Alabama - Day 7 - Jesse Owens Museum

Point Mallard Campground
Saturday, 7 December 2019

The campground has been daily adding to its Christmas decorations and is now quite festive with lots of inflatables of various kinds.

Dexter was particularly interested in the 4' tall cup of cocoa with 2 rabbits in it, one that disappeared into the cocoa and then popped back up again with its arms out.  He stopped and watched it for at least a minute.  I kind of liked the inflatable snowmobile that said "Dashing through the snow" along the side, being ridden by 2 penguins with Santa hats.  They also had a 6' or 7' tall Santa riding on the back of an elephant that reminded me a lot of Babar.

I was later than usual taking the dogs out this morning (6:30) and twice we met other dogs, one a yellow lab and the other a golden retriever.  Both times I expected loud explosions from all involved, but I got really lucky.  The retriever barely lifted an eyebrow over my dogs and kept sniffing around its campsite, and the lab just sat and watched my dogs walk by.  Both times mine were ready to react, but having nothing to react to they just kept walking.  I could scarcely believe it.  And I won't push my luck by going out that late again.

I found out about the Jesse Owens Museum accidentally and was really glad I was still in the area and could go.  It's only 10 miles or so from where I boarded the dogs.

today's route

The drive down
Today is Pearl Harbor Day, or as they seem to be calling it now, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.  I never think of December 7th without thinking of that event, but I'm guessing that with so few left of the WWII generation, and with their children (e.g. me) also aging it won't be many more years before it becomes a piece of history, like Armistice Day is now, rather than present memory.  There are people who can vote now who weren't even alive on 9-11-01, let alone remember it. 

It was a warm sunny day, though the windchill lowered the temperature quite a bit.

There must have been a good crop of calves this year - I noticed quite a few fields with many of this year's calves in them.  Once as we drew near a field I saw one of the young cows (maybe born last year) watching us.  Noteworthy because usually cows ignore us, but this one stared at us the whole time we were in sight.  And a little farther on most of a herd of cows stared at us, making me wonder what's different about us today.  Or maybe what's different about these cows.

A little farther down the road I saw 8 or 10 vultures circling overhead.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with us but, after those cows, it was a little unnerving.

I passed a business called Alabama Ammo.

I stopped for gas and saw an unusual display of festive tires.

I also passed fields where cotton and maybe hay had been grown.  This whole northern part of Alabama must be fertile.

I passed road signs saying State Route 24 is part of the Appalachian Development Corridor V.  It took me a bit of research to find out what this means.   It seems that in the 1960s and '70s, following Eisenhower's push for interstate highways, Congress decided to piggyback on those roads to bring development to areas of Appalachia that had been isolated.  This Appalachian Highway Development System intended to build new roads where needed to connect underserved areas in 13 states to the major highways.  As so often happens, projects got delayed and even now I can't tell how much of the overall plan was completed without more research than I want to do.  But northern Alabama has part of Corridor V, which runs from Mississippi through Alabama up into Tennessee.

I haven't mentioned before but I've been seeing some lovely huge old magnolias in the area.

Jesse Owens Museum
Since I was young, I've admired Jesse Owens both for his amazing accomplishments at the 1936 Olympics and for proving that Hitler's bizarre belief in Aryan supremacy was full of malarkey (Owens being black).  I came here to pay my respects and find out more about this person.

Turns out I've been admiring him for a lot less than he deserves.

Young life
He was born near the community of Oakville, AL, in 1913, the youngest of 10.  His father was a sharecropper - i.e. he was allowed to live on someone else's land and use their farm equipment in exchange for half the value of his crop.  In other words, this poor man was having to raise a family of 10 children on half the value of his work.

The youngest child was named James Cleveland and called J.C. by his family.  He was a sickly child and spent several winters suffering with pneumonia, for which they couldn't afford medicine.  Worse, he had mysterious boils on his chest and legs, and the parents had to give him medical treatment themselves: the father held J.C. while the mother cut them off his body with a red-hot kitchen knife.  Somehow J.C. recovered enough by the time he was 6 to be able to walk the 9 miles to school with his siblings.

Cleveland
When J.C. was part way through elementary school, his family moved to Cleveland and an entirely different way of life from rural Alabama.  His teacher misunderstood his Southern accent and thought he said his name was Jesse, and J.C. was too embarrassed to correct her.  So Jesse he became.

In middle school he met Ruth, the girl he would later marry, and Coach Riley, who was the first to see Owens's athletic potential.  He loved to run but was never very coordinated about it.  The coach taught him how to do it better and, by the time he was 15, he could run 100 yards in 11 seconds - unusual for someone his age.  On the track team he broke the world record for junior high in the high jump and the long jump.

