Sweet Home Alabama

Flew into the rain at Atlanta, got a shuttle to where the pickup was staying.  Yay, it still had all its wheels and no windows were broken.  Reunited with the 5^th Wheel.  He was getting some TLC while we were up north and we were soon on our way to Sweet Home Alabama.  First stop had to be a Walmart to load up with some victuals and, since it was dark and night time, put the RV’s legs down and relaxed after our frantic few days in New York.

       

Spotted this on the starboard bow as we were coming in to land (not a Klingon)

Went up to Desoto State Park and paid a visit to Desoto Falls.  They are on the site of the dam for the first hydroelectric power in Northern Alabama.  Not much left of the dam and nothing of the power station but it’s a very pretty waterfall.  Visibility was next to nothing this high in the hills but that didn’t daunt us as we made our way to the mountain town of Mentone.  We weren’t planning to stop but just had to with all the gorgeous old buildings around us.  Had a coffee at the Wildflower Café and just couldn’t resist a dessert to go with it.  Delicious.

 

Remnants of the dam is all that remains of an old power station

The very pretty DeSoto Falls

Wildflower Cafe was a gem of a discovery in the mountains

How we found the Sally Howard Memorial Chapel in the dark with the limited visibility was beyond me.  It was built onto a massive sandstone boulder – the boulder being the rear wall of the chapel.  The chapel was built in 1937 and is still active today.

 

It was this dark but at least visibility had improved a little

Milford Howard built this chapel for his wife Sally around a huge rock

Made our way westwards to the Natural Bridge at Natural Bridge.  It’s been pretty much the only thing in town since 1954 so I’m guessing that gives them naming rights.  The natural bridge itself, while not as high as the one we visited in Kentucky, is the longest one this side of the Rockies, at almost 40 metres long.  There was also a lovely walk through the grounds with a lot of small waterfalls to be seen. 

 

Looking out from under the natural bridge

Lots of little waterfalls like this along the nature trail

From Natural Bridge we headed south into Birmingham.  Parked outside the Kelly Ingram Park where a passing local stopped to give us some history of the area.  We didn’t realise that we’d parked near the 16^th Street Church where the Ku Klux Klan murdered 4 young girls when they planted a bomb behind some stairs of the church back in the 1960’s. 

 

16th Street Church with a memorial to the murdered girls at the edge of the park

The park itself is dedicated to the Civil Rights movement also from the 1960’s and has many statues depicting different aspects from that time.  It’s quite unnerving walking between the snarling police dogs knowing that that was the reality for many, along with being blasted with water cannons, arrested and thrown in jail. A very sobering and thought provoking place.

 

Walking through the snarling dogs sculpture isn't pleasant ... and these aren't even real

Even children were arrested as depicted in this sculpture

On a lighter note we visited Vulcan up on Red Mountain and got rewarded by this view.

 

The 56' tall statue of Vulcan was made for the 1904 World Fair

We also visited the small museum by the statue that showed the history of both Birmingham and the Vulcan statue.  It was really well put together and our visit was made possible by the generosity of Cynthia from the Visitors Centre who provided us with complementary tickets.  The ticket also included a trip to the top of the tower where we were able to get the closer view of Vulcan (see previous photo) … and great views of Birmingham (the real reason we climbed the tower).

 

Birmingham from the Vulcan Tower - personally I preferred the view of the statue

Back with the Civil Rights theme we moved to Montgomery to visit the Rosa Parks Museum.  What an amazingly brave woman to make the stand that she did … to stay sitting on that bus.  She was arrested and convicted even though she’d broken no law and that incident sparked a bus boycott that lasted over a year and helped the Civil Rights movement gain momentum.  It’s only a small museum but well worth the visit.

Rosa Parks has a museum in her honour right by where she boarded the bus