Mobile hasn’t much to offer so we felt obliged to visit the one thing it did have; USS Alabama. The ship and the sky were the same colour - battle ship grey. Something biblical was on its way weather wise that was for sure.

The first thing on show at Battleship Park is a B52 bomber. The sign informed us that “Calamity Jane” had seen a lot of action wreaking havoc over Vietnam in the 60’s. For those like me who had never seen a B52 (other than the Rock Lobster variety), let me tell you, they are bloody massive. It was quite amazing to be able to walk underneath and put our head up inside the bomb hatch and ponder for a minute about bomb hatches in general.

I have no intention of giving a blow by blow of the whole military hardware park, but to mention a couple of things:

 1. There was a car with “Just Married” written over it in the car park. I wondered if visiting a battle ship on your honeymoon was just cutting to the chase and going straight to the inevitable. 

2. Inside the souvenir shop was an old war veteran Col. Glenn D. Frazier sat at a table piled books of which he had written about being a prisoner of war in Japan and the hell of war in general. We chatted and I bought a book, and as he was signing it he told me about an English guy who had also been a POW with him, his thick Alabama drawl gave way to almost pitch perfect Dick Van Dyke English. I thanked him and moved on worried that we may end up in a duet of ‘Chim Chimney, Chim Chimney’.

The battle ship, the submarine and the planes many of which were still baring the scars of not war but hurricane Katrina are well worth the trip if you need to kill a couple of hours in Mobile Alabama on your honeymoon.

A soon as we hit the road the storm started. Monsoon quality with almost zero visibility. Thankful that we were in a modern car and not the Jag or T’Bird, both of which no matter how much has been spent on restoration would be letting in more water than the 70 year old rusty sub we had just toured. 

 Desperate not to be forced to eat in another truck stop we left at Moss Point looking for food. I guess not too many folks are foolish enough to drive across the swamp at Moss Point in search of fine dining. However the Mexican restaurant we came across bore all the signs of what we were looking for.

 Crawfish quesadilla’s “drizzled” with at least a pound of white cheese weren’t perfect but did change our focus by killing all conversation and blood flow for a couple of hours. Nothing that a dose of liquid plumber couldn’t fix.

We were then on our final drive into New Orleans - 1598 miles and 5 days from NY.

 Our friend Trish Summerville a famous LA stylist who is from N.O. had put us in touch with a couple of her old family friends. They own Mulates Cajun restaurant and we’ve been invited round for cocktails. It would be rude not to really wouldn’t it?

That will be “Hurricanes” all round please, also I’ve been told by Jeff that blackened alligator is to die for….