Owens was born with the athletic ability, but it was this coach that helped it become more than a hobby.

and this is what Owens went on to do

That student council president honor is unusual because Owens was one of the few black students at the school, yet he was liked enough to be given this award.

detail about his high school achievements

He had one other significant event while he was in high school: he and Ruth eloped.

They were married for life and later had 3 daughters.

College

Then he decided to go to Ohio State, despite the racism there, because they got jobs for him and his father.

dealing with racism at Ohio State

his distinguished college career

1936 Olympics

context for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin

speaks for itself

it must have been a proud moment for Owens

So much for Hitler's Aryan supremacy theory.  Hitler himself refused to acknowledge Owens or his accomplishments and left the stadium before the awards ceremonies.  Before Owens's wins, Hitler had personally congratulated each winner; after he ignored Owens, the Olympic Committee told him he must treat all athletes the same, after which he congratulated no one publicly, only the German ones privately.  Owens's friend Luz was killed fighting for Germany during WWII.

Life after the Games
The AAU (Amateur Athletic Union), which today is one of the world's largest organizations for amateur athletes, says it's dedicated to promoting physical fitness and amateur athletics.  In that context, read what happened to Owens and his fellow Olympic athletes.

but that ticker tape parade must have seemed pretty great to Owens (it would to me)

being black in a white society

this shows how he turned one job into something entirely different, and much better

showing more than 20 years of inspirational public service

In 1976, Pres. Gerald Ford presented him with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country.

In 1980, Owens died of lung cancer in Tucson.

The museum
Not long after his death, friends and family in Oakville started work on a museum in his memory.  Raising the money took time, but the main stumbling block was obstruction by city leaders.  But in 1996, the Olympic Games were going to be held in Atlanta and the torch would be passing near Oakville.  Stumbling blocks disappeared when they got permission to have the torch pass through the new memorial park.  It was carried by Jesse Owens's grandson, and his wife Ruth and daughters all came for the dedication.

This statue was unveiled at the dedication.

His athletic ability
It's possible to make a case for Jesse Owens to have been such an athlete that he would still beat those who've subsequently topped his records: they're using advantages he never knew.

shoes - then vs now

uniforms - then vs now

starting blocks - then vs now

You can see how a little modern knowledge (and nutrition) might mean Owens would still be setting world records.  It's an interesting idea.

the memorial is encouraging folks to still be inspired by Owens

you can see that people have been trying to match his record of 26' 5¼" (marked in red at the end)

To me, Jesse Owens was a man of amazing talent and enormous heart.  He pushed through every obstacle life put in his path, and used his energy to make life better for others.  Really remarkable.

After the visit
Because today is Saturday I didn't want to go straight back to the campground - there are a lot of dogs there and I figured on a weekend their owners would be more likely to be walking them.  Instead I drove us to another part of the park where we wouldn't be taking up space from other memorial visitors and spent several hours here.  It was a beautiful day, so I opened some windows for fresh air.  I walked the dogs a couple of times (trying to dodge the horses and cows in nearby fields).  We ate lunch.  I worked on my blog.

I saw several Bluebirds in the nearby ballpark.  I never get tired of seeing them.

After we'd sat for a bit in the sun, we started to get coated again with ladybugs.  Only this time I knew more.  A woman I'd talked to when I was doing laundry told me they weren't ladybugs but potato bugs, so I looked them up.  Turns out they're neither of those, they're Asian lady beetles.

a ladybug

an Asian lady beetle

The difference between the ladybug and the Asian version is obvious if you look closely (which I don't expect to do): the Asian one has that black-on-white design at the head which the ladybug doesn't. 

But there are many individual versions of these, of course, and the main difference as far as I'm concerned is that ladybugs definitely do NOT want to come inside houses, where Asian lady beetles definitely do.  Which is what I've been contending with for several weeks now.

Plus, the Asian ones will bite, and if you squash them they ooze a yellowish liquid that stains.  And in gardens they tend to take over the habitats of native ladybugs and run them out.  And all these lovely things were brought to the US on purpose by the USDA because the beetles are great at eating aphids.

Once I realized potato bugs weren't what I was having a problem with, I didn't bother to read any more, though I'm sure gardeners know all about them.

a potato bug

I've developed a slick method of getting these beetles out of the RV.  I have 2 plastic cups of different sizes so the top of one fits over the top of the other.  I use one to scrape the beetle off whatever surface it's on into the other one, clap the first one over the top of the 2nd and take them outside where I let it loose.  Because the plastic is clear I can see for sure whether I have it captured and whether it leaves the cup outside.  Works well.  I just resent having to do it over and over.  Stupid USDA and unintended consequences.

