Battleships and Southern Cooking

Our first post-Florida destination was actually pretty close by: the USS Alabama, moored at Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama. I visited here once, a long time back, but Michael has never been on a battleship before.

Let’s just say this place was awesome. I especially loved the boiler and engine rooms. Ships like this strike me as a feat of engineering, really.

We also toured their aircraft hanger as well as the submarine USS Drum. Touring the sub was a little harder – it was crowded. Kinda hard to complain though, as when the USS Drum was at sea she had a crew of 75 men.

I had a hard time imagining 75 people crammed into that space.

After all that ship touring, we were starving. So we took a recommendation from our friend Eric Wiggs and headed into Mobile, to Mary’s Southern Cooking. I’d add a link but there is no website to this old-school meat-plus-three, cafeteria-style restaurant. Eric actually sent us this article listing places to eat in Alabama, and the description for Mary’s is pretty spot-on.

We both went for the fried chicken dinner, and I had mine with candied yams, corn on the cob, and red beans that were so creamy I initially thought they were refried beans. The lady behind the counter must’ve thought I was an idiot. The meal included three pieces of fried chicken as well as a piece of cornbread. For $9.

It was enough food for a small army. It was also delicious. I had once piece of fried chicken leftover, which made for a fabulous snack the next day.

We drove on to Mississippi, spending the night in what turned out to be an illegal campsite. We thought it was free, but the friendly law enforcement officer politely told as (as we were packing up the next morning) that we were camped on a Wildlife Management Area, and that you needed a $15 permit just to drive in there. Also, it was turkey hunting season so dogs were not allowed.

Too bad, it was a really great site.

Well. We kept to the coast for a while, and I was a little surprised when we passed though Biloxi, MS. I know a lot can change in 20 years (I passed through here last in 1996), but Biloxi is now like Las Vegas on the Gulf Coast. Casinos like Hard Rock, Harrah’s, and more lined the highway.

We passed into Louisiana and drove a lot of the southern part of the state before settling at a visitor’s center along I-10, in the middle of the Atchafalaya Basin. This basin is the largest river swamp in the entire world, and the I-10 bridge across it seems to go on forever.

In the morning we asked the staff at the visitor’s center for help in finding us an authentic Louisana Crawfish Boil. Michael went to one once, in New Orleans, a long time ago. Once we hit Florida he kept bringing up how he wanted to do it again, and we were going to be right there in Louisiana, so….

We were in luck. The staff recommended Steamboat Bill’s in Lake Charles. They also said right now was the peak season for crawfish. Perfect!

I figured we needed to work up an appetite first, so along the way we stopped at Prien Lake Park. I went for a run and Michael went for a ruck. It was really hot and humid, and by the time I finished my third lap by the lake I was ready to jump in. Time for lunch!

I have to admit I was a little worried about this whole crawfish-boil thing. I like to think of myself as an adventuresome person, but I have my limits. Would crawfish be beyond my limits? Michael said to me, “I’ve seen you go to town on peel-and-eat shrimp. You’ll love this.”

It was definitely a new experience, peering down at a giant serving tray of full crawfish, with their beady little eyes and everything.

Michael had to give me instructions on how to eat them. After cracking them in half, you toss the head.

Wait, you throw away half of this thing?

Well, apparently you can “suck the head,” Michael said with a smile. “Some people like it.”

I tossed the head.

It took a few tries to get my technique down, pulling out that delicious tail meat. I think Michael ate a lot more of our 5-pound plate than I did. That’s OK, because we also shared an order of Boudin Balls as well as an appetizer-sized gumbo with chicken and sausage.

Both of us have said, throughout this trip, that we want to spend our money on experiences and not things.

The crawfish boil was definitely an experience.