It Came From The Porch : Causeway

Don't know what they play on this station, but it's probably gospel and preachin'. AM radio, man.

Argiro's Country Store has been here forever. This was where you used to come to get kegs in highschool. The place to the left is the FRESH HOT CRAWFISH place, forgot the name. Argiro's is a grocery, convenience, liquor store with a bbq counter inside and gas pumps, diesel too, outside. You see a lot of bikers.

Ok ya'l, listen up. We live down here for the food. Shrimp florentine, Cajun roasted shrimp, fried flounder, catfish, grouper you name it. Crab claws, stuffed crabs, soft-shelled crabs... baked potatos, sweet ice tea, hushpuppies and cornbread.

Cold beer and fried shrimp on a saturday afternoon. Watch the sun go down over the bay. Dig the alligator if he shows up.

Check out the groovy shark bustin' through the roof.

Almost back to Mobile. That's the USS Alabama in the background, Riverview Hotel to the right. You can barely see the Alabama State Docks to the far left.

Again, I-10 in the background. The Bayway and the Causeway criss-cross each other a few times over the eight miles or so of their length, with I-10 crossing under the Mobile river in the Wallace Tunnel and the Causeway in the Bankhead Tunnel. The Causeway emerges as Government street right in the middle of downtown. I-10 skirts Mobile to the south.

Battleship Park, home of the USS Alabama and USS Drum, a WWII submarine. Also lots of planes, bombers and fighters. Camping is prohibited, or so the sign says.

And we're almost home. Ah yes, Mobilians take their religion seriously. That sign says "Since 1501."

When I worked in Fairhope, I usually drove home across the Causeway. It's a pretty stretch in the afternoon. You can stop at Argiro's and get a beer, maybe a hunk of beef jerky.

At night it's cool to come into Mobile this way. The road splits off to the north, leading to where the Cochrane bridge crosses the river, for trucks carrying cargo not allowed in the tunnels. From the Causeway, the huge suspension bridge is outlined against the brightly lit steam spitting from the stacks of Scott Paper and International Paper. The steam flows downwind over the bridge, sometimes obscuring large sections of it. You can drive over the bridge, and the view is great, but you have to drive to Mobile through Pritchard and the north end of downtown.

Just don't get out.

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