Alabama - Day 6 - dogs and mail

Point Mallard Campground
Friday, 6 December 2019

While I was walking the dogs this morning, I saw 10 Great Blue Herons flying overhead in a big V formation.  One of them was squawking and almost sounded like a goose.  But geese aren't as thin as these birds and don't have their long legs trailing behind.  I'm sure these were herons.

today's route

There I was casually planning to go visit the Jesse Owens Museum and then pick up the dogs and waiting until tomorrow to go back to Sheffield for my mail when I realized the Sheffield Post Office isn't open on Saturdays, which is what tomorrow is.

It's a 2-hour round trip from this area to that, and it gets dark fairly early these days, and I had to get the dogs by 2:00 so I didn't have time to go over there first and then swing by the boarding place.

Anyway, I rearranged my mind (not an easy task), came up with a modified driving route from the one I'd intended, and off Lily and I went.

Liquor store
I stopped at a liquor store to buy scotch and learned a lesson about the bizarre laws that Alabama has about liquor sales.  Beer and wine are sold in grocery stores, and liquor (I learned) is sold at state-owned stores.  Except the place I stopped was independently owned.  Apparently Alabama allows a few of them to operate, but they pay a price for it.

The regular fifth of Johnny Walker Red that I picked out cost $59.99 and I nearly dropped it when I saw the price - about double what I've paid everywhere else.  What I actually wanted was hard-to-find Teacher's scotch, so I've not liked paying much for any other brand anywhere, but this was beyond all reason.  That's what I'd expect to pay for single-malt scotch.

So I asked the owner if Alabama has huge liquor taxes and he explained: yes, AL does have very high taxes but that bottle would cost a bit less at a state-owned store; he as an independent owner is required to buy his liquor from the state, and then the state adds an extra tax on his products that's not on those bought at the state stores.  So customers of an independent store get taxed several times more than those of a state store.

He said he'd be glad to tell me where there were state stores, but I got mad at a system that reminded me of union-busting techniques and decided to buy it anyway.  And resolved to drink mostly wine during the month of December.

I stopped to pick up the puppies, who said they were very glad to see me.  I was sorry to hear they hadn't been able to play with the other dogs as I'd hoped.  The owner told me they'd tried one day but Dexter went into overload, so they couldn't let him stay in the group.  I'd warned her about it but should have taken more time to explain that he can do it if he's introduced to the group a bit at a time, and given several tries at it.  Apparently they just gave him the one try.  But at least my kids got to run around sometimes in a yard together and sniff new things, so it was a change from being mostly cooped up in a small RV all the time.

On the road
I heard on the radio that Alabama is celebrating its bicentennial in Montgomery on December 14th with lots of festivities.  Two hundred years of statehood is something worth celebrating, though it sounds like they're celebrating their first entry to the Union.  Which I suppose makes sense if you take the position that they didn't have any legal right to secede in the first place so never technically left.  Anyway, I'm sure a great time will be had by all.

I passed Moulton - The Friendliest Little Town in Alabama.  Funny because I saw online comments that said their police force is corrupt.  But I suppose the townsfolk can still be friendly.

Radio stations are almost entirely country and religious in this part of the state.

Purple Martin

I passed someone's house with a sign out front about the Northwest Alabama Purple Martin Club.  And I didn't see a Martin birdhouse anywhere.  With a sign like that I'd have expected to see a yard full of the houses, even if the birds aren't here. 

And the bird book says they don't winter here but fly south to South America instead.  It says their numbers are declining on the Pacific Coast, so I'm glad they're encouraging them on the Gulf Coast.  Since the birds eat flying insects (which to me means mosquitoes), I don't know why everyone doesn't encourage them.  I thought several times about putting up houses for them in our yard in Austin - we certainly had plenty of mosquitoes for them to eat.

Muscle Shoals/Sheffield
In Muscle Shoals - "Home of Fame Records - Source of the Muscle Shoals Sound" per their sign - I saw a state historical marker for Percy Sledge, who recorded his most famous song here.  Here's the link to the marker with its recording studio information.   https://www.hmdb.org

In Sheffield I picked up my mail.  The same guy had it ready for me - said he'd seen me park outside and asked the other staff if a general delivery envelope had come in today and they'd said yes.  That's not the same story those other staff told me on the phone, but I guess they didn't want to rub his nose in his mistake so I didn't say anything about it.  And I got my mail, which was the point.

By this time the dogs had been waiting awhile to go for a walk, so I parked by a vacant lot downtown (Sheffield doesn't seem to be a particularly thriving town) where it looked like we could walk without bothering people.  And the first thing I saw were recycling bins in that vacant lot.

