the bun, and I have to admit it was one of the best burgers I ever tasted.

After the burger and one beer I reluctantly left. My next stop was the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. It’s also one of my signature destinations for this trip.

I drive along Beach Boulevard. It runs along the Gulf Coast and I’m really glad I’m not on the Interstate. I make a stop at a State beach pier to get a look at the Gulf Coast. The whitest sand I have ever seen threatens to blind me in spite of my Ray-Ban’s.

Condo complexes rise out of nowhere to pollute the sightlines, carrying names like Phoenix 1 through 5. They are as fundamentally out of place as I am at a knitting bee. But I’m a bit out of place here too, so I can’t really judge.

I pass through the front gate of NAS Pensacola without incident. You can never tell at which point being a foreign national might prevent you from ordinary access. Not that I’m any kind of security risk, really, but security decisions aren’t always about who’s a nice and trustworthy guy. And I’m sure there are some who will deny I’m even that. But you can’t live to certain age and not hurt or tick off some people. The Gate Guard looks at my driver’s license and I’m waved through.

I find my way to the museum and have some camera problems. The brand new 32GB SDHC card I inserted keeps tripping it’s lock out switch. Fortunately I have an extra card, and a spare battery.

This museum has free admission. I am somewhat taken aback by this. The lady on the guest services desk directs me to the donation box. I leave an amount equivalent to the admission at other aviation museums I’ve visited.

The displays are well laid out. The main building has WW1 and WW 2 exhibits. Very well preserved and accurate representations make this a great educational exhibit. I learn a lot. I am so focussed I walk right past an Me262, three times. The Me 262, also known as the Sparrow, was a Nazi Germany jet plane, deployed in the final days of WW2. It has been generally acknowledged as the first jet fighter.

Also I get to see a Martin Mauler. It is one of only two on display anywhere. 

The other is at the Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon. I saw that one four years ago. That was really the beginning, where one of the seeds was planted for this trip.

I also get to see a version of Marine One, the Presidential helicopter, one of the most photographed aircraft ever.

Why they chose a Richard Nixon mannequin to sit in it is unknown.

I leave the Museum and follow the GPS to my hotel. I worry, since I’m on a military base, that I’m going the wrong way, and my hotel for the night will have bars, and not security bolts, but I get out scot free.

My hotel tonight is a Howard Johnson at the north end of Pensacola. I chose the budget hotel because I want a quick and clean exit to the Interstate in the morning. Dinner was about as interesting to me, as me talking endlessly about the aviation museum exhibits to you. In a nutshell it was from a delivery place called Steakout, a place that delivers steak to your door.

Tonight I have no idea where I will wind up tomorrow night. I’m debating directions, and headings, and endings, prior to the long drive home.