September 18, 2024 • 22 mins
What secrets do the bastions of Fort Gaines hide from the Civil War era? Journey with us to Dauphin Island, where we'll uncover the rich history of Fort Gaines, a pivotal stronghold in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Explore the pentagon-shaped fortification that protected the port of Mobile and discover the stories of soldiers who lived within its walls. From its completion in 1861 to its strategic significance during the Civil War and beyond, this episode offers a deep dive into American military history. As we walk through tunnels and gun magazines, we'll also touch on its sister fort, Fort Morgan, located just across the bay.
But our adventure doesn't stop there! We shift gears to bring you practical tips on maximizing your airfare savings with the powerful tool that is Google Travel. Whether you're a spontaneous traveler or plan meticulously, we'll show you how to uncover hidden deals to destinations worldwide. Learn how to use Google Travel's map interface to visualize and compare flight prices, allowing you to fly affordably to exciting locales like Miami, Cancun, and Tokyo. Tune in for this blend of historical intrigue and practical travel advice, perfect for history buffs and travel enthusiasts alike!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, welcome back to another episode of the
Traveling Fool.
And before we get started, makesure you hit that subscribe
button so you can catch allthese podcasts.
Also, stay tuned to the end ofthis one because I'm going to
give you another tip Now.
Last week I told you how tosave some money on airfare using
the site.
Now I'm going to tell you adifferent site this week where
(00:22):
you can save more money onairfares.
So this week we're going downthe history trail.
We're talking about twohistoric locations located on
the Gulf of Mexico.
Both of them played a veryimportant part in US history.
We're talking about Alabama, onthe Gulf of Mexico, at Mobile
(00:44):
Bay, and the first place we'regoing to talk about is Fort
Gaines.
Fort Gaines is a Civil War erafort.
Now it was established way backin 1821, but it took a while to
complete.
It took back until 1861 tocomplete the thing because
tidewater kept coming in.
(01:05):
I mean, it is right there onthe Gulf, right there on the bay
, mobile Bay and the tidewaterkept messing up the building and
construction of the fort andthere were land disputes and
overruns and it cost too muchand just various other issues.
You know, typical governmentstuff.
They had government bureaucracyeven way back then.
(01:28):
But this is a beautiful oldfort.
It's built in the shape of apentagon.
The original plans called forten guns to be mounted on each
of the five walls and they hadfour flank howitzers located
there.
I mean, there was a lot offirepower on this thing.
(01:48):
Now, why did they build it onMobile Bay?
Well, back then, even as now,mobile and the port of Mobile is
a very important inland port.
It sits so 20, 30, 40 milesupriver, or up the little bay
(02:08):
there from the Gulf of Mexico.
So they built this fort, orthey constructed it, to guard
the bay and guard the entranceinto the port of Mobile.
And today you can visit FortGaines and it is.
It's an interesting tripthrough history.
(02:31):
You can walk through thebastions and go into the various
gun turret houses and all ofthis stuff.
I mean there's barracks and allkinds of stuff there.
You can walk down through thefort, through the tunnels, and
just imagine what it might belike on a hot summer day in
(02:51):
Alabama in the 1800s.
And you're sitting there,crowded in this place, with two
or three hundred people guardingMobile Bay.
I mean, I spent 20 years in themilitary and I've been in a lot
of really crappy locations, butI could not imagine spending a
summer in Alabama camped out inthis fort With all the humidity
(03:17):
and all the heat.
It had to be unbearable.
But the fort saw action duringthe Civil War and it was
actually one of two sites thatproduced one of the largest
naval battles in the history ofthe Civil War and it was the
(03:37):
greatest Union naval victoryduring the war.
During the war, the navalforces of the Union and
Confederacy had gunboats,ironclads and land forces all
engaged in a massive battlecalled the Battle of Mobile Bay.
It took place in August of 1864.
Union soldiers were under thecommand of Admiral Farragut and
(04:01):
General Granger.
They had 12 wooden ships, twogunboats, four ironclads and
5,500 men, and the Confederateforces were under the command of
Admiral Buchanan and GeneralPage.
Now the Confederacy had threegunboats, one ironclad and about
1,500 men, but they had thesetwo massive forts.
