Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. ~ Genesis 37:36 These days, people act like the only slaves there ever were, were stolen from Africa, but as you can see, slave trade has been going on for thousands of years. Of course, it doesn’t make it right. Not at all. But wherever there are people, there is sin, and a desire for us to harm each other – and if possible, make money or gain power by doing it. It still goes on today, it’s just underground because no one wants to acknowledge it. (See below for the shocking statistics I found on ilo.org of a report they shared with Geneva in 2017.) I wonder how Joseph acted through all this? Did he protest? Did he put up a fight? Did he tell the Midianites that they could get more money by returning him to Jacob? Did he have to walk the entire 250 miles? The Midianites had to believe that Joseph would be an easy sell, otherwise, why take him? And remember – Joseph is Jewish, not Egyptian. His looks – at least initially – would’ve caused him to stand out. Did Joseph know the language, or did he have to learn it along with every other custom and cultural norm? How devastated, scared and alone must he have felt to be yanked from the people he’d always known and thrust into this unknown world! Put yourself in his shoes. Imagine being torn from your family – BY your family – and dropped off in a foreign country where you look different and don’t know the language or what to do or how to act or what they might do with/to you.
In 2018, we visited Fort Morgan via ferry from the Mobile, Alabama area. Today, we drove about 30 minutes down a narrow strip of land from our campground to the fort.
I tried to abbreviate the history lesson this time, by taking a few pictures of information boards and skipping the online research. However, when I went looking for Admiral Farragut’s specific quote (I wanted to get it right), I found the following on our U.S. Navy’s website (emphasis mine):
WASHINGTON – David Glasgow Farragut was the U.S. Navy’s first full admiral. At the time of his death in 1870, Farragut had served a total of 59 years in uniform.
Two separate classes of destroyers and five total U.S. Navy ships have been named in his honor. The current USS Farragut (DDG 99) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer based in Mayport, Fla.
Farragut’s father, Jordi Farragut Mesquida, was a merchant mariner born in Minorca, Spain. Emigrating to the United States in 1766, he commanded a small merchant ship trading goods across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Responding to a sense of service, he declared his allegiance to the fledgling United States in 1776, anglicized his name to George Farragut, and accepted a commission as a lieutenant in the South Carolina Navy during the American Revolution.
After the war, George and his wife, Elizabeth Shine, of Scots-Irish descent from North Carolina, moved west to Tennessee where he became a ferry captain on the Holston River and served as a cavalry officer in the state militia.
In 1801, their son, David Glasgow Farragut was born. At the age of eight, his mother died of yellow fever. A year later (at nine years old!) he followed his father’s example of service and the sea and took an appointment as a midshipman (officer in training, and at this time, usually a volunteer) in the U.S. Navy and commenced his life at sea.
A warfighter, Farragut served during the War of 1812 and commanded ships during counter-piracy operations throughout the Caribbean and during the Mexican American War. When the Civil War broke out, despite his career of service and his vocal criticism that secession was treason, superiors in the Union Navy questioned his loyalty.
With much to prove, Farragut executed an exceptional naval campaign taking New Orleans and in follow-on battles for Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Best known for the battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864, he was in command of a squadron of ships when one of them was struck by a mine (then referred to as “torpedoes”).
Recognizing hesitation from his subordinate commanders, he took the bold and decisive action of placing his flagship Hartford in the lead and giving the order, “Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!” His actions in the face of danger led the flotilla to victory.
Farragut’s career as a naval officer is not simply an example for sound naval tactics and determination. Choosing not to discipline with the lash despite its popularity among other captains, he also proved that tolerance, kindness and moral courage are not disadvantages, but rather strengths to naval leadership.
A role model for confidence in one’s self, perseverance, integrity, and loyalty, Farragut’s legacy, in words and deeds, lives on with Our One Navy Team.
Think of the nine-year-olds you know. Can you picture them working on a ship? Without their families? We’ve got a 14-year-old grandson, and can’t even imagine him there! Kids were soooo much more mature a hundred years ago!
Here’s more brief history (in pictures) and other pictures we took at the fort today. It was sunny, but much colder than it looks! Of course, Blaine walks around with a constantly burning furnace inside his body, but I should’ve brought a warmer coat.
Of course, there’s a gift shop there too. : )
We’re standing on top of a portion of the fort.
Those doors are made from some kind of iron and are extremely heavy!
They were kinda far away to take pictures of, so I tried my hand at being creative.
I took this through the lens of the binoculars we were carrying. : )
Hard for a girl with short legs to walk down!
but you could only see a small portion of the room.
Cool piece of driftwood!
Maybe to house officers at one time?
Lots of pretty deep pot holes in the sand.
There was more to do in the area than the museum and walk the fort grounds. We walked the beach a little, then drove further up from the Fort to check out another beach area we stumbled upon – within the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. Just as we arrived at the sand, there was a good-sized pod of dolphins swimming slowly by! How blessed we felt to witness that! One of the fishermen voiced his irritation to us. “That’s a fishman’s worst nightmare!” Because the dolphins scare away the fish. And here we are, excited to see them! Oops! It was also fun to watch the huge freighter sail up the channel!
See if there’s anything on it that surprises you….
Is that really a problem here??? In southern Alabama???
Maybe they made the sign in California . . . .
The freighter
A lighthouse
A pod of dolphins (three arrows are dedicated to them)
We’ve discovered they sometimes forget to take the signs down.
But we walked closer to 1/2 mile rather than 1/4.
Their lobby was beautiful!!
For dinner, we found the Original Oyster House. They received good reviews and the prices seemed reasonable.
We were seated at a nice table with a view!
The food was excellent!
We also shared a cup of their gumbo, which was also excellent and filled with good things!
It was supposed to have crabmeat, and it did, but it was only about the size of a silver dollar. : (
He enjoyed his meal though.
Their hushpuppies were very good, too.
They didn’t have a lot of choices for sides.
My cup holds red beans and rice which were pretty good.
And as an added bonus, we learned how to make ‘cheater’ cocktail sauce. Yes, they make you create your own, which we didn’t understand, but were game to give it a try. There were bottles of ketchup on the table, and little ‘to go’ dishes with dabs of horseradish in them. Very surprisingly, it was actually not a bad substitute. But we had lots of those little dishes littering our table by the time we were done. Doesn’t seem very economical or ‘earth friendly’, but what do we know? Maybe this’ll catch on in all the seafood restaurants across the country! And maybe, just maybe, it started because their supplier was unable to acquire cocktail sauce.
They also own an attached shopping plaza and the stores found inside. We discovered their clothing store, “Geez Louise” is appropriately named, once we saw the prices! T-shirts were $35! Other things were over $100! Geez Louise! The retro store was fun, with t-shirts, lunch boxes, toys, candy, etc. It’s too bad we weren’t willing to spend any money in their store, they stock a number of Christian paraphernalia, causing us to wonder if maybe they’re believers.
Back home, the sunset was looking promising, so we bundled up and headed over to one of the boardwalk views over the lake. There is no one who could ever capture the glorious majesty of God’s nighttime canvas! How could Heaven be more beautiful than this evening? And yes, I know there are a lot of pictures, but I couldn’t choose. Enjoy!
Looking toward the sunset . . . 
. . . looking away. : )
After we enjoyed the sunset, we pedaled back home in the dusk.