Sep 22, 2010 - Birmingham, AL

We left Tupelo, MS, on Tuesday and continued on our way east to Birmingham. AL. We hate driving in Birmingham… I guess it is because drivers are so much like the ones in Atlanta... No matter how much construction is going on, there is no change to the driving habits and it is very hard and nerve racking to drive thru these areas… And it is hard to avoid these areas. They are on every freeway, the same as it was two years ago when we stayed here. We stopped here because Bill has a cousin that we wanted to see… It seems that the last several...

Sep 19, 2010 - Birmingham, AL - Graduate school

I arrived in Birmingham Friday night after dark by myself. It's a long story but I was several hours late getting away from home for a week in Birmingham which caused me to arrive and have to get into a back-in site and set up after dark. I am by myself because Jo Ann decided to stay home with encouragement from me. I am here for a very intense week of graduate study. Many of you know that I have decided to go back to school to obtain a doctoral degree. An ScD in this case at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB's health sciences...

Jun 22, 2010 - leaving today!

Last summer, I took a road trip with my parents and their dog Sam to Kansas. In Kansas there is a city named Emporia. This is where I was born and raised for the first three years of my life. Before August of 2009, I had not been back to Emporia for 24 years. Returning, therefore, was as if I was visiting for the first time. Except for photographs and stories from my parents, I had no personal recollections of the hospital in which I was delivered, the house in which I first lived, the church that I first attended (and bit the pastor's kid...

May 1, 2010 - Dogs, Water and Bombs

‘Bull’ Connor and the Ku Klux Klan Saturday Our pilgrimage has finally led us to Birmingham - poster city for all that was wrong in the South. We camped for the night in a nearby state park, then headed into town in the morning. Our destination, the 16th Street Baptist Church and across the street, the Birmingham Civil Right’s Institute. The church and Institute are at the edge of the downtown district. Across the street is Kelly Ingram Park, where in 1963 black citizens gathered for marches on City Hall. The purpose of the marches was to...

Jan 23, 2010 - Birmingham, Alabama

Tonight we are at Birmingham South Campground. We didn't arrive here until well after dark. We don't normally like arriving after dark, because it makes setting up a bit of a nuisance. We were late for two reasons. Firstly, we spent more time than expected at Lynchburg and secondly we landed in a massive traffic jam at Birmingham as a construction project put five lanes into one. We meandered around the historic part of Lynchburg and had lunch before taking the Jack Daniels tour. It was well worth the visit!

Dec 22, 2009 - Sweetened Or Fried?

Birmingham Alabama is not a vacation destination but the people are very friendly and there are a few things to see. Birmingham is a fairly young town. It wasn’t around during the Civil War so there are no battlefields or vibrant history to explore. Birmingham got its beginnings after the discovery of the natural abundance of coal, iron ore and limestone. Mining and steel production were Birmingham’s boon but that played out by the 1930’s and it took almost 50 years for Birmingham to reinvent itself. Birmingham is now thriving on its’...

Nov 19, 2009 - Campus Comedy

On Wednesday we made the short drive from Tupelo to Birmingham Alabama to meet up with Rhiannon. We got a great tour of the University of Alabama, including meeting Rhiannon's coaches and, were able to see her apartment. We visited the "Vulcan", the worlds largest cast iron statue and did some shopping. In the evening we went out for supper and we all ate too much.

Oct 12, 2009 - Birmingham, Alabama

while on the road we called my niece Carrie about 10am to let her know we were coming not remembering at the time they were an hour behind us. Thankfully they were not sleeping in. We had a very nice visit we saw there beautiful home and they showed us some of Birmingham had a great lunch and then back on the road to Red Bay.

Apr 20, 2009 - Long due update

An apology is in order for not updating this sooner. Muych has happened since my last post. We spent January, February and March at the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. We totally enjoyed our site there. The sites are huge and provide tremendous privacy. the site we had was also one that gave us a clear lakefront view. In march, the frogs provided nightly music for the naturalist in me. In April, the Gulf State Park started charging daily rates only. Knowing that in advance, we reserved a spot at Gulf Breeze RV Resort. This is just on...

Apr 16, 2009 - MCA 45th Aniversary

we went today to preregister for the show at Barber Motor sport Park first off this facility is absolutely beautiful it reminds me of a finely manicured golf course we took in the vendors area where lots of ford goodies can be acquired they were setting up as well today so a return to this area will be a must in the next three days we received our welcome package and it was worth the price of the ticket to get in , later that day we got in on the Thursday evening cruise to a nearby town there were 650 cars in this cruise so it was no small...

Apr 15, 2009 - Birmingham , Alabama

As we make our final push for Birmingham we crossed the Mississippi river with over 600 cars We all assembled in one of the malls in Birmingham to bid farewell to some that are heading home and take some final shots we were promised a surprise on this day but unfortunately Mr Ford who was scheduled to address the crowd could not attend. We dispersed to our hotels and a small group attended a very good Alabama BBQ restaurant and we bid farewell to the girl from Strathmore who had to head home. We certainly have enjoyed the trip and have even...

Mar 31, 2009 - Adventures in Alabama

We had a little trauma as we drove to Alabama. As we were traveling on interstate 85, we heard a little thump. We checked the 2 cameras and all seemed OK. The bad news: One of the tires on the Excel had delaminated. The good news: it didn't deflate; the only damage was a crack in the fender which can be replaced when we get to the manufacturer and Goodyear should pay for it; a tire place in Auburn had a replacement [it needed to be a load range G which is hard to find; they are used on construction equipment]; they didn't charge us an arm...