(04:21):
Now Fort Gaines was under thecommand of Colonel Anderson,
which had about 820, 830soldiers, and I'm going to tell
you a little bit more about theBattle of Mobile Bay when we go
to the second location.
But after the end of the CivilWar Fort Gaines was still manned
(04:43):
with a coastal artillery unitduring World War.
I had an anti-aircraft gunneryschool during and after the war
and during World War II.
It was a campsite for theAlabama National Guard and a US
Coast Guard unit was stationedthere to patrol for enemy
submarines patrolling off theGulf of Mexico during World War
(05:03):
II.
Enemy submarines patrolling offthe Gulf of Mexico during World
War II.
The fort was finally abandonedby the military and it was sold
to the city of Mobile in the1920s and is now owned by
Dauphin Island Park and BeachBoard, and you can tour the fort
, walk down the tunnel systems,peek inside all the gun
magazines and there's lettersthat are written by both Union
(05:24):
and Confederate soldiers tofamily members telling them
about conditions and day-to-daylife.
You walk up one of the ramps tothe top of the walls where the
gun emplacements were locatedand look out over Mobile Bay.
There's also a gift shop, asmall museum and one of the
buildings inside a fort withartifacts and info on the fort
(05:44):
itself.
There's not too many old CivilWar forts left and any time you
get up close to a piece ofhistory it is really worth it.
Any time you're going throughthe Gulf of Mexico and you're
around the Gulf of Mobile orAlabama, you need to stop in and
check this place out.
It's recognized as one ofAmerica's 11 most endangered
(06:06):
historic sites by the NationalTrust for Historic Preservation,
so there's no telling how muchlonger this thing's going to be
around, but the fort is locatedon Dolphin Island and it's open
from 9 to 5, 7 days a week,except Thanksgiving, christmas,
christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The admission is reallyreasonable I think I paid $10 to
(06:30):
go in and Dolphin Island isjust off I-10, just south of
Mobile, so it doesn't take verylong to get there.
Now, the second place I'm goingto tell you about is it's sister
fort.
Now it sits across Mobile Bayand the easiest way to get there
(06:54):
is to take the ferry which islocated just right outside Fort
Gaines.
I don't actually remember theschedule on that thing, but you
can look up the FortMorgan-Dolphin Island Ferry.
I think it runs about everyhour or so and it doesn't cost
you much.
You can either go as apedestrian on board or you can
(07:20):
drive your car on there and justtake a little 15, 20-minute
excursion across the bay and youwill arrive on Fort Morgan or
right at Fort Morgan, and FortMorgan sits on Mobile Point and
it's about 22 miles straightdown the road from Gulf Shores,
(07:43):
alabama.
Now it's a very far western tipof the island.
It's located directly across thebay from Fort Gaines, and Fort
Morgan occupies an area where inthe 1700s the Spanish built a
military fortification there andin the early 1800s the United
(08:04):
States built a fort.
The US Fort.
Fort Bower was attacked andcaptured by the British during
the War of 1812.
And in 1819, they began a newconstruction on the fort and in
1833, it was officially namedFort Morgan after Daniel Morgan,
which was a Revolutionary Warhero.
(08:24):
And just like Fort Gaines itwas built in a pentagon shape.
It has a real wide dry moat andreal thick interior walls, so
you actually walk through atunnel, walk through the dry
moat, to get into the fort.
It's a really cool fort toexplore.
(08:46):
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Alabama State Militia
seized both Fort Morgan and FortGaines from the federal troops.
At that time Fort Morgan hadabout 45 guns and 640
Confederate soldiers manning itunder the command of a guy named
General Page.
Now it also laid minefields inthe waters consisting of about
(09:09):
67 mines called Fretwell SingerTorpedoes.
That's important because youmight have heard the saying.
Well, hold on.
I'll tell you that in a second.
In August, during the Battle ofMobile Bay, ships from the Union
Navy started passing the forts.
(09:30):
They wanted to get in positionfor naval bombardments and land
attacks and one of the torpedoeswent off underneath a Union
Iron Clan monitor to come sink,causing it to sink, and this
caused widespread panic amongthe captain and all the ships
that were following it.
And he signaled AdmiralFarragut on one of the ships for
(09:53):
new instructions, saying youknow, this place is just full of
landmines and torpedoes andthey're sinking our ships.
