The deep south: day 6 (8/18)
MOBILE - As always, Sunday of vacation requires me in church in a passive role. So 8am found me at First UMC in Pensacola, where even the minister agreed that "Jesus as the source of division" (Luke 12:49-56) is a challenging idea to consider.
I retrieved Chad from the hotel, and then we went across state lines for the 11am service at Ashland Place UMC here in Mobile, home church of former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Ironically, Chad had difficulty getting into the sanctuary; the front door was stairs-only, and the side entrances connecting the fellowship hall were not wide enough for his wheelchair. And once we tilted his wheelchair into the sanctuary, the chair couldn't squeeze between the altar and the front pew.
It was then on to lunch at Brick & Spoon, a First Watch-type restaurant - you know, the kind where you stand in a post-church line - that served up a pretty mean Creole omelette.
After dropping the baggage off at the hotel, it was time for Chad's athletic tour of the city. It started with Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the site of Marshall's historic bowl comeback in 2001 against East Carolina and ended with his traditional college T-shirt purchase at the University of South Alabama.
Our game for tonight featured Chattanooga taking on the homestanding (and lame-duck) Mobile BayBears. At the end of the season, the team will move upstate to the Huntsville suburbs, but for now they remain in the Port City.
As for the game: as ineffective as Chattanooga's offense was in Pensacola the night before, the Lookouts found it somewhere along I-10, dashing out of the gate with a nine-run first inning to finish with a 14-4 win, complete with 22 hits. It wasn't a complete washout, though, as a foul ball Plinkoed its way down from the upper stands into the ground-level box/accessible seating area where I was seated. (Meanwhile, Chad sucked up to one of the Chattanooga players to get his ball.)
I retrieved Chad from the hotel, and then we went across state lines for the 11am service at Ashland Place UMC here in Mobile, home church of former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Ironically, Chad had difficulty getting into the sanctuary; the front door was stairs-only, and the side entrances connecting the fellowship hall were not wide enough for his wheelchair. And once we tilted his wheelchair into the sanctuary, the chair couldn't squeeze between the altar and the front pew.
It was then on to lunch at Brick & Spoon, a First Watch-type restaurant - you know, the kind where you stand in a post-church line - that served up a pretty mean Creole omelette.
After dropping the baggage off at the hotel, it was time for Chad's athletic tour of the city. It started with Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the site of Marshall's historic bowl comeback in 2001 against East Carolina and ended with his traditional college T-shirt purchase at the University of South Alabama.
Our game for tonight featured Chattanooga taking on the homestanding (and lame-duck) Mobile BayBears. At the end of the season, the team will move upstate to the Huntsville suburbs, but for now they remain in the Port City.
As for the game: as ineffective as Chattanooga's offense was in Pensacola the night before, the Lookouts found it somewhere along I-10, dashing out of the gate with a nine-run first inning to finish with a 14-4 win, complete with 22 hits. It wasn't a complete washout, though, as a foul ball Plinkoed its way down from the upper stands into the ground-level box/accessible seating area where I was seated. (Meanwhile, Chad sucked up to one of the Chattanooga players to get his ball.)