I'd spent ages online this morning trying to find recycling bins anywhere in northern Alabama.  I had an especially tough time because my search engine kept telling me it was giving me information on Florence, AL, when it was actually giving me Florence, SC.  But the "South Carolina" was in such small print, and only on the city flag in the logo, that I didn't see it for ages and spent a really frustrating time trying to locate the roads on my Florence, AL, map that they insisted were there.

And after all that, here were perfectly good recycle bins just out in front of God and everybody.  So I used them.  I've got a bag of glass bottles stored in my below-decks storage bin because I'm not driving all the way to Atlanta just to dump bottles, and I'm not going to throw them away, so I'll just add to my collection until I can find some forward-thinking community.

I've been seeing several signs in the area about "The Shoals" and figured that was just a local nickname.  But today I noticed a state historical marker for Elk River Shoals just outside of Florence, and I learned that there are actually 3 shoals in this area that wreaked havoc with early travel.  Elk River Shoals (the Elk River flows into the Tennessee River near here), Big Muscle Shoals and Little Muscle Shoals together made passage down the Tennessee system nearly impossible.  In the 1800s several canals were dug that eventually solved the problem.  Then in the 1900s the TVA built dams, including the Wilson Dam where I saw the waterfall, and the backed-up water from the dam covered the shoals entirely.

The drive back
There's a town named Elgin in Alabama, just like in Texas.

I saw a church with a sign in front that said, "Give the Devil a inch and he will be your ruler."  (A inch?  Are Alabama schools really not any better than that?)

I saw a marmot sitting by the roadside, eating from a pile of trash someone had thrown out.  It was nice to see him, because it's been quite a while since I've seen a marmot.

I passed a field of cows and one young calf was nursing as I drove by.  Very sweet.

At a street corner in a tiny community I saw a tall gizmo that I'm sure is a weather warning siren.  I vaguely remember hearing about tornadoes through the South last year so looked up northern Alabama and, yes, this area is at high risk for tornadoes.  The state has had 64 of them so far this year, with one just last month.  The normal season isn't until spring so I'm going to hope it won't be a problem this month, but in some places anyway the alarms are around to let us know.

Today I've passed some schools labeled as "middle schools" and others labeled as "intermediate schools."  They appear to be the same thing, but I've never seen a state use both these words on their schools.

And back we came to the campground with our little family intact again.

Alabama - Day 5 - Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia

Point Mallard Campground
Thursday, 5 December 2019

today's route

I had several destinations today in the western part of north Alabama.

The drive
I continue to be surprised by all the manufacturing that's going on in Decatur.  Today I passed a plant for Bunge North America, which I learned is a big agribusiness company.  This plant is an oil refinery - not petroleum but soybeans and other vegetable oils.

I passed Carpenter Technology, which I learned creates corrosion-resistant alloys for the aerospace and defense industries.

I passed the Robotics Technology Park, which I was surprised to learn is a joint venture between the State of Alabama, the Alabama Community College system and the robotics industry to train the workforce needed for robotics products.

I also passed a huge facility for NUCOR, a steel-producing company.

And to top it off, I passed the turn for Brown's Ferry Nuclear Power Plant.  It has the second-most powerful nuclear reactor in the country.

All of which made me wonder about Decatur's growth rate.  I couldn't easily find that information online but did learn that, despite all this, Decatur is still behind Alabama in particular and the US in general for overall jobs and wages/worker.  And some online have complained about Decatur's generally bad air and water quality, though I haven't noticed problems so far.

I passed a sign for Alabama's Birding Trail.  The state has designated several hundred trails for birdwatching - apparently the human snowbirds aren't the only 2-legged critters who come here in the winter.

The drive was mostly through small towns and past fields for crops, cows and horses.  Lots of horses.  I passed one field with more horses grazing than I'd seen in all my time in Kentucky.  It turned out to be next door to a polo club, so I'm sure there was a reason they were there.  But I just cannot understand why I didn't see more horses in Kentucky.

I saw one horse that was beautiful and unusually colored.  It was primarily a dark chocolate color with a swoop of creamy tan across its back and down its sides and a blond mane.  Really pretty.

Coming in the opposite direction I saw a piece of farm equipment so large it took up both lanes on its side of the road.  A semi coming from behind it had to move into the center turn lane to go around it.

I passed a sign saying Welcome to Rogersville - A Fisherman's Paradise.  Don't know why it is, but that's what they say.

I do know they have a plant called Custom Synthetic Fibers, which is a recycled polyester fiber plant.

And they have a Mexican and Japanese restaurant - together - it offers both kinds of food.