What shall we do?
Here you go.
This is when Farragut spokethose famous quotes damn the
torpedoes full speed ahead.
And that's where you get thatsaying from.
Yes, sir, that happened at theBattle of Mobile Bay, right
(10:17):
there off the coast of FortMorgan.
After the surrender of FortGaines, the Union Army laid
siege to Fort Morgan and theythought the bombardment would
hit that 80,000 pounds ofgunpowder.
So General Page did the onlysensible thing and ordered the
powder to be flooded, knowingthat the end was imminent.
(10:38):
And then he ordered theremaining guns to be spiked and
destroyed.
And then he raised the whiteflag of surrender.
Now, later on, in the late1800s, the fort was expanded to
include five concrete batterieswith fire control, electricity
and communications.
The fort was active during theSpanish-American War.
(10:59):
It was used for training baseduring World War I.
The fort was abandoned afterWorld War I and fell in
disrepair.
But at the onset of World WarII the fort was resurrected
again and pressed into use bythe US military, erected again
and pressed into use by the USmilitary.
(11:19):
Five 155-millimeter howitzerswere installed at the fort and
an airfield was built adjacentto the fort.
In 1946, the War Departmentturned the fort over to the
state of Alabama and completelyabandoned the fort by 1947.
And today the fort is operatedby the Alabama Historical
Commission and they'reresponsible for historic
(11:41):
preservation of the fort andit's open to the public 8 to 5
every day, except Thanksgiving,christmas and New Year's.
They have a museum directlyoutside the fort that's open
from 9 to 4 pm, daily as well.
You walk through the tunnelinto the main entrance into the
fort.
What's inside?
You can walk around, exploreall you want, exploring all the
(12:04):
various casemates, gunemplacements, batteries.
Climb on top of the walls.
You can view the entire fortand the surrounding area from
the viewing deck and get areally good feel for how large
that complex is.
Fort Morgan is also a NationalHistoric Landmark and it's
located 180, which is right atthe west end of the island, and
(12:26):
it's about 23 miles from GulfShores.
And the Mobile Bay Ferry isright next to the fort, so you
can make a day out of it.
You can check out one of theforts, jump on the ferry, which
is a cool little ferry ride.
Then you run across the bay andcheck out the other fort and
seeing these old historic sites,I mean it's history and it's
(12:50):
great to relive and look back athistory and check out our
nation's history.
If you've got kids, I guaranteeyou they're going to have a
blast, and that's where I thinkI learned a lot of my love of
history is when I was a kid.
Every time we went on avacation, my parents always made
it a point to see historiclocations.
(13:11):
And you check out these two.
You will not be disappointed.
They are both excellent,excellent examples of old
military, historic forts thatplayed a vital role in our
nation's history, location ofthe biggest naval battle in the
Civil War, a very important partof history.
So those are two sites you needto check out on the Gulf of
(13:36):
Mexico in Alabama and when youget finished, just cruise on up
the Gulf Shores and have a blast, because there is so much stuff
to see and do up there.
You will have so much fun.
And I promised you a tip abouthow to get some cheap airfares.
So here we go.
In the last podcast, I told youabout how to use Kayak Explore,
(14:01):
the site kayakcom slash explore, to look how to find airfares
all over the world by using amap and setting your dates.
This week, I'm going to tellyou about how to use Google
doing the same thing and thereason you want to use both of
these things.
I'm going to tell you you canuse both of them every day.
(14:24):
It's going to take you a totalof about five minutes.
If you wanted to check them outevery day, you could, because
the prices on these flightschange daily, but they're both
going to show you one differentairlines sometimes and two.
You're going to find differentdestinations, different airlines
and different prices, believeit or not.
(14:47):
And Google does something alittle bit different than Kayak.
If you go to googlecom forwardslash travel, forward slash
explore, it's going to pop upand you can look at airline
fares anywhere.
You get the map on the right,or map of the world, and you can
(15:10):
zoom in and out, or map of theworld, and you can zoom in and
out and you can drag your littlecursor and move the map all
around.
And on the left-hand side itasks you do you want a round
trip or one way, and how manypeople See this is something
Kayak doesn't do.
