BAMA! -- Part 3, the Middle

The Original Whistle Stop Cafe!

On Saturday, we got up lazily (as normal) and made our way towards Birmingham. We headed first to the Irondale Café, known as the Original Whistle Stop Café depicted in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. In fact the book from which the movie was adapted was written by a local Birminghamian named Fannie Flagg.

Irondale Train Depot

We enjoyed the restaurant from the moment we pulled up. It’s nestled next to the train tracks and has taken over two adjacent store fronts over the years, especially following its success after the movie was released in 1991. The namesake, fried green tomatoes, did not disappoint. We also had fried catfish (easily the biggest pieces of fried fish either of us has seen since our trip to Uncle Frank’s in North Collins, NY last July). The waitress offered homemade remoulade sauce as well and it was spectacular…spicy, full of flavor, truly perfect for the fish and the tomatoes. Yum.  We also devoured a sinfully good piece of chocolate pie and a fabulous lump of blackberry cobbler. We almost made fools ourselves eating them so fast. Almost.

Vulcan Park

After lunch we strolled to a couple of nearby antique stores and then drove around Irondale a bit. From there, we headed to Vulcan Park in Birmingham…a park whose central figure is a giant 56 foot cast iron statue of the Roman god of forge, a tribute to the city’s iron and steel industries. The statue was created for the 1903 World’s Fair in St. Louis and now sits atop a tall stone structure overlooking all of Birmingham. It’s quite a view. 

Ken working the fire

Next we decided to return to the campground to inaugurate…<<wait for it>>…Marshmallow Season!!  We began with a stroll to the Sweets Shop, an ice cream and candy store inside of a historic log home on the Tannehill Ironworks Park. We ate our ice cream while walking around the park in the beautiful 70 degree weather. Wow. It’s March 10^th…nice. 

Notice our unexpected dinner guest...

After buying some logs at the camp store and then making dinner, Ken lit a nice fire for us to roast our marshmallows. If a few too many were roasted and eaten, well, I accept no responsibility. I was simply caught up in the spirit of the season.

BAMA! -- Part 2, the South...

Civil Rights Museum

On Friday, we drove south to Montgomery, the birthplace of the civil rights movement and original capital of the Confederacy.  We arrived under cloudy skies threatening to rain most of the day, but we were quickly enchanted with this friendly city...everyone said hello and greeted us as we walked by them. So nice! 

We started the day at the Visitor’s Center in the old Union Station and then headed to the Civil Rights Museum and Memorial Center, but not before a detour past a growing throng of demonstrators at the state capitol building. We soon discovered that we had stumbled into Montgomery on the 47^th anniversary of the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery (March, 1965). What a coincidence! 

 

Montgomery State Capitol and demonstrators

So our trip to the Civil Rights Museum was very well timed and we enjoyed learning about some of the violence that begat the movement and furthered the calls for justice and equality.  The fountain out front, designed by Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam Memorial in DC), honors  40 men, women and children whose lives ended during the struggle between 1955 and 1968. It was very beautiful and poetic.

We next headed to lunch at Dreamland BBQ, an Alabama institution. This place was pure fun and good food. The host, Bert, who clearly has never met a stranger, greeted us and everyone else with handshakes and backslaps and shouts from across the restaurant. We were instantly in love with this place…and then the food arrived. Yikes, it was absolutely outstanding and habit-forming. We both enjoyed the sausage dogs (sausage links in hot dog buns, smothered in melted cheese, grilled onions, cole slaw and their secret recipe BBQ sauce…yummmm!!!) and some of their World Famous Banana Pudding. Obviously the secret ingredient in all of their recipes is crack because this stuff is totally addicting. 

From there we walked to the Rosa Parks Museum where we learned about the men and women who worked tirelessly for the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system. It was a fascinating exhibit, but the most interesting and informative part was an impromptu 10 minute discussion with a passionate museum worker about the history of the bus issue, especially the other women who refused to give up their seats long before Ms. Parks did. We learned quite a bit about Aurelia Browder and the other three women, whose lawsuit (Browder v. Gayle) against Montgomery Mayor William Gayle ended segregation in the bus system in Alabama. What a history lesson!

First White House of the Confederacy

From there we headed to the First White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson Davis and his family lived in the spring of 1861 before the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond. It is a beautiful house across the street from the State Capitol Building, where Mr. Davis was sworn in as the Confederate president in 1861 and where the Selma to Montgomery march ended in 1965.

After the museum, we drove to Selma to see the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On our way to Selma, we noticed several very Southern features along the highway…lots and lots of mistletoe in the highest branches, Spanish moss hanging from bare trees as far as the eye could see, and mound after mound of red ant colonies. So cool!