Farther down the road is the turn for Killen, which is where I saw the polo club.  I also saw a low-tech amusement park called Killen Time (get it?).  Low tech meaning miniature golf and like that.

I came into Florence and saw a billboard proclaiming "Florence earns platinum for being sustainable."  Turns out Florence is one of 8 cities in the entire TVA system that has achieved this level of sustainability.  Oddly, TVA describes the award as designating a community that "works toward developing a healthy environment, has a thriving community, and has long-term economic prosperity."  I say oddly because there's nothing there that sounds like energy savings or carbon footprint, the ideas that I thought "sustainability" has come to indicate.

Then I crossed the Tennessee River again on the Singing River Bridge.  I had to look that up of course and learned the Native tribe that once lived here before they got sent to Oklahoma called the Tennessee River the Singing River.  They believed a woman lived in the river and sang to them.  I think the river is turning north here on its way back up to Kentucky.

Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia all run together so thoroughly a newcomer would have trouble sorting out which town is where.  I knew only when I passed a city limits sign here and there.

I was aiming to find a waterfall in Muscle Shoals at the Wilson Dam.

Wilson Dam Waterfall
I had envisioned a trail through trees and other growing things.  What I found instead was a paved road with a tall rock wall on one side and the Tennessee River on the other.  But it's a nice waterfall, it was an easy walk, and there was a very large flock of White Pelicans enjoying the water being stirred up by the overflow from the dam.

the long explanation for the dam from a sign posted there

Wilson Dam, on the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama, is the only neoclassical-style dam in the TVA system, integrating themes of ancient Roman and Greek architecture into the modern structure. 

The construction of Wilson Dam began in 1918, a year after the United States entered World War I. The federal government built two nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals for the making of explosives, and Wilson Dam was constructed to supply the electricity needed to power the plants. TVA acquired Wilson Dam in 1933.

The above is the short explanation for the dam taken from the TVA's website.

you can see the classical architectural influences

At the far left you can see water pouring through the dam.  What you can't see is that there are maybe 100+ pelicans swimming around in the water there.  The water flow looks pretty strong, and I watched them over and over getting in one of the currents and floating downstream, then flying back up to the dam and starting over.  I'm guessing the turbulence of the water stirs up fish for them to eat.

my first view of them

close-up from above photo

floating down the river

I never expected to see birds like these and it made me happy to see them.  The bird book says this place is just barely within their winter range.

I couldn't get a recognizable photo of it, but there's a little bay in the rocks at the far left of the dam, and I saw a large mob of pelicans hanging out there.

The waterfall that I actually went to see comes out of a rock wall on the far right side of the dam.

Wilson Dam Waterfall

Nobody wants to tell me how tall this waterfall is.  I checked nearly a dozen websites, and was told many times the walk to get here is a quarter-mile on a paved road near the dam.  But I have no idea how tall this is.

What I do know is that there's a lot of water seeping through the rock wall along this pathway, and I saw photos online of icicles that formed all along the wall during the winter.  I saw other smaller waterfalls, too.

As you can see, these are coming from caves in the wall.  I saw a sign saying this rock wall is karst topography - karst being the type of rock that can result in the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  So yeah, there are caves in this area.

There are also plenty of signs warning of both falling rock and of dangerous waters.  Many signs warn that the water level can rise suddenly with no warning and the area is dangerous.  With all those signs, I was glad to get in, get my photos, and get out again before something fell on me or I got swept away by water.

The water on the path in the photo above is from the waterfall, which is immediately to my right as I took this photo.  That's the dam straight ahead.

All in all, I was glad I stopped here.  Had a pleasant walk to an interesting water feature and really enjoyed the pelicans.

Sheffield Post Office
As usual, Google's directions told me to do something that didn't match up at all to the roads I encountered, so I got on the wrong road entirely.  I stayed on it, though, because I saw a sign saying it was the way to Sheffield's downtown and, sure enough, I got to the post office anyway.  But I have no idea at all what Google was thinking.

Turns out the postal employee I talked to needed help too.  David had told me he was sending me c/o General Delivery an envelope of mail he and Anna had gotten for me.  Unfortunately, all the regular staff were taking a lunch break, so I got a guy who didn't know their system and needed lots of instruction from me that I couldn't give him.  In other words, he couldn't find it.

Later, I called up the post office and a woman said sure, it was there, but I'd needed to tell the guy it was sent Special Delivery, which they put in a different place.  The guy, she said, had been looking with the parcels.  Well, sure, I'd have been glad to tell him if I'd known it was Special Delivery and if I'd dreamed that would make any difference.  To me - non postal employee that I am - it seems they'd put General Delivery mail in one spot, no matter how it was sent.  Maybe, but not in Sheffield.

