Return to Dauphin Island.

Well, after nearly a month without a day off I decided I needed a small vacation so I went to Dauphin Island for the weekend. I had to wait until Saturday morning before I could leave because I had to sit with Barney and by the time I got off that evening, it would have been too late to get down there and get into the campgrounds. I decided to take a new route down to Dauphin Island this time, I traveled down Al 59, also known as the Gulf Shores Parkway, and was going to tour Ft. Morgan and cross by the ferry to Dauphin Island. The Parkway is a nice four lane divided hi-way, but once I went under I-10 heading south, then the fun began. I went under I-10 at 9 am and it took me three hours until I could turn off on Al 188 to head to Ft. Morgan, a distance of only 29 miles. They all were heading to the beach.


Once at Ft. Morgan I did the tour, I had arrived in time to get a demonstration of the artillery pieces that were common at the time of the Battle of Mobile Bay. I was able to capture one as it was firing. After the demonstration is when I remember that my camera can take a video. Ft Morgan wasn’t as well restored as Ft. Gains across the bay. The inside was mostly bare and it had a big mosquito problem. I did a quick tour and then left after only loosing maybe a pint to the mosquitoes.

After I left Ft. Morgan I crossed to Dauphin Island by way of the ferry. The ferry landing is right across from the camping grounds. And the campgrounds were nearly full, I was able to get a site in the RV section and they didn’t charge me extra but I was very close to the front of the park and near where the ferry lands.

I set up camp and then rested for a little bit before cleaning up and then I went to a restaurant that I had heard about but wasn’t able to get to last time I was here. It’s called Marys and it’s located off the island on Alabama 180 at the intersection of County road 59. It’s a seafood restaurant with a buffet.

Now let’s see:

For $22.95 I was able to graze at a buffet with fired shrimp, boiled shrimp, fried oysters, snow crab legs, king crab legs, (with king crab legs around don’t waste your time on them little scrawny snow crab legs), fried fish, broiled fish, fired clams, steamed mussels, shrimp Creole and shrimp gumbo, whole fried flounder, stuffed crabs, crab cakes, seafood dressing, full salad bar, several other items I can’t think about right at the moment, and also ribs and fried chicken, (must be for those that don’t eat seafood).

My first trip was to do the sampling plate and try a little bit of everything, except the ribs, chicken, and whole flounder. The second plate was to load up half and half with fried shrimp and fried oysters, that plate was piled high enough so that I didn’t have to worry about a third.
I left there and then went back to the camp; I walked on the beach at night and just enjoyed the solitude and the sounds of the waves rolling in. Also allow all that food to settle.

I went to sleep and then got up early enough to walk into town and make it to Mass. St. Edmund by the Sea parish is on Dauphin Island, and when I got there I had though that I was either late getting there or they had started early. But when I got to my seat I realized that the priest was leading them in adoration to the Blessed Sacrament and that the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in a monstrance upon the altar. Mass was very uplifting for me as normal.

During the announcements the priest mentions the local bakery was serving a spaghetti supper on Monday night to try and increase business, (a lot of the businesses were off because of Hurricane Ivan that hit September 16, 2004. (http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17802363) it was just around the corner for the church, (I know, I know, everything is just around the corner from everything else on Dauphin Island) so I went there for my breakfast. I got a HUGE croissant and a coffee. The croissants seems to come in three sizes, huge, enormous, and back the truck up to the back door so we can roll it out to you size and then walked back to the camp.

That when Figaroe and I went to the beach. She did walk a good bit on her lease but I still had to carry her some, but she didn’t seem to know what to think of all that sand. I took her near the water and she was alright until the first wave crashed and that spooked her. So I left her under that little beach shelter and then went swimming.


The water was cold and took a few minutes to get use to, but I only stayed in the water for a half an hour then I went and sit on the little deck beside the shelter. A few others came by and made remarks about this being the first time of seeing a cat at the beach and I told then that she was well traveled and quite an unusual cat.

After the beach I drove over to the western end of the Island to see how reconstruction was coming along since I was there in 2006. The now have a very large hotel built and most of the houses that I saw the year and a half before that were falling down had been removed and other houses built. There is also about a 12 foot dune that runs the length of the Island on the western end on the gulf side as break water against the gulf.

I went into Mobile to eat at Dreamland because I knew that Monday morning I would be leaving too early in the morning to be able to stop by there. On the way back I stopped and ate some raw oysters. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

All in all it was a nice little getaway for the weekend. I hope to be able to go back there soon because it looks like the tourist trade will be picking up again soon and I really don’t like the crowds. That’s what happened to my favorite little getaway in Helen, Ga. Now it’s everyone’s favorite getaway.

For those of you that want to see more pictures of this trip then please click on the link for The Moreland Picture Show in the links. I’m doing it like this because with some on dial-up this site can take forever to download.