Alabama - Day 13 - driving south to Auburn

University Station RV Park
Friday, 13 December 2019

I was mildly concerned about the alleged unluckiness of the date today but hoping I'd already had my share of bad luck on Wednesday and today would be fine.

today's route

Today's drive was, in fact, uneventful.  I saw mostly hills/mountains, almost no farms all day.  I continue to be surprised by all the mountainous terrain in this state.  As close as it is to a very large body of water (Gulf of Mexico), I assumed it would be pretty flat.  And I assumed wrong.  And by mountains, I mean up and down a 6% grade, which is nothing like the 8% and 9% I saw farther north and east, but it's sure not flat.

Actually, my only real experience with Alabama has been driving from Austin to Orlando on I-10, which runs near the Gulf and is indeed pretty flat.  The rest of the state has been a surprise.

Occasionally I found some decent-sized town, but mostly smaller ones.  I saw a Budweiser warehouse between Harpersville and Childersburg, southeast of Talledega.  It really is out in the middle of nothing and I wondered why that seemed a good location to them.

A short distance down the road I passed the turnoff for DeSoto Caverns, known as Alabama's Big Cave.  Apparently, it's pretty good-sized but the cave folks don't stop with just an ordinary cave system.  According to their website, they entertain visitors with a light and sound show in the caverns that changes seasonally.  And there are lots of activities aboveground, like panning for gold and gemstones and exploring a huge maze - like that.  A sort of low-key amusement park.  People seem to love it.

I personally think caverns deserve more respect than all that and are fascinating all by themselves, but I'm not the part of the public they're aiming for.  As I understand it, these caverns were long ago the homes for Native Americans in this region; Confederate supporters mined gunpowder ingredients here; moonshiners set up stills here during Prohibition.  This place has some history and, to me, needs no light show for interest.

Having spent so very many months passing farmland, I'm surprised to see none at all in this area, though maybe it's just away from this main road.

I followed a Blue Bell Ice Cream truck for a while.  They've really got a reach.  But I see on their website that they've now got a plant in Sylacauga, AL, which I drove through earlier today.  Undoubtedly where the truck came from.

I'm still sore today, but much of the soreness has moved to my abdomen muscles.  Of course, that's where the car hit me, so they deserve to be sore, but it makes coughing hard, and I've been coughing a lot lately due to this stupid asthma.  Today is one of the rare occasions when I took an Allegra®, which I have to say really works.  I just don't like taking drugs.

It started raining this morning at 1 AM and has mostly kept up steadily all day long.  Not hard to drive in, but hard to see the scenery in.

I lost the Birmingham NPR station part way along the drive and picked up a Georgia NPR station.  I might not have noticed, but they said it was 2:00 PM when my clock said 1:00, so I paid attention and that's when I heard the "Georgia" part.

I'd planned a side trip through Auburn itself to see the university, but by the time I got here - what with the rain and the soreness - I decided to call it a day and hold off exploring for another day.  Of course, the route Google mapped took me around the edge of town, and that's really about all I had energy for.