When we woke up this morning, I looked out into the motel parking lot and saw that someone had done a unique parking job last night next to the Ghia.
As I was packing the car, a gentleman came up to ask about the year of the car. He had previously owned a 1971 VW Beetle and he loved the Ghia. He went on to explain that the poor parking by the driver of the Kia Soul was due to the fact that she was an opera singer. Turns out that he was a musician in the pit and that the opera was in town. He said that all opera singers are terrible drivers (who knew?). The opera singers are all given Kia Souls by a local dealership (there were three of them in the parking lot). So there you go... opera singers are divas and notoriously poor drivers.
We stopped by to see Angela's mom again this morning. It was about 10:30am by the time we left Pensacola and headed over to Mobile AL. It was not as warm today as it was yesterday - and it was a bit overcast. We stopped for lunch at the Oyster House. There are two Oyster House locations - one in Mobile and another in Gulf Shores. Angela worked her way through undergraduate school as a waitress at the Gulf Shores Oyster House.
As we got closer to Mobile proper, we reached the USS Alabama Memorial. It is a museum for the battleship, the USS Alabama. It was something that we planned to visit briefly. It ended up consuming three hours (it could have taken all day). It not only houses the battleship, but also a ton of tanks, aircraft and a WWII submarine. There is a huge museum of rare military aircraft, including an SR 71 Blackbird (the world's fastest aircraft) and a B-52 Stratofortress bomber
Continuing on into Mobile, US90 turns into Government Street - also known by locals as "mansion row". Many of the huge, beautiful homes are still maintained at their peak, with a few in need of some restoration. Of course, the street is lined with ancient oaks and spanish moss.
Getting out of the city was somewhat time-consuming due to a lot of traffic and poorly-timed traffic lights. We were way behind schedule, so we elected to take I-10 again to make up some time. Then the weather took a serious turn for the worse and we hit severe rain. The Ghia does ok... but the ventilation system is a bit handicapped by the lack of an AC to defog the wind-shield. As the weather continued to worsen, we decided to stop a bit earlier than our planned destination of Baton Rouge. Instead, we stayed in Covington LA.
Speaking of the Ghia, there is a remarkable amount of room in the car - given its small size. We both have plenty of leg-room and there is a lot of storage in the "back". The car has a small jump seat that folds down to reveal a storage area. Another fascinating fact about this Ghia is that it has its original owners manual - which I reference quite frequently.
A downside to the car is the noise level at interstate speeds. Around town, the car is fine. At 70mph, it gets pretty noisy. The engine noise. Road noise. And wind noise from the driver's and passenger's windows, which don't seal great when rolled up. If it were up to me, cruising at 50-60mph would be just fine. But you'll be squashed like a bug on the interstate at that speed. Even going 70mph, we're passed by everybody.
Oh well... only 215 miles today, which is pretty sad. On my cross-country bicycle trip, I had one day where we rode for 154 miles. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better tomorrow and we'll make up time. We need to get to Houston for Emory's birthday.
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