And you can also choose economy, premium economy, business and
(15:33):
first class.
So let's just, I'll just dothis in real time.
We'll do round trip, one person, economy, and I'm going to put
Houston Intercontinental AirportIAH is the symbol as the
departing airport and as far asdestination anywhere, and then
(15:56):
right below it it's got aone-week trip in the next six
months using flexible dates.
Or you can do two weeks, or youcan do a weekend, or you can do
specific dates, but we're goingto do a one-week trip sometime
in the next six months usingflexible dates.
(16:18):
I click, done.
I hit flights only because Idon't care about hotels, I'll do
something else with that.
And up it pops.
So let's see what we get here.
Now you get a map view and italso on the left.
It tells you all kinds of stuffand you can zoom in and out on
the map.
If you zoom in, you actuallyget more flights showing.
(16:41):
If it's zoomed out a little bit, you're just going to get a
certain amount of flights thatpop up on the map.
Uh, let's see.
I can go houston to miami for78 on spirit.
If I zoom in a little bit, Ican go to Cancun for $291.
And these are round-tripflights.
Bermuda for $627.
(17:01):
Let me zoom in a little moreand see what's going on in the
Caribbean San Juan, puerto Rico,for $151.
Now that's a round-trip flighton Spirit Airlines and it's
actually oh, it says one it'snon-stop on the way and one stop
on the way back.
A round-trip for $151 to go toa Caribbean island isn't too bad
(17:25):
.
If we zoom.
Well, we'll just scroll the mapa little bit.
Now, the neat thing about usingthis is you can say well, you
know, I want to go on a vacation, don't want to spend a lot of
money, really not sure where thehell I want to go, just
somewhere kind of cool.
So let's just look, I could goto Paris for $526,000, london
(17:49):
for $512,000, zurich for$533,000, berlin for about512,
zurich for $533, berlin forabout $700 and you can just kind
of scroll in and out and seewhere you want to go.
And if you check every day anddo the same thing at the same
time on kayak look on Google,look on kayak.
(18:12):
Let's say you've always wantedto go to Asia.
It's always so expensive, butpeople have always told you how
pretty it is.
So let's just look In Asia.
The flights are expensive.
Let's see Philippines $900.
(18:32):
Singapore $935.
Thailand $978.
Vietnam $982.
And you can go over to Japananywhere from $950 up to about
$1,200.
You know, this always amazes me.
(18:54):
You look at, I can go to Tokyofor $955, but Nagasaki will cost
me $2,200.
$22.93.
I would imagine I'd go to Tokyoand take a train to Nagasaki a
lot cheaper than that.
I can go to Seoul, korea, for$865.
That's a really good price,because Korea is usually
(19:15):
expensive.
But let's say you've alwayswanted to go to Greece and
you're just.
You looked one time and theflights were expensive and you
said, man, I just don't knowabout that.
That's expensive as heck.
Well, open up Kayak, open upGoogle, spend five minutes a day
(19:37):
checking and you can get a $514flight round trip to Athens,
greece.
That's not bad.
So all you have to do is put inthe airport you want to depart
from, put in anywhere, click inthe next six months for a
one-week or a two-week or aweekend trip and it starts
(20:01):
giving you airfares and on theleft it will tell you the
airline.
So if we're going to Athens,spirit is Let me see, let's
click on Athens.
Spirit doesn't fly there.
United 514, air Canada 515,.
United and Lufthansa are 530.
(20:23):
All of those are round-tripflights.
So if you click on United, itwill take you to the booking
site and it will give you allthe flights and everything else,
tell you how much round-tripflights are, the stops and
everything.
So that's a pretty cool littletool to get the cheapest
(20:46):
airfares you can possibly get.
Check on them daily.
You'll get different airfares,different airlines, but I
guarantee you're going to save aton of money rather than just
going to bookingcom or whateverand click on your preferred
airline even and just saying Iwant to go in August and I want
(21:07):
to go this week in August.
I want to go to Spain.
Well, you're only going to seethose flights that they're going
to give you and you're going towant to book to Spain, where
you're only going to see thoseflights that they're going to
give you and you're going towant to book it that day.
Try this every day, and youmight find some flights that get
you some little creative thinggoing on where you say you know
what?
