Cote d'Alabama

We left Knoxville November 16th, amid worsening COVID-19 reports everywhere, some state closures already, and some thousands of miles to go back to California. We'd thought of pressing further east and seeing Charleston and the Sherouse ancestral home of Ebeneezer, near Savannah, and then maybe even further into Florida. But reason prevailed and we decided that we had pressed our luck about as far east and south as we should. Besides, temperatures in Knoxville were falling below freezing, not good for RV water tanks and plumbing. Our plan was to head south from Knoxville and then ride I-10 all the way back to CA, stopping here and there to rest, resupply, and refit. 

I was excited to think we might get to the Redneck Riviera, but then deflated to learn that said "Riviera" occurs just on the Florida panhandle coast. Stops at Pensacola. So instead we found the Cote d'Alabama, Gulf Shores and such, and Mobile. We spent a few nights at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation campground, repairing and refitting, and seeing friends and fellow travelers Kathy and Rick...whom we've met on a variety of occasions before...in Kissimmee, Amsterdam, Chianti, Mantua, Mountain View, and Fremont...to name a few. It was good to see them again, to catch up, commiserate, and reflect on our great fortune in having traveled so widely the past decade and more.

We've been there before department: Marie and Vicki at the USS
Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, 1976; Norm was an instructor
at Pensacola in those days

USS Drum, SS-228, a Gato class sub, same as my favorite, 
USS Wahoo, SS-238, sunk departing the Sea of Japan in 1943;
after hurricane damage in the years following 1976, the Drum
is now on display on shore

From the bridge of the Alabama

Now at Gulf Shores, 2020

Yours truly; the beach is beautiful, the water
not so much, the place developed here and
there, pretty much deserted the day we passed
through

Looking east

And west

Excellent signage

Our encampment at Rainbow Plantation; perhaps they'll be
changing the name soon (yeah, sure)

Hurricane Sally had passed through some weeks before, and the
devastation, particularly in the pine forests, was still visible;
trash-hauling, logging, roof-repairs, etc., are probably good
trades to practice in this region, with serial hurricanes coming
through almost annually

Despite the devastation, the fields of cotton seemed to be
doing just fine; we hadn't seen cotton since Turkey in 2010