Anyway, I didn't get it today.

Tuscumbia
I passed a historical marker saying in 1878 a yellow fever epidemic took 31 lives here.  Doctors, nurses and volunteers - "of both white and black" it says - worked around the clock for days to care for the victims and bury the ones who died.  Let's hear it for modern vaccines!

Helen Keller was born here and her former home is now a museum.  The very water pump that's been immortalized in The Miracle Worker is still there and can be visited.  I'd intended to go but by this time was tired and still had an hour's drive back to the campground so decided to pass it up.

Did you know both she and Anne Sullivan are buried together at the Washington National Cathedral?  I didn't.

Downtown Tuscumbia looks exactly like it must have looked when she lived here - if she'd have been able to see it, of course.  Very turn-of-the-last-century.

The drive back
I saw a campaign sign reminding me that I'd heard former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville is running for US Senate.  That's the seat that Jeff Sessions and Roy Moore are also running for.  They and several others are in the Republican primary to face incumbent Doug Jones.  A recent poll shows Tuberville ahead, but it's early yet.

I passed enormous bales of cotton that don't look at all like I thought they'd look.  At least, I'm pretty sure that's what they were.  They looked like 8' tall tubes of pink plastic wrapped around a zillion huge Q-tips.  I was so stunned I didn't try to stop and take a photo, but I'm hoping I'll see more of them later.

Back in Decatur, I turned on a side street to avoid the traffic jam I could see up ahead in a construction zone and found myself on Church Street, where I saw 4 churches within 3 city blocks. 

Alabama - Day 4 - small towns and the movies

Point Mallard Campground
Wednesday, 4 December 2019

today's route

Mooresville
Traveling southbound off exit 2 from I-565, which runs between Decatur and Huntsville, will lead you directly to the tiny village of Mooresville.  Mooresville holds the distinction of being the oldest town in Alabama.

the Post Office

I'd intended to mail something at their post office, thinking it as good a way as any to see the inside without gawking.  But it wasn't open.  There wasn't a sign on the door saying when it would be open.  I'm guessing the residents must have their own keys to the post office so they can access those mailboxes mentioned in the above historical marker, because the door was locked when I was there.  Either that or there are set hours when it's open that they all know and don't bother to tell anybody else (like me).  So I saw the outside.

the Brick Church

The mention on that plaque about the "X + Y = Z Preacher" sounded interesting so I looked it up, and I'm glad I did.  Not something I'd have ever imagined.   https://www.al.com/19th-century-mooresville-psychic

more about the politics of the Brick Church

All of Mooresville is a designated historic district - all 12 blocks of it.  My problem as a visitor is that I couldn't figure out how to get to half of it.  The streets didn't run at all like Google said they would, so I was kind of stumped.  The streets were very narrow (i.e. old) so there was no place for me to park my RV and just walk.  To take these photos I just stopped in the middle of the streets.  I didn't see another soul, or even another vehicle - parked or otherwise.  It was like the whole town had been abandoned, though I somehow doubt that.

There were a couple of other buildings that I saw online were even older than the post office, but they were on a street I couldn't figure out how to get to.

this is information about one of those very old buildings

 Odd little place.

Madison
Madison seems to have very broad city limits.  I drove for miles on several different main roads past shops and churches and schools and never saw a city limits sign.  But all these establishments were labeled as being part of Madison.

A young grocery store clerk told me she liked living in Madison because it felt like a small town but had all the big city stuff of Huntsville nearby.

I was mainly there to go to the movies, which I haven't done since maybe Delaware last January. 

I'd expected to spend more time in Mooresville than I did so I got there an hour early.  While I was waiting I got a call from the woman in charge of the Scottsboro Boys Museum in Scottsboro.

Scottsboro Boys Museum
As far as I can tell, the east Alabama town of Scottsboro has 2 claims to fame: this museum and the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  The latter turns out to be exactly what the name suggests - where everybody's lost luggage ends up.  Really.  All those bags end up here,  and anybody can come here to buy items found inside that are deemed saleable.     https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com

Not being much of a shopper, that wasn't enough to get me to take the 2-hour trip it'd be for me from the campground.  I was very interested, though, in visiting the museum but couldn't tell from what I could see online just when it was open.  Their home page is on Facebook, which I can't access because of not being signed up for it.  I called and left a message, and today I got a return call.

The woman told me they can't afford paid staff so open the museum only by appointment.  I'm learning that my response to ghastly instances of human cruelty is to take photos for my memory and use them to process the horror of it later, slowly, as I can stand it.  That's why it's taking me so long to finish my post on the Civil Rights Museum. 

