Day 53 - Pensacola: Naval Aviation Museum, Fort Pickens, Pensacola Beach, Flora-bama

One of the recommended sites in Pensacola is the Naval Aviation Museum. This is one of the 3 best aviation museums in the U.S. The others are the Smithsonian (Washington DC) and the Air Force (Dayton Ohio). We took a tour at 9:30 with a former Navy pilot that was very interesting. He covered naval aviation history starting with the Wright Brothers through the gulf wars, showing examples of real planes of the periods and how they advanced technologically. It was interesting to see the changes in technology over the years but by the end of the tour we were weary hearing about the various (horrible) battles over this past century, so we decided to move on.

Graduation ceremony inside the museum

Next we drove to the remnants of Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island (a barrier island off the coast of Pensacola). After the war of 1812, a series for forts was built to protect the major ports in the U.S. Fort Pickens was built by slaves to protect the Pensacola harbor in 1834.

Very strategic location for the fort at harbor entrance

Interesting inverted arches to stabilize base on sandy soil

The interesting thing about Fort Pickens is that even though it was in confederate territory, it was under Union control during the whole civil war despite many attacks, and was finally instrumental in convincing the confederate forces to withdraw from Pensacola. The fort was active until end end of WWII.

Heading back from the fort we stopped to walk along the beautiful white sand beaches of the island.

Back in the RV park our snow bird neighbors told us we had to visit Flora-Bama, the famous music lounge on the Florida-Alabama border. This locale was built in 1964 just after the first road was put in on the Florida side of the border. The county on the Alabama side was dry, so this became a very popular location and over time and had up to 20 bars and 4 simultaneous live music stages. It has survived hurricanes and adjacent high rise developments, keeping its original wooden shack/grunge look. Live music starts every day at 11:00 am on into the evening with bands rotating through every few hours. We watched a couple of bands on the main stage, in a crowd of mainly retired snow birds :) Of course there was a lot of cover band baby boomer music we could all relate to ;/

Lots of bras!

View of the Flora-Bama from the beach

Still the same between the high rises

Day 52 - Biloxi to Pensacola: Bingo night and southern rock in downtown Pensacola

We woke up in the Davis Bayou campground after a good night's sleep. This is a very beautiful park with people taking walks and bicyclists cruising the trails. This would be a nice place to spend more time, but we have our reservation in Pensacola so heading out this morning.

We have a nice pull-through spot in the Perdido Key RV resort new Pensacola, very full so lucky to get the last spot! It is a park full of snow birds and some contract workers (based on the work pickups we see in the overflow area). Clean and organized RV campground. Once settled (around 7:00 pm) we head to downtown Pensacola to check it out!

This historical downtown is not that big, so after a walk we see most of it. We considered seeing a concert of one of Bob Marley's sons, Stephen, but then opted to go to the Seville Quarter, a big building with 7 themed rooms and music all evening. We watched a fun band from a distance, but unfortunately all the tables were taken so after a while noticed that another room was having a bingo night. This is the first time we've played bar bingo and it was really fun! Lots of crowd comments and after a winner gets a prize everyone throws their crumpled up bingo sheets at her. As we enjoyed the games at a certain point Francesca won! She won some bar bucks and we bought a serving of fries to go with our beer :) Later the tables thinned out a bit and we watched the end of the concert, including a few final jam sessions with other musicians from the crowd. A fun evening!

Southern rock

Jam session

Bar bingo

Francesca wins a bingo match!

Bingo crowd

Day 51 - New Orleans to Biloxi

The Davis Bayou campground is a state park, right by the Mississippi river. We love to stay in state parks,because they are more economical, they are quiet, and they are in nature.

The levee for the Mississippi has a very tall wall, with a cement gate that closes during floods. On the other side, there are house boats to rent.

We had to buy a King Cake with the baby Jesus hidden in it before leaving this area. It was made with praline and pecans. Yummm!

Day 50 - New Orleans: The Whitney Plantation

While we were at the Houmas House plantation, we saw a sign that was encouraging us to visit another plantation, where slaves' lives and history is presented in its entirety. It was the Whitney plantation.

I found on YouTube a video from CBS this morning that describes this place very well.

The Whitney plantation opened its doors as a museum in December 2014 (!!!?). 

A trial attorney from New Orleans, John Cummings, had bought the plantation with its 2000 acres, but after getting to know the history of the place, decided to dedicate the entire property to create this museum. He spent a total of 8 million dollars to research, transport historical buildings, commission sculptures, memorials and create buildings. He took him 15 years.

The director of research is a Senegalese scholar, Ibrahima Seck, who has done much work on the history of slavery and has written a book about this plantation, "Bouki Fait Gombo: A History of the Slave Community of Habitation Haydel (Whitney Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860"

The first location we visited was the Antioch church that had been built by slaves and whose name comes from the bible but also the sound of the words "anti-yoke".

Much of the information for the plantation exhibits and memorials came from the Federal Writers Project (part of the new deal WPA 1935 - 1943) in which journalists interviewed people who had been slaves. Since by that time the interviewees were older, their recollection was primarily from when they were children living in slavery.

Antioch Church

Clay sculptures of the children that lived here

At the start of the tour, our docent made it clear that the purpose of this place was not to make anyone feel guilty. It was here to remember those who suffered and did not have a voice.

All through the tour I felt a heavy heart. That's the best way I can describe it. I felt the same when my aunt took me to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria. I think this feeling is brought up to anyone when the head and the heart cannot process such evil actions perpetrated by other human beings. We try to reason in ourselves what went on, and we cannot find a logic for such abominations.

Memorial to the victims with names and where they were born

Memorial to the children who died very young

Original cabins

Jail similar to that used in the slave market in New Orleans

Blacksmith

Big House kitchen

The plantation house

Sculpture in honor of the German Coast Uprising

Ibrahima Seck by the memorial to German Coast Uprising victims.

The visitor center had a museum showing the history of slavery from the very beginning to the end.

I did not know that Christopher Columbus was the first to start all this. I knew he had done terrible things to the natives, but I was oblivious to this little known fact. I can't believe we still have a day for him! 😒 

In the book store I bought the book written by Frederick Douglass "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass". It is his autobiography and he wrote it in 1845. I read it to Bill while driving. At one point in the story I had to skip ahead because I couldn't stomach it.