The Edmund Pettus bridge is where peaceful civil marchers were beaten by Alabama state troopers on March 7, 1965, known as ‘Bloody Sunday’, when they tried to walk to Montgomery to confront the governor about voting rights.  After a second failed attempt, the Governor was ordered by a US District Court judge to provide the marchers protection with state troopers and national guardsmen. They completed their walk in 4 days on March 25, 1965, when 20,000 marchers arrived at the state capitol in Montgomery. This demonstration ultimately led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act a few months later. So much history!

We found Selma full of gorgeous Southern homes, and though many were in a sad state of disrepair, we could easily see their former splendor. We drove around the historic section of the town and found Sturdivant Hall, a beautiful example of a Greek Revival neoclassic antebellum mansion.  And it’s really pretty, too. 

We headed out of town as night began to fall and drove through some rather desolate areas of the countryside on our way back to the RV. We stopped in Centreville, Alabama, at a sad little restaurant for dinner and found the exact opposite of our lunch…a barely edible waste of money. Otherwise, what a fun day!

BAMA! -- Part 1, the North...

Tannehill Ironworks State Park

On Tuesday, March 6, we left South Carolina for the sunny climes of Alabama. We arrived in Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park in McCalla and quickly set up camp. This state park is the former site of the Confederate Army's largest iron producer during the Civil War. The original furnaces and several outbuildings remain. On Wednesday, we toured the old furnaces and took a long walk on several of the scenic hiking trails through the park. In the afternoon, we headed to Tuscaloosa in search of history or culture, but found only throngs of University of Alabama students and the Innisfree Irish pub where all thoughts of history were erased with a single happy hour pitcher of beer.

On Thursday, we made better use of our day and drove to Huntsville to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center where we spent the afternoon perusing space capsules, rockets, missiles, pods, suits, men, rocks, junk, and other sundry space items. The museum was fascinating and we even watched an Imax movie about the Hubble Telescope inventively titled "Hubble". The movie was really cool! Part of it highlighted the problems the astronauts encountered trying to repair the telescope over three different missions. The remainder of the movie dealt with the incredible impact Hubble has had on man's understanding of the universe, our origin, our planet's development, the sun's evolution, and the billions upon billions of galaxies that exist in the observable universe. Totally fascinating.

Another big section of the museum exhibited Wernher von Braun's contribution to the U.S. space program. The exhibit, "100 Years of Von Braun: His American Journey", illustrates his life after he surrendered to American forces following World War II through his death in 1977. It captures everything from his influence on popular culture (space toys, astronaut-themed games, cartoons, movies, etc) as well as his significant achievements with rocketry. We really enjoyed the tour.

For dinner, we drove to Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q (awarded the "Best Barbeque on the Planet Award" for 2011) in Decatur, Alabama. Short on decor, but heavy on flavor, we each enjoyed the pork plate with two sides and split a piece of coconut pie for dessert. Yum!

Greensboro, NC and Rookie Mistake #5

The Evil Twin and I

After a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas at home with family and friends, but a rough start to the new year, we hurriedly packed and left (more on the issues that resulted later...grrr.). We arrived happy but chilly in Greensboro to spend the first weekend of March with Janine and Joel.

Joel's brother, Johnny, also came into town from Oregon to work on recording a song with Joel (about Batman!!!), so we remaining three were banished from the house for most of the weekend. We scoured some thrift stores, ate waaaay too much (including cannolis, of course) and took the dogs to the park during the drum session at the house. We had a fun time hanging with our peeps.

Joel and Johnny "making music"

We left The Ed with Janine and Joel for our trip...and a big thank you to the two of them. (Sadly, our sweet and itchy and very old Charlie Wiggles is no more.)

Charlie Wiggles! We already miss you, pup.

On Monday we drove to Fair Play, South Carolina, right on the Georgia border. It would appear after driving through South Carolina that this state is simply a front for the large scale trafficking of peaches and fireworks and precious little else. There are rumors that pecans also grow here, but at press time, none could be found.

The Ed!

We camped virtually alone at a lovely campground in Lake Hartwell State Park. The lake is quite a few feet low so all the docks around the shoreline are perched awkwardly well above the water on the red clay mud banks.

Back to the issues that inevitably result from quickly packing the RV in the bitter cold wind....

Rookie Mistake #5: When packing for a trip, be SURE to pack the essentials (like underwear, a medium-sized cooking pot and the drinking water hoses), as those purchases will be required the first night out of the gate, and it would be unfortunate to have to re-buy what you already own. Jus' sayin'.

Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC...gorgeous and historic

Map of Savannah

On Monday, we left the cold climes and terrible winds of Jacksonville toward Savannah, Georgia. The weather in Savannah proved to be everything Jacksonville's was not...warm and sunny, ideal for walking around town. We set up the RV at Skidaway Island State Park...possibly one of the prettiest parks we have stayed in since July. The park has really tall oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them and the trees form a beautiful canopy over the roads throughout. With the bright blue cloudless sky and the fall colors, what a scene we saw. No pictures, though.