I didn't want this nice person to go to the trouble of opening the museum for me, only to have me rush through snapping photos and then leave, so I told her I wouldn't come.  For those of you with Facebook access, here's the link to their home page.   https://www.facebook.com/sbmuseum  And here's some more information about the museum.     http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article   And here's the explanation, for those whose memory needs refreshing, of what this was all about.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Scottsboro-Boys

But she took the time to tell me about how she got the museum set up in the first place, and the obstacles that delayed it for years.  She said many of the city authorities were dead set against her setting up the museum there.  Some didn't want their town associated with these events (though it seems a little late for that since these men will forever be known as "the Scottsboro boys").  Some were related to original participants and were personally embarrassed about their behavior (though everybody's got somebody in their family that has done embarrassing things - even if your "family" is the Caucasian race, as mine is in this instance, and I'm embarrassed at the way the whites in this saga behaved).  And some were just racist. 

But with very hard work and perseverance, and with her cause being an honorable one, she's been able to get donations and contributions that have made the museum a reality.  She said authorities told her it wouldn't last a year, and she's proud that they're celebrating their 10th anniversary on February 1st.  The city is giving them no funding so they still depend on donations.  If you're moved to contribute, she said their address is P.O. Box 1557/Scottsboro AL 35768.  She said they're a 501(c)3 organization, so it counts as a charitable donation.

She seems an interesting, knowledgeable, determined woman and I suggested she run for city council.

The movies
I was tempted to the movies for the second time this year because of the reviews I've been hearing about Knives Out.  They're all true.  I can absolutely recommend it.  It's an Agatha Christie type of story with a big mansion, disfunctional family, dead patriarch in the first few minutes of the film, the patriarch's foreign companion/nurse who is physically incapable of lying, and British actor Daniel Craig as private detective Benoit Blanc with a thick Louisiana accent. 

Great fun, well written, clever plot that's almost impossible to guess until it plays out, wonderful acting.  I really enjoyed it, and it looked like the cast enjoyed making it as much as I did watching it.

The drive back
I went to the 1:00 showing, but sunset is early this time of year and I drove back almost due west with the sun in my eyes the whole time.  Fortunately, rush hour traffic starts early even in this area so it was easy to keep track of the traffic because we were moving so slowly for much of the drive.

I was really glad I didn't have the dogs, because I'd have needed to walk them before driving back which would have made these circumstances that much worse through being later.  As it was, the sun was setting when I was parking at the campsite.

Interesting day.

Alabama - Day 3

Point Mallard Campground
Tuesday, 3 December 2019

I spent the day sitting here in the campground.  I came up with planned routes of sightseeing for tomorrow and the next day; I did a load of laundry and took a shower; I spent hours editing the photos I took at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis (still working on that post); I spread a tarp on the picnic table at this campsite and left the dog beds outside to air out all day long.  You know, your basic chores.

It was seriously cold with a stiff breeze blowing for much of the day.  I waited until mid-afternoon to do the laundry when it had finally warmed up to the low 40s.  December, sure enough.

This campground appears to be exactly what the Yelp comments online had said - a city-owned campground that has mostly long-term campers.  Normally such a place would be rundown and junky, but this place isn't.  They collect the trash 3 times a day, don't accept old RVs, keep the facilities clean - just generally a decent place to stay.  I got lucky.

When I'd first got here on Sunday I paid for only one night, not knowing what kind of place it was.  But it didn't take long for me to see it was okay, my site was clean and level, and the facilities were reasonable, as was the price.  I went back to the office then and changed from one night to one week, which was cheaper - just over $150 senior rate.  Decatur is centrally located here in northern Alabama and, with the scarcity of open campgrounds, I decided it'd be okay to serve as a base of operations for sightseeing up here.

In the campground's laundry I met 2 other women who had both lived in Alaska and were talking about their experiences.  So of course I joined in.  We all agreed the odds of the 3 of us meeting were pretty long - Alaska's not the most populous state in the Union, after all.  We exchanged stories of seeing Northern Lights, and keeping car batteries from freezing in Fairbanks in the winter, and seeing stunning scenery everywhere, and meeting amazing people everywhere.  We'd all loved it up there.

The energy level in this RV without the dogs is amazingly low.  I miss them very much and am absolutely delighted I'm not having to walk them 4 or 5 times a day and feeling guilty about it not being more.  I've had Lily for a year now - adopted her just before Thanksgiving last year - so she's adjusted to the dogs just fine.  But I'm sure she too is delighted to have the space and my attention all to herself.

