Saturday, 21 December 2019
And today's the Winter Solstice, meaning longer days for the next 6 months. Here in southcentral Alabama, today's sunrise will be at 6:42 AM and sunset at 4:43 PM. There's not much of a dusk or dawn period at this latitude - less than a half hour - so earlier sunrises and later sunsets mean a lot.
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| today's route |
When I was closing things up in the RV's cabin to get on the road, I found yet again that the latch on the top drawer under the stove had broken. This is the 3rd time it's broken, and it's only this one that's broken.
The glossy brochure and map for last night's campground had ads for local merchants, including an RV dealer a few miles away. I called, they said yes they had those latches, so I emptied the broken drawer, found other places to stow those things, and we took off.
The service person at the RV place agreed that it was unusual for it being always the same drawer that breaks, but he said those latches are notorious for breaking and he didn't seem to think my experience was odd. I guess I think it's odd because it's such a major nuisance. I got 2 new latches - one for fixing today, and another for when it breaks next time, as apparently it will do. Quel nuisance, as my Momma used to say.
Recycling
You'd think - well, I'd think anyway - that a city the size of Birmingham would have easily available recycling facilities - and you'd/I'd think wrong. I had to hunt for any.
The one I found I'm skeptical about because it was nothing more than a couple of rows of large open-top wooden crates that people piled stuff in. There weren't any signs about what was or wasn't acceptable for recycling, and most people were dropping off stuff in large plastic bags which may have been mostly garbage for all I could tell. But I was stuffed with recyclables, and it was labeled as a recycling facility, so I too put my things in a large plastic bag and left them there.
It's clear to me that people all over the US want to recycle stuff. We've all been educated and are willing to participate, as far as I can tell. But a huge chunk of the country isn't providing that service for us. The big cities seem to think that providing service at people's houses is enough - but what about all the people who live in apartment buildings or in RV parks or in rural areas? I'm seeing an awful lot of people at every recycling facility I've gone to, even in big cities, so a major opportunity is being lost.
Groceries
I didn't want to brave Montgomery traffic - even on a Saturday morning - just for groceries, and I found a Winn Dixie in Wetumpka, where my next campground is, so that's where I went. It turned out to be a small one to cater to a small town, so they didn't have everything I wanted, but it was good enough.
Miscellaneous from the drive
This time I took the eastern ring road around the city and passed a sign I hadn't noticed before, marking the Wetumpka Impact Crater. I'd never heard of this before so looked it up, and it turns out to be pretty interesting.
Wetumpka impact crater
Back in the age of dinosaurs, a meteorite 1,000' wide blasted into this area, which scientists think was at that time a shallow sea. Of course, now it's just part of the hills in this Piedmont region, which is how they found it: to a geologist, it doesn't look at all like the rest of the area. For a layman's version of all this, you can check out this link. http://www.wetumpkaimpactcratercommission.org To me, it's almost as interesting to learn that even as recently as the 1970s and '80s most scientists didn't believe large meteors could hit the Earth. (Why? Do they think Earth has a meteor-repelling shield around it?)
Surprising bumper sticker
In Wetumpka I saw an ordinary sedan being driven by an older woman with that helmet sort of hairdo that some old-fashioned women never give up, and I had her pegged for your basic small-town Republican Alabaman. She had a sticker in her rear window that said: "11.3.20 As it turns out, he wasn't the lesser of two evils." I still expect him to win the next election, but it may be closer than I expected.
License plates
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| current plate since 2014 |
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| previous plate, still as common as the new ones |
That "Heart of Dixie" thing that shows up on all versions of AL license plates - the DMV says it's the state slogan, but I don't know who told them that.
The official state motto is "We Dare Defend Our Rights." (Really.) The official state motto is "Garden State." (Don't ask.) And one of the 3 unofficial nicknames is "Heart of Dixie." Along with "Yellowhammer State" and "Cotton State."
So I think it's really odd that a state government arm would decide to put this phrase on their license plates.
Campground
This is the place I visited a few days ago where there's a lot of Spanish moss. By the time we got here, it was starting to rain, as forecast, and that kept on the rest of the day. But the campground was only about a third full, and I saw only a couple of other dogs, so I only worried about deer.
Deer were actually a problem. When we went out for our before-bed walk, it was dark of course so I couldn't see anything, but both the dogs sensed a deer as soon as we stepped outside and reacted like idiots as usual. I could barely wrestle them back inside, and gave them a 5-minute settle-down period. When we tried it again, the deer had gotten the message and left the area, thank goodness. But I hate scares like that. I really don't want to get dragged again, or get my arms half wrenched out as has happened not too long ago.
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