Alabama - Day 1 - getting here

Point Mallard Campground, Decatur
Sunday, 1 December 2019

I chose to take the very long way around to get to Alabama, which after all was only a few miles down the road from last night's campground.  But I wanted to stay on main roads today and I especially wanted to stop at the Visitor Center just over the state border on I-65.

today's route

On the road
As we left the campground, we ran into that truly terrible smell again.  I really thought it came from that paper plant I saw the other day but wouldn't have expected it to be operating on a Sunday so now am not so sure.  But I'm glad we're leaving.  Not nice to walk around the campground having to smell that odor.

The bridge over Pickwick Dam is elevated, of course, but there were some really strong crosswinds I wasn't expecting, so it was a little scary getting across.

Just on the other side I noticed the TVA seemed to be building jetties and breakwaters and wondered if they were expanding the campground they have over there.  I later saw online that the campground had experienced severe flooding this year and the TVA is practically rebuilding it.  So I don't know if the work I saw was for new facilities or replacing ruined ones.  From my experience at the TVA campground in Illinois, it's probably a nice, inexpensive place to stay - and the bathrooms will be new, thanks to that flooding.

The very strong crosswinds continued for much of the morning's drive, not only on bridges but also on the highways.  It meant I had to hang onto the steering wheel tightly for much of the drive

Route 64E that I'd chosen to take turned out to be 2 lanes each direction with a wide median and shoulders.  Very comfortable and easy to drive, except for the crosswinds.  Unfortunately, I'd been awake since 1 AM so got drowsy from time to time, but it worked out okay.

I saw lots of standing water in the fields and along the roadway.  The fields had crops - mostly harvested - cows and horses.  The animals were huddled together in the parts of their fields that weren't flooded.  I guess the recent rains are a problem for farmers this time of year, since they don't want them for growing crops.

Now that it's December, even here in the south all the trees have lost their leaves, with the pines and cedars being the only green spots.

Several times today I passed signs saying I was on the Trail of Tears Historic Route.  What was confusing is that at the same time I saw signs saying if I turned left or right I'd find the Trail of Tears Original Route.  I spent some driving time wondering why the historic trail isn't the same as the original trail.

I'm still not sure about the difference because the internet doesn't seem to want to tell me.  But from what I did find I'm guessing the Historic Route follows the 1838 route as closely as possible, but the Original Route is where they've recently located the original roadways that were actually there at the time.  Most of the original roads don't exist, understandably, but occasionally they're identifying them, and the signs are letting people know.  That's my best guess, though what I'll do sometime is call the National Park Service to see if anyone can clarify.  The Trail is their bailiwick.

Then I saw the sign saying Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama!

Alabama - my 21st state

That map looks a little odd, like all those northern states are doing a balancing trick on top of this one state.  It'll look better as I go along, though I won't be visiting the states from Florida north until about 2 years from now.  I'd intended to start this trip in Florida but missed that window when I was still dealing with my mom's things.  By starting in Pennsylvania instead, I've shoved those southeastern states to the end of the trip.  But I'll be back, as they say.

I stopped at the Visitor Center and got a lot of tourist information about Alabama - and walked the dogs and had lunch, of course.

Continuing south, I saw a sign on the highway saying the nearby Belle Chevre Creamery offered tours.  I'd have been interested because I like goat's cheese, but I saw online that tours are only 2 days a week and cost $12.  I'm not as interested as that.  My interest level is at about $5.  Maybe another time.

I saw signs advertising the US Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville.  They bill themselves as the Earth's largest space museum, and maybe they are.  I'd have liked to go but, once again, the tickets are $25 for adult admission, and I'm just not as interested as that.  I might have done it for $15.  Too bad.

One of the first differences I noticed after crossing the state line is that Alabama likes billboards.  It's a little like the attack of the billboards you get when driving on I-10 from Texas into Louisiana, though those are almost entirely advertising casinos and anti-abortion messages.  Alabama's are mostly tourism oriented.  I hadn't realized until now that Tennessee doesn't have many billboards.  More peaceful without them.

I saw a North Dakota license plate, which was very surprising because I almost never see them.  Apparently North Dakotans rarely leave home.  The only state license plate I see fewer of is Hawaii.  This ND plate was on a black Mustang convertible; I've heard Alabama has a lot of military bases and this combination made me think the car might belong to someone stationed here.

Driving into Decatur, where I was headed to a campground, I stopped to walk the dogs at something called the Decatur Hospitality Nature Park.  It's a nice little area with picnic tables and a trail, and it all sits on an offshoot of the Tennessee River, which runs through town.  Several men were fishing and one of them told me they can get catfish and bream from the water.  He said he'd caught 2 catfish so far today, which sounded like dinner to me.

I passed several manufacturing plants right in town on the river.  One was labeled Hyosung Decatur Plant, and I've had a hard time figuring out what it makes.  My best guess from online research is that Hyosung is a successful motorcycle manufacturer in Korea and they've recently bought what used to be a Goodyear plant to make tires for their products.  One former employee grumbled online that Hyosung had guaranteed employees would keep their jobs for at least a year, but after that they fired them and hired Koreans here on work visas, claiming Americans weren't skilled enough to do the jobs.

With much less trouble, I learned that the GE Appliance plant farther down the street makes refrigerators here.

Tonight's campground is in Point Mallard Park, which is apparently a very popular amusement park in the summer, and the golf course and campground operate year round.  The campground seemed full and I was afraid we'd get buried in the park where it'd be hard to walk the dogs.  The problem was that I'd had so much trouble finding a campground that was still open in December and didn't know where else I could go.  But the campground host found me a site right by the office and the entrance - just what I wanted.  I got lucky.