Alabama - Day 2 - Huntsville and Hartselle

Point Mallard Campground
Monday, 2 December 2019

today's route

detail of Huntsville and Decatur routes

I had several goals today, the main one being an appointment at Banfield in Huntsville I'd made to get Lily's claws clipped.  We left the campground earlier than I'd expected, though, and the drive didn't take as long as I'd thought, so I went first to a Huntsville doggie day care I'd found online.

Day care
That was my first clue things weren't going to go well today: the day care wasn't yet operational.  A big sign out front said "coming soon."  It's called The Dog Stop, and I guess it's part of a chain of such places because online it certainly looked fully operational.  Just not here in Huntsville.

Recycling
I went from there to the one recycling center I'd been able to find online that said it'd take glass.  Nope.  A big sign out front said it had lost its contract with the city and had closed in August.  I called the phone number on the sign for some state office and asked if there were anywhere in Alabama that accepted glass bottles.  The woman told me the closest place she knew of was Atlanta.  I said Atlanta, Georgia?  Because I'm getting used to many states having the same names for towns.  And she said yes, Georgia.

The last recycling place I'd found in Tennessee hadn't accepted glass either, so I've now accumulated bottles for the last 3 weeks or so.  It's not easy finding a way to store them in this little RV, but I just can't bring myself to put them in the trash.

Banfield
Beginning to see an unfortunate pattern, I almost dreaded going to the Banfield.  And sure enough, they hadn't been able to pull up Lily's file in their computer.  I'd gotten there early, so I explained to the person at the desk the problems I've been having for the last several months with the various Banfields not being able to gain access to her records. 

In fact, we discovered she couldn't pull up the files for Dexter or Gracie either - probably because they're attached to Lily's.  During the hour I waited for our appointment time, the woman spent most of it arguing with the national IT folks about pulling up those files, and hadn't gotten anywhere.  In the meantime, I'd called them and gotten hung up on.  Which I'm sure was an accident, but my phone's battery ran out before I could call again.

So by 11:30, three good things had happened: Lily had voluntarily hopped into her carrier at exactly the moment I was ready to close up the zippers on her; I found a penny lying in the parking lot (it's money, after all); and Lily got her claws clipped and her flea medication applied.  Things were looking up.

On the way back to the Decatur area I saw a sign for the Huntsville Quarter Midget Association, and with a name like that I had to look it up.  Turns out there are midget racing cars for adults and these are the even farther scaled-down versions for children.  The association accepts kids ages 4½ to 16; the racing cars are one-quarter the size of those for adults; they average 30 mph and have a top speed of 50 mph.  The information on their website horrified me because of the idea of basic babies going 50 mph on a track with other kids of different ages.  And this is not a cheap sport because the cars cost $400 to several thousands and then there's the transporting the cars and the safety gear and the annual dues.  The whole idea has almost stunned my mind into immobility.

Day care redux
I was heading in search of another day care I'd found online that didn't answer their phone and only accepted texts or Facebook, neither of which I do - I don't want to pay for texting (which allows more unwanted advertising than robocalls) and I don't trust Mark Zuckerburg for a second).  But unlike all the other local day cares and boarding places that had their home pages on Facebook, which I can't access, this place had a normal website so I could see it looked like the kind of place I wanted.  So I went to find them.

The business is called Brammer Farms: The Shaggy Hound Pet Hotel, and it's outside a tiny town south of Decatur called Hartselle - City of Southern Hospitality, according to their sign.  It did seem to be a quiet pleasant little place, set in the middle of cotton fields which mostly still had the cotton on the plants.

When we turned into the gates and Dexter saw the other dogs playing in a fenced yard, he was almost beside himself.  The woman in charge was surprised to see me just appear, especially to appear in an RV, but she didn't seem to be surprised about what I was telling her about Dexter needing small groups but doing okay in general, and about how we were all driving each other nuts cooped up in that little RV for so many months, and about how they were just not getting enough exercise or time with other dogs.

She told me she'd charge $40 per 24 hours for the 2 of them together - which is half the price I'd expected to have to pay.  And she offered to take them right away if I wanted to just leave them.  I'd intended to wait till tomorrow, but she said it wasn't by the day but by the 24-hour period, and anyway Dexter was desperately in need of fresh air and exercise and Gracie wasn't too far behind him on that, and at the price she was charging I just couldn't say no.

So that was the fourth good thing to happen today - Lily and I drove off just the two of us and my dogs were wrestling around in their own fenced-in yard while the staff evaluated them.  What a relief.

Groceries
That place being out in the country, I had a little drive back up to Decatur and the traffic was getting thicker when we got to areas with shopping centers.  But I'd found a Publix online that was actually in the place I'd expected and was also open (that first day care place made me not want to take it for granted).  Got most of what I wanted, and Lily and I headed back to the campground, just the 2 of us.

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.