We ventured into Savannah to see the sights and discovered the pleasant river walk and a series of placards about the city's history. We saw a crowd listening to a street-performing trumpeter, who was briefly and amusingly distracted with a bridal party walking by and so broke into 'Here Comes the Bride'. He followed it up with a burlesque theme as the last two bridesmaids walked by...they didn't seem nearly as amused as the crowd was. Very funny.

We also found The Peacemaker, an old wooden schooner (tall ship), docked in the Savannah River offering free tours of its decks and planks. It was fascinating to walk all over the ship and see the city from the pretty boat.

We walked to two of the historic squares, Oglethorpe and Wright. The city's founder, James Oglethorpe, laid out a plan for the city in 1733 for neighborhoods to surround each of 24 squares. Today, 22 of the original 24 squares remain and each is a little park with houses, businesses and churches around them. Very quaint.

We headed back to East River Street for some brews at The Warehouse, a little dive bar filled with locals and tourists alike. Then we grabbed a burger at Five Guys, yummy and greasy.

USS Yorktown

On Tuesday, we packed up and headed to Charleston, South Carolina, home of Fort Sumter, the site of the beginning of the Civil War. We camped at Givhans Ferry State Park, then drove almost 40 miles (!) into Charleston to tour some of the historic district. We walked around the historic Charleston City Market, ate dinner at Southend Brewery and Smokehouse, then walked along the battery between the Cooper River and the beautiful homes along East Bay Street. What a gorgeous city.

Heading back to Charleston

On Wednesday morning, we raced down to Charleston early to catch the ferry boat to Fort Sumter, but we were 1 minute late, so instead, we walked around south of Broad along several streets lined with interesting architecture, colorful houses and little hidden gardens. We had lunch at a sushi place, then drove over to Mount Pleasant to catch the 1:30pm ferry to Fort Sumter from Patriots Point, a port on the Charleston Harbor featuring the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier.

The tour of Fort Sumter was fantastic. The ferry boat ride through Charleston Harbor took us past Castle Pinckney, a little wart of land sticking up out of the middle of the harbor with a "castle" (now just large weeds encircled by a short block wall). 

At Fort Sumter

We also rode past Fort Johnson, from where the opening shot of the Civil War was shot, and Fort Moultrie, where Maj. Gen. Anderson was originally posted before stealing off to Fort Sumter by cover of darkeness, a position he considered much more defensible. That move was seen by the South as an act of war and thus the shot from Fort Johnson followed not much later. Maj. Gen. Anderson and his small force held the fort until April 11, 1861, when he was asked to surrender the fort, which he refused. At 4:30am on April 12, Confederate forces began firing on the fort. Anderson surrendered the fort to the Confederacy after 34 straight hours of bombardment.

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is an impressive structure whose walls were once over 50 feet high, but after all the shelling by Union forces over the 4 years of the Civil War, the structure is now barely half its original height. In 1898, at the start of the Spanish-American war, the Battery Huger (a large concrete structure) was built in the center of the Fort's walls though it never saw any action.
While at the fort, we saw a bunch of dolphins playing in the surf off the left face of the fort. There were at least four of them horsing around, jumping in the water...so cute!

Jacksonville Blue Angels Air Show 2011 - Saturday, Nov 5

There are four planes!!!

On Saturday, Nov 5th, we attended the Blue Angels Air Show at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, courtesy of my cousin, Jamie. It was an extremely impressive show, and you should see it at least once in your life, because, wow, it was TOTALLY cool. And, on Saturday, it was really cool...almost freezing, actually. Brrr. The other performers were great, don't get me wrong, but the Blue Angels were awesome. They fly only 18 inches apart at something like 300 mph. Yikes. And Jamie, along with a whole team of other fabulous folks, keep those planes flying at peak performance. Neato!

A big THANKS to Jamie for the tickets to the show...we will definitely try to get to another show next year!

Back to the East Coast of Florida...again

Kathy and Ken

On Tuesday, November 1, we chugged our way eastward in our sputtering RV. Unfortunately, Joel and Tina's timely discussion of RV issues and breakdowns foretold our impending problem.

We stopped for the night near Cape Canaveral at Manatee Hammock County Park, where thousands of mosquitoes enjoyed Ken for dinner. Yet again. Poor Ken.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

On the 2nd, the chugging continued all the way to the Ford dealership. It appears that a rodent gnawed through some important wires and tubes, causing several hundred dollars of irritating expense. But, we prevailed! We had a splendid time with George and Kathy in West Melbourne, playing Texas Hold'em and Blackjack over drinks and much chatting. George and Kathy were so gracious to put up with us, Charlie and The Ed, while the RV was in for emergency surgery.

