Sweet Home Alabama
Its officially been a month since I arrived thank you to over 700 different people who have read this it’s nice to know people care about what I get up to xox
Last Monday was LaboUr day and in true patriotic American fashion I went to Alabama. Specifically Dauphin Island which is a tiny beach town on the Gulf coast. It was a mere 150 miles or 2.5 hour drive from New Orleans so it was the equivalent of driving from London to Brugge for the day and back. This felt pretty insane as it was like driving half way through England to go to the beach but forgetting the scale of America this was nothing and very normalised.
The drive was a fun three hours of straight motorway across Louisiana and Mississippi. Now I'm not saying all the stereotypes about Alabama are true, however within five mins of crossing into the state we saw a confederate flag and numerous Trump 2024 flags. Alabama was a funny looking place; it felt like all the houses had been randomly placed and looked temporary. There appeared to be more churches than houses which was interesting and gives a good representation of America but I was told Churches appear for tax reasons so make of that what you will.
Dauphin Island was picturesque; white sand and warm waters from the Gulf of Mexico and the Oil rigs on the horizon made it feel like a proper holiday beach and not like being in Norfolk. However there are some similarities between East Anglia and Alabama; it's full of right wing nut jobs and people are married to their cousins. But all this didn't stop me from having a nice time. It felt like a proper yank going out of state for a day trip and soaking up the sun with a few beers. As someone who doesn't like piers and shitty UK beach towns it was nice to just have a beach and nothing else, there was little noise and no one to annoy you, just warm water and a few people.
Overall it was interesting to see what other parts of the deep south were like and it was definitely eye opening to see how parts of the state had been left behind with houses falling apart and very little signs of anything else.