I never really thought aboutgoing to Tokyo, but for $600
(21:30):
round trip it might just beworthwhile to go spend a week in
Tokyo.
So that's your tip for thisweek.
Stay tuned.
I'm going to give you anotherpodcast next week with some more
tips on saving money orsomething you can do on your
travels.
Until then, safe travels.
Hit that subscribe button.
Oh, and do me a favor, go tothe website and sign up for the
(21:52):
newsletter.
You get all kinds of cool stuffin that newsletter too,
including travel contests andstuff where you win trips.
So until next time, take careand safe travels.
Well, welcome back to another episode of the
Traveling Fool.
And before we get started, makesure you hit that subscribe
button so you can catch allthese podcasts.
Also, stay tuned to the end ofthis one because I'm going to
give you another tip Now.
Last week I told you how tosave some money on airfare using
the site.
Now I'm going to tell you adifferent site this week where
(00:22):
you can save more money onairfares.
So this week we're going downthe history trail.
We're talking about twohistoric locations located on
the Gulf of Mexico.
Both of them played a veryimportant part in US history.
We're talking about Alabama, onthe Gulf of Mexico, at Mobile
(00:44):
Bay, and the first place we'regoing to talk about is Fort
Gaines.
Fort Gaines is a Civil War erafort.
Now it was established way backin 1821, but it took a while to
complete.
It took back until 1861 tocomplete the thing because
tidewater kept coming in.
(01:05):
I mean, it is right there onthe Gulf, right there on the bay
, mobile Bay and the tidewaterkept messing up the building and
construction of the fort andthere were land disputes and
overruns and it cost too muchand just various other issues.
You know, typical governmentstuff.
They had government bureaucracyeven way back then.
(01:28):
But this is a beautiful oldfort.
It's built in the shape of apentagon.
The original plans called forten guns to be mounted on each
of the five walls and they hadfour flank howitzers located
there.
I mean, there was a lot offirepower on this thing.
(01:48):
Now, why did they build it onMobile Bay?
Well, back then, even as now,mobile and the port of Mobile is
a very important inland port.
It sits so 20, 30, 40 milesupriver, or up the little bay
(02:08):
there from the Gulf of Mexico.
So they built this fort, orthey constructed it, to guard
the bay and guard the entranceinto the port of Mobile.
And today you can visit FortGaines and it is.
It's an interesting tripthrough history.
(02:31):
You can walk through thebastions and go into the various
gun turret houses and all ofthis stuff.
I mean there's barracks and allkinds of stuff there.
You can walk down through thefort, through the tunnels, and
just imagine what it might belike on a hot summer day in
(02:51):
Alabama in the 1800s.
And you're sitting there,crowded in this place, with two
or three hundred people guardingMobile Bay.
I mean, I spent 20 years in themilitary and I've been in a lot
of really crappy locations, butI could not imagine spending a
summer in Alabama camped out inthis fort With all the humidity
(03:17):
and all the heat.
It had to be unbearable.
But the fort saw action duringthe Civil War and it was
actually one of two sites thatproduced one of the largest
naval battles in the history ofthe Civil War and it was the
(03:37):
greatest Union naval victoryduring the war.
During the war, the navalforces of the Union and
Confederacy had gunboats,ironclads and land forces all
engaged in a massive battlecalled the Battle of Mobile Bay.
It took place in August of 1864.
Union soldiers were under thecommand of Admiral Farragut and
(04:01):
General Granger.
They had 12 wooden ships, twogunboats, four ironclads and
5,500 men, and the Confederateforces were under the command of
Admiral Buchanan and GeneralPage.
Now the Confederacy had threegunboats, one ironclad and about
1,500 men, but they had thesetwo massive forts.
(04:21):
Now Fort Gaines was under thecommand of Colonel Anderson,
which had about 820, 830soldiers, and I'm going to tell
you a little bit more about theBattle of Mobile Bay when we go
to the second location.
But after the end of the CivilWar Fort Gaines was still manned
(04:43):
with a coastal artillery unitduring World War.
I had an anti-aircraft gunneryschool during and after the war
and during World War II.
It was a campsite for theAlabama National Guard and a US
Coast Guard unit was stationedthere to patrol for enemy
submarines patrolling off theGulf of Mexico during World War
(05:03):
II.