Castillo de San Marcos

Flagler College

On Thursday, with the RV restored to its previous glory, we made our way to St. Augustine, where it stalled repeatedly in the parking lot of the campground. Grr. We managed to get it started and parked in the campsite, before we dashed away to watch the sunset over the beautiful town of St. Augustine. We took in the sights of the lighthouse, the old Spanish Fort (Castillo de San Marcos), and the shops in the historic district. St. Augustine was founded in 1565, making it the oldest city in America, even though Florida didn't become a state until 1845. Neato!

Ken, Dewey and Mary

On Friday, we made our way to Jacksonville, Florida, where, when we arrived, it was sunny and beautiful, but, by the time we left on Sunday, was cold and VERY windy. We parked the RV at Little Talbot State Park, a campground designed for smaller RV's than ours, but we managed to squeeze the 'beast' into a campsite intended for tents. We walked on the park's beach on Friday afternoon, discovering a beach both completely deserted and hard as concrete (perfect for bike-riding), with some really nice shells. Yay!

Little Talbot Island

On Friday evening, we shared a wonderful time with my parents' friends, Dewey and Mary. Thanks to them for their hospitality and yummy dinner!

Little Talbot Island beach

Friends and Family all over South Florida

Ken, Bob and Jeannette

On Saturday, October 22nd, we left the Keys and landed at a Palm Beach County park called John Prince Park in Lake Worth, Florida, north of Boca Raton. The park is over 725 acres big, with lots of walking paths, sports fields and alligator infested ponds. Fun fun. For dinner on Saturday night, we drove to the Prime Catch in Boynton Beach to meet Ken's grade school buddy, Bob, and his lovely wife, Jeannette. We had a wonderful time sitting at a dockside table enjoying great seafood and even better company. Ken hadn't seen Bob and Jeannette in 25 years, so there was much catching up going on.

Burt, Marilyn, Ken, Pam, Joel, and Tina

On Sunday, we took a loooong hike around the park's beautiful walking path....much longer than we intended. This is getting to be a bad habit. (Fortunately, there was no need to call anyone for directions back to the RV....again.)

After a bit of sore foot recovery, we met Ken's cousins, Joel (and his wife, Tina), and Marilyn (and her husband, Burt) for a long lively lunch at Carrabba's in West Palm Beach. Ken hadn't seen Marilyn since 1996 and Joel in several years. It was interesting to compare our limited RV experience with Joel and Tina's 11 years of RV traveling. It seems we have much to learn about bad weather and breakdowns...hmm.

Ken and Monte at the Jetties

Jetties

On Monday, we returned to Venice for some much needed R&R...just kidding...there's been a ton of that. We went to dinner with Monte at Saltwater Cafe in Nokomis. Not bad, not outstanding but they do have some generous happy hour drink specials.

On Tuesday, we spent the day working around the RV and house, and then watched the sunset over the Venice jetties with Monte. Very pretty!

On Wednesday, we drove to Sarasota to meet Mary, our neighbor's mom, who lives on Siesta Key. The beach is gorgeous, with sand that feels like powdered sugar and sounds like crunching snow when you walk on it.

Mailman's tire tracks

In fact, just after I commented on the sand's similarity to snow, the mailman got his truck stuck in a foot of sand right in front of Mary's house. Ken and I shoveled him out and sent him on his way. It seemed more than a little ridiculous to be shoveling someone out of sand. ("Nor rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night..." Should probably include sand, too.) Mary helpfully offered to throw sand under the mailman's tires for traction. Ha!

Pam and Mary at Big Olaf's

Anyway, we had a nice lunch with Mary and then walked into nearby Siesta Village for some yummy ice cream at Big Olaf's. Let me enthusiastically recommend this place. Yikes. That was some AWESOME ice cream. Ken and I each had the toasted coconut, Mary had the chocolate peanut butter. Yum. Double yum.

On Thursday, Monte had given us directions to Stump Pass Beach near Englewood, where we could expect to find lots of nice shells. After a long detour due to a bridge outage, we found the virtually deserted beach and collected an embarrassing number of shells. After more than an hour, with two heavy pails of shells and no lunch in sight, Ken began to complain a bit, but was his usual good sport about the whole thing. We eventually had lunch at a local restaurant, the Lock and Key. They had very tasty seafood and excellent service.

Monte for Halloween

On Thursday evening, Stacy drove down from North Carolina to round out our foursome. We spent the weekend touring around the area, thrift shopping, eating, lounging, chatting and, eventually, constructing an awesome hippie costume for Monte to wear to work on Halloween Monday.

We had a ball handing out candy to every tiny princess, little skeleton, and short Jedi knight from the greater Venice area. It seemed like they were busing them into the neighborhood. Isn't that cheating?

As we have been eating our way through most of Florida, we both resemble pumpkins...how timely! Happy Halloween!

Big Olaf's...yum!

Lovers on Siesta Beach

Birdies on Siesta Beach