January 14th - Foley, Alabama

In the morning we headed to Foley, Alabama to see the railroad museum, the medical museum, and the old time drug store there.

The railroad museum was in the old train depot. The depot was going to be torn down by the railroad in the 1970s when rail service to town stopped. Some people got together and moved the depot to another location where it sat for twenty-five years. It was then moved once again back to its original location in town and refurbished for a museum inside. The area is a beautiful park now. Pretty cool. Here is a picture. Where the vehicles are parked is where the tracks were.

Inside a building behind the depot is a model train layout which is quite impressive. It only runs on certain days and we were lucky to be there on the right day. We learned a lot about its operation and maintenance from a docent who comes down here every winter from New Mexico to help out.

From there we walked across the street to see the Holmes Medical Museum. It was the first hospital in Foley and established by Dr. Holmes in 1936. When the hospital was closed in the seventies they just locked it up with everything inside. Here are some pictures.

This is the operating room and sterilization equipment.

Here is a picture of the bed pan cleaning and storage area. Lots of different shapes and styles.

Here is a picture of the nursery and birthing room with an incubator which kept the baby warm with a 150 watt light bulb.

From there we walked down the street to an old time drug store that is still in operation with the soda fountain and all. It still had the screen doors on from the days before air-conditioning.

Here are a couple pictures from the inside. 

From there we drove ten miles down the road to check out the Escapees Rainbow Plantation RV Park which we heard about from our model train layout docent. The park had a clubhouse with a pool but we were not impressed with the park overall. All rigs had full hookups but they were just backed in on grass, no gravel or concrete patios. In the park were many homes with RV garages as well. A different vibe from most parks.

We then drove back to Foley to see the movie “1917”, which was different from what I expected but a great movie. I highly recommend it.