Enemy submarines patrolling offthe Gulf of Mexico during World
War II.
The fort was finally abandonedby the military and it was sold
to the city of Mobile in the1920s and is now owned by
Dauphin Island Park and BeachBoard, and you can tour the fort
, walk down the tunnel systems,peek inside all the gun
magazines and there's lettersthat are written by both Union
(05:24):
and Confederate soldiers tofamily members telling them
about conditions and day-to-daylife.
You walk up one of the ramps tothe top of the walls where the
gun emplacements were locatedand look out over Mobile Bay.
There's also a gift shop, asmall museum and one of the
buildings inside a fort withartifacts and info on the fort
(05:44):
itself.
There's not too many old CivilWar forts left and any time you
get up close to a piece ofhistory it is really worth it.
Any time you're going throughthe Gulf of Mexico and you're
around the Gulf of Mobile orAlabama, you need to stop in and
check this place out.
It's recognized as one ofAmerica's 11 most endangered
(06:06):
historic sites by the NationalTrust for Historic Preservation,
so there's no telling how muchlonger this thing's going to be
around, but the fort is locatedon Dolphin Island and it's open
from 9 to 5, 7 days a week,except Thanksgiving, christmas,
christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The admission is reallyreasonable I think I paid $10 to
(06:30):
go in and Dolphin Island isjust off I-10, just south of
Mobile, so it doesn't take verylong to get there.
Now, the second place I'm goingto tell you about is it's sister
fort.
Now it sits across Mobile Bayand the easiest way to get there
(06:54):
is to take the ferry which islocated just right outside Fort
Gaines.
I don't actually remember theschedule on that thing, but you
can look up the FortMorgan-Dolphin Island Ferry.
I think it runs about everyhour or so and it doesn't cost
you much.
You can either go as apedestrian on board or you can
(07:20):
drive your car on there and justtake a little 15, 20-minute
excursion across the bay and youwill arrive on Fort Morgan or
right at Fort Morgan, and FortMorgan sits on Mobile Point and
it's about 22 miles straightdown the road from Gulf Shores,
(07:43):
alabama.
Now it's a very far western tipof the island.
It's located directly across thebay from Fort Gaines, and Fort
Morgan occupies an area where inthe 1700s the Spanish built a
military fortification there andin the early 1800s the United
(08:04):
States built a fort.
The US Fort.
Fort Bower was attacked andcaptured by the British during
the War of 1812.
And in 1819, they began a newconstruction on the fort and in
1833, it was officially namedFort Morgan after Daniel Morgan,
which was a Revolutionary Warhero.
(08:24):
And just like Fort Gaines itwas built in a pentagon shape.
It has a real wide dry moat andreal thick interior walls, so
you actually walk through atunnel, walk through the dry
moat, to get into the fort.
It's a really cool fort toexplore.
(08:46):
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Alabama State Militia
seized both Fort Morgan and FortGaines from the federal troops.
At that time Fort Morgan hadabout 45 guns and 640
Confederate soldiers manning itunder the command of a guy named
General Page.
Now it also laid minefields inthe waters consisting of about
(09:09):
67 mines called Fretwell SingerTorpedoes.
That's important because youmight have heard the saying.
Well, hold on.
I'll tell you that in a second.
In August, during the Battle ofMobile Bay, ships from the Union
Navy started passing the forts.
(09:30):
They wanted to get in positionfor naval bombardments and land
attacks and one of the torpedoeswent off underneath a Union
Iron Clan monitor to come sink,causing it to sink, and this
caused widespread panic amongthe captain and all the ships
that were following it.
And he signaled AdmiralFarragut on one of the ships for
(09:53):
new instructions, saying youknow, this place is just full of
landmines and torpedoes andthey're sinking our ships.
What shall we do?
Here you go.
This is when Farragut spokethose famous quotes damn the
torpedoes full speed ahead.
And that's where you get thatsaying from.
Yes, sir, that happened at theBattle of Mobile Bay, right
(10:17):
there off the coast of FortMorgan.
After the surrender of FortGaines, the Union Army laid
siege to Fort Morgan and theythought the bombardment would
hit that 80,000 pounds ofgunpowder.
So General Page did the onlysensible thing and ordered the
powder to be flooded, knowingthat the end was imminent.
