Saturn V Trifecta

Ok I'm a little hesitant on my choice of title, but I think it's the closest thing I can get to one word describing what I'm trying to say...we just finished our stay in Huntsville, Alabama, where we completed our trifecta (?) of Saturn V rocket viewings.  We were able to stay in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's RV Park, which was wonderfully convenient to the one place we really wanted to go in Huntsville.

Campsite at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center RV Park

The RV Park was actually much nicer than reviews suggested online, with lots of grassy and shaded areas, ample space between sites, and a nice picnic table & grill.  The only two downsides were that they only had 30amp electric service available (we prefer 50amp) and the economically priced laundry facility was only open during the office's very limited hours.

The park was immediately adjacent to the Homer Hickam Launch Pad for the Space Camp....had to post these images for my dad, who has always been interested in Homer Hickam what with his West Virginia heritage (and Virginia Tech education!).

Our first day things were cold and dreary, so we took most of the day to watch movies and generally relax after the miserable trip down from Cookeville (it rained the whole way and I-40 between Cookeville and Nashville had quite heavy traffic, perhaps because it was the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend?).  We did take a quick outing to head back to the Alabama Welcome Center, where they had a Saturn IB rocket on display.

Saturn IB at the Alabama Welcome Center

The next day the weather was beautiful, a perfect day for our short walk to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  We had already seen the Saturn V rockets in Houston and Cape Canaveral, and the one located in Huntsville was the last one to see - a bucket list item for Aaron.

Outside the U.S. Space and Rocket Center

The final Saturn V rocket!

Though the primary purpose of the visit was to see the actual Saturn V, we both felt the most cool thing about the Huntsville space center was the full-scale replica of the Saturn V they had set up vertically in the rocket garden!  The vertical orientation really drives home the extreme size of the rocket in a way you don't quite get when it is crammed horizontally into a relatively tight building.

See if you can zoom in and see me standing at
the base of the Saturn V rocket replica

For comparison, the Saturn I rocket, at whose
base I'm also standing

Experiencing these rockets up close was really incredible, and we enjoyed the rest of the museum as well.  There were a few cool and unique things like the Airstream they used for quarantining returning astronauts, which they managed to lose for several years (!!).

The long lost Mobile Quarantine Facility

We thoroughly enjoyed our little side trip to Alabama on our Tennessee trip!  Next stop: back to Tennessee!

Back in Mobile!

We spent 4 days at Chickasabogue Park, a Mobile County park in Alabama.  This was another wonderful county park - full hookups, a completely private wooded pull-thru site, and a huge park with lots of trails.  As a bonus it was pretty convenient to the interstate!  The only downside is that we barely saw any wildlife - the songbirds normally so prevalent were nowhere to be seen, no squirrels...I did see one raccoon late at night, but that was just about it - very odd.

Chickasabogue Park Campsite

First time camping in Alabama means a new 
sticker on the map!

I worked in Mobile for 3 months in 2010, right after we returned from England, on the MC252 Deepwater Horizon oil spill response.  I really enjoyed my time there, and our first day in the area we drove down into Mobile to check out all of our old haunts from that time.  As when we were here before, we felt that the capacity of the area (number of buildings, size of roads) was much larger than the actual number of people living and working there.  Last time we were here, a lot of people talked about depressed industry due to the oil spill...this time, maybe COVID was keeping everyone home?  I'm inclined to think though that it's just a much smaller population than it used to be.  We still had fun tooling around town.  We stopped in at the Charles Wood Japanese Garden, which we think has seen better days but had several turtles and beautiful koi fish.  Then we crossed the street to the absolutely massive Langan Park, where we saw the most curious dinosaur artwork and a random unlabeled fighter jet.  We stopped at the highly rated Cammie's Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe for a banana split.  Perhaps the most unique thing we did was stop by the Visitation Monastery gift shop to buy some Heavenly Hash made by the nuns there - delicious!

Koi and turtles at the Japanese Garden...sadly the water was
very green

This and the next were 2-D painted wooden cutouts on an island
in Langan Park

I'm not sure how well it comes across, but they looked very
realistic in person

There was no sign on this plane and I couldn't find anything
online to explain its presence in Langan Park

Banana Split at Cammie's Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe!

With our box of Heavenly Hash outside the Visitation Gift Shop

We tooled around the park and did some more accidental mountain biking on trails the park ranger promised me were wide and flat...not so much!

The only picture we got was on a 
deceptively flat part of the trail - most 
of it didn't look this nice!

Our final day in the area we drove down to Dauphin Island and toured Fort Gaines, the site of the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War.  The fort was well preserved and the island was beautiful.

The entrance to the fort

Latrines inside the fort

Sitting atop a magazine with a view of the fort interior

With a cannon overlooking the bay

Now, onward to Florida!