(10:38):
And then he ordered theremaining guns to be spiked and
destroyed.
And then he raised the whiteflag of surrender.
Now, later on, in the late1800s, the fort was expanded to
include five concrete batterieswith fire control, electricity
and communications.
The fort was active during theSpanish-American War.
(10:59):
It was used for training baseduring World War I.
The fort was abandoned afterWorld War I and fell in
disrepair.
But at the onset of World WarII the fort was resurrected
again and pressed into use bythe US military, erected again
and pressed into use by the USmilitary.
(11:19):
Five 155-millimeter howitzerswere installed at the fort and
an airfield was built adjacentto the fort.
In 1946, the War Departmentturned the fort over to the
state of Alabama and completelyabandoned the fort by 1947.
And today the fort is operatedby the Alabama Historical
Commission and they'reresponsible for historic
(11:41):
preservation of the fort andit's open to the public 8 to 5
every day, except Thanksgiving,christmas and New Year's.
They have a museum directlyoutside the fort that's open
from 9 to 4 pm, daily as well.
You walk through the tunnelinto the main entrance into the
fort.
What's inside?
You can walk around, exploreall you want, exploring all the
(12:04):
various casemates, gunemplacements, batteries.
Climb on top of the walls.
You can view the entire fortand the surrounding area from
the viewing deck and get areally good feel for how large
that complex is.
Fort Morgan is also a NationalHistoric Landmark and it's
located 180, which is right atthe west end of the island, and
(12:26):
it's about 23 miles from GulfShores.
And the Mobile Bay Ferry isright next to the fort, so you
can make a day out of it.
You can check out one of theforts, jump on the ferry, which
is a cool little ferry ride.
Then you run across the bay andcheck out the other fort and
seeing these old historic sites,I mean it's history and it's
(12:50):
great to relive and look back athistory and check out our
nation's history.
If you've got kids, I guaranteeyou they're going to have a
blast, and that's where I thinkI learned a lot of my love of
history is when I was a kid.
Every time we went on avacation, my parents always made
it a point to see historiclocations.
(13:11):
And you check out these two.
You will not be disappointed.
They are both excellent,excellent examples of old
military, historic forts thatplayed a vital role in our
nation's history, location ofthe biggest naval battle in the
Civil War, a very important partof history.
So those are two sites you needto check out on the Gulf of
(13:36):
Mexico in Alabama and when youget finished, just cruise on up
the Gulf Shores and have a blast, because there is so much stuff
to see and do up there.
You will have so much fun.
And I promised you a tip abouthow to get some cheap airfares.
So here we go.
In the last podcast, I told youabout how to use Kayak Explore,
(14:01):
the site kayakcom slash explore, to look how to find airfares
all over the world by using amap and setting your dates.
This week, I'm going to tellyou about how to use Google
doing the same thing and thereason you want to use both of
these things.
I'm going to tell you you canuse both of them every day.
(14:24):
It's going to take you a totalof about five minutes.
If you wanted to check them outevery day, you could, because
the prices on these flightschange daily, but they're both
going to show you one differentairlines sometimes and two.
You're going to find differentdestinations, different airlines
and different prices, believeit or not.
(14:47):
And Google does something alittle bit different than Kayak.
If you go to googlecom forwardslash travel, forward slash
explore, it's going to pop upand you can look at airline
fares anywhere.
You get the map on the right,or map of the world, and you can
(15:10):
zoom in and out, or map of theworld, and you can zoom in and
out and you can drag your littlecursor and move the map all
around.
And on the left-hand side itasks you do you want a round
trip or one way, and how manypeople See this is something
Kayak doesn't do.
And you can also choose economy, premium economy, business and
(15:33):
first class.
So let's just, I'll just dothis in real time.
We'll do round trip, one person, economy, and I'm going to put
Houston Intercontinental AirportIAH is the symbol as the
departing airport and as far asdestination anywhere, and then
(15:56):
right below it it's got aone-week trip in the next six
months using flexible dates.
Or you can do two weeks, or youcan do a weekend, or you can do
specific dates, but we're goingto do a one-week trip sometime
in the next six months usingflexible dates.
(16:18):
I click, done.
I hit flights only because Idon't care about hotels, I'll do
something else with that.
And up it pops.
So let's see what we get here.
Now you get a map view and italso on the left.
It tells you all kinds of stuffand you can zoom in and out on
the map.
If you zoom in, you actuallyget more flights showing.
(16:41):
If it's zoomed out a little bit, you're just going to get a
certain amount of flights thatpop up on the map.
Uh, let's see.
I can go houston to miami for78 on spirit.
If I zoom in a little bit, Ican go to Cancun for $291.
And these are round-tripflights.
Bermuda for $627.
(17:01):
Let me zoom in a little moreand see what's going on in the
Caribbean San Juan, puerto Rico,for $151.
Now that's a round-trip flighton Spirit Airlines and it's
actually oh, it says one it'snon-stop on the way and one stop
on the way back.
A round-trip for $151 to go toa Caribbean island isn't too bad
(17:25):
.
If we zoom.
Well, we'll just scroll the mapa little bit.
Now, the neat thing about usingthis is you can say well, you
know, I want to go on a vacation, don't want to spend a lot of
money, really not sure where thehell I want to go, just
somewhere kind of cool.
So let's just look, I could goto Paris for $526,000, london
(17:49):
for $512,000, zurich for$533,000, berlin for about512,
zurich for $533, berlin forabout $700 and you can just kind
of scroll in and out and seewhere you want to go.
And if you check every day anddo the same thing at the same
time on kayak look on Google,look on kayak.
(18:12):
Let's say you've always wantedto go to Asia.
It's always so expensive, butpeople have always told you how
pretty it is.
So let's just look In Asia.
The flights are expensive.
Let's see Philippines $900.
(18:32):
Singapore $935.
Thailand $978.
Vietnam $982.
And you can go over to Japananywhere from $950 up to about
$1,200.
You know, this always amazes me.
(18:54):
You look at, I can go to Tokyofor $955, but Nagasaki will cost
me $2,200.
$22.93.
I would imagine I'd go to Tokyoand take a train to Nagasaki a
lot cheaper than that.
I can go to Seoul, korea, for$865.
That's a really good price,because Korea is usually
(19:15):
expensive.
But let's say you've alwayswanted to go to Greece and
you're just.
You looked one time and theflights were expensive and you
said, man, I just don't knowabout that.
That's expensive as heck.
Well, open up Kayak, open upGoogle, spend five minutes a day
(19:37):
checking and you can get a $514flight round trip to Athens,
greece.
That's not bad.
So all you have to do is put inthe airport you want to depart
from, put in anywhere, click inthe next six months for a
one-week or a two-week or aweekend trip and it starts
(20:01):
giving you airfares and on theleft it will tell you the
airline.
So if we're going to Athens,spirit is Let me see, let's
click on Athens.
Spirit doesn't fly there.
United 514, air Canada 515,.
United and Lufthansa are 530.
(20:23):
All of those are round-tripflights.
So if you click on United, itwill take you to the booking
site and it will give you allthe flights and everything else,
tell you how much round-tripflights are, the stops and
everything.
So that's a pretty cool littletool to get the cheapest
(20:46):
airfares you can possibly get.
Check on them daily.
You'll get different airfares,different airlines, but I
guarantee you're going to save aton of money rather than just
going to bookingcom or whateverand click on your preferred
airline even and just saying Iwant to go in August and I want
(21:07):
to go this week in August.
I want to go to Spain.
Well, you're only going to seethose flights that they're going
to give you and you're going towant to book to Spain, where
you're only going to see thoseflights that they're going to
give you and you're going towant to book it that day.
Try this every day, and youmight find some flights that get
you some little creative thinggoing on where you say you know
what?
I never really thought aboutgoing to Tokyo, but for $600
(21:30):
round trip it might just beworthwhile to go spend a week in
Tokyo.
So that's your tip for thisweek.
Stay tuned.
I'm going to give you anotherpodcast next week with some more
tips on saving money orsomething you can do on your
travels.
Until then, safe travels.
Hit that subscribe button.
Oh, and do me a favor, go tothe website and sign up for the
(21:52):
newsletter.
You get all kinds of cool stuffin that newsletter too,
including travel contests andstuff where you win trips.
So until next time, take careand safe travels.
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