Lu's Views Travel Notes - Summer 2022 - Southern Surprises - Part Two - Florida, and Alabama again.
Lu's Views Travel Notes - Summer 2022 - Southern Surprises - Part Two - Florida, and Alabama again.
Thursday,
July 7, 2022
Tallahassee, Florida – we camped in nephew Dwayne’s front yard. There is just about enough room in the yard next to the driveway for the Bigfoot and our car; we ran an electrical extension cord from the house. We met Dwayne at the club where he works and ate mullet from a food truck that parks outside the club. There was driving rain on the way and definitely a hot, rainy, tropical feel the entire time we were there.
Friday, July 8, 2022
Wanting to see some local scenery, we went to Wakulla Springs State Park and hiked 2 ½ miles (not intentionally – the deceptive trail map said the loop trail was .9 miles, but that figure did not include ½ mile hike to and from the loop!). This was the only time on the entire trip that we got serious mosquito bites. We had dinner at Harry’s (Louisiana style food), in the University area, with Dwayne.
The following day we visited St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge which is on the Gulf. We saw a flamingo that, we were told, lives there now, having blown in on a hurricane about 4 years ago. We saw lots of water birds on a beautiful waterfront drive with lots of palms as well as cacti. There was rain again and off and on all day, but with breaks so it was not too wet to sightsee.
We
went to Dwayne’s show at 926, the club in Tallahassee where he works. His band, Moonrocks, was outstanding, with a
funky sound, featuring virtuoso guitarists including a bass player they said
they had not worked with before but who fitted in perfectly. Dwayne was quite the showman, an energetic
singer, and we heard some of our favorites like “Fire,” etc. It was a very late night as his band did not
go on until 11 p.m.
The next morning, we had breakfast mid-day with Dwayne and had a long conversation about family issues and family history.
Monday, July 11, 2022
On this day, we went to the Museum of Florida History at Florida State University. Incredibly, it is free, with a mountain of information and interesting, lifelike displays of buildings, military installations, a riverboat, an early freight depot, as well as life-size mannequins of various frontier characters in period clothing. It was much bigger and more comprehensive than we were expecting, especially since it is located inside the University in such a way that you’d really have to be going there on purpose to find it. LCR was interested in material on Francisco Menendez, an important figure in early Florida history who escaped slavery – twice – and was a leader, establishing a fort, Fort Mose, in the first free Black community in the U.S. With an exhibit of early vehicles there was a very early camper van, called a “Tin Can,” built on a Ford truck platform in 1923. The top part over the cab could be let down to form a bed.
After the museum,
we went for pizza with Dwayne’s daughter Kaya.
We had an entertaining conversation and got to know her better.
On Tuesday, July 12, we left Tallahassee and drove to Hastings (near St. Augustine, Florida). Thunderstorms slowed us down quite a bit. We went east all the way to the Atlantic to visit Castillo de San Marcos. It was so hot that I skipped going to the top of the fort to get photos, even with the incomparable view, in order to stay in the shade. The Spanish fort has stood for hundreds of years. Made of a local stone called coquina, a limestone consisting of compressed seashells, the 14-foot-thick walls never fell in battle, even though the town of St. Augustine itself was burned down more than once. The fort is a museum, with displays showing how soldiers and their support people lived and showing how important it was to the Spanish control of the Atlantic coast. Part of our interest was because we saw a similar fort in Puerto Rico, which was also under Spanish control at around the same time.
In
this area, we seemed to drive different roads every time back and forth, as the
campground was not near anything. We
drove past large houses with huge spreads fenced in with wood, indicating farms
with horses; also fields of various crops; and tree-lined roads with Spanish
moss hanging down almost to the top of the car on both sides. Part of the route was on the picturesquely
named Cracker Swamp Road.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Fort Mose does not exist anymore, but there is a museum near the site of the historic community. The exhibits tell the story of the African-American fort using recordings of actors reading the historical characters’ own words. On the grounds, there is a boardwalk to the site of the original court, but there is not much to see due to dredging and nearby development. We bought a copy of an excellent film they show there, about the history of the fort.
We took a trolley tour of Old St. Augustine. Our funny, informative guide went by the name Irish. He was a chunky dude with a waist-length reddish brown braid, and many stories to tell. It was still very hot despite the covered trolleys. Irish gave lots of history and pointed out old walls and redoubts that still exist in places in the town. Most of the old city is made up of two-story pastel buildings with balconies. We asked Irish to recommend a fish restaurant. Following his advice, we ate at Fish Camp, an unassuming name for a very busy, very good local place. We ate at the bar because there was a 1 ½ hour wait for a table. When you get older, there are some things you just won’t do anymore. Besides, we had fun making small talk with the server and other customers at the bar. Saturday, July 16, 2022
We found a well-kept, spacious campground at an Alabama state park on Mobile Bay. We took a short bike ride in the evening to see a beautiful sunset on the pier. Other campers said to watch for alligators in toward the shore, and due to experiences on previous trips we had a good idea of where to look, but did not see any. LCR was having trouble with his bike gears so he did not go far. He researched online but did not get a clear answer and decided to call my brother-in-law, Neil, in the morning. Due to the intense heat, this was the first time this trip we had even been able to take out the bikes. Also it was a smooth paved campground, perfect for practicing riders.
Sunday, July 17, 2022
We had come to Mobile in part to see the battleship USS Alabama. Tours of the ship are self-guided, with colored tape showing various routes through the ship. There are warning signs everywhere that there will be lots of steps, on some of the routes more than others, and they weren’t kidding – there were narrow metal staircases everywhere. Besides displays of various artifacts, there were examples of most every kind of space on the ship available, including living and dining quarters, radio and munitions rooms, and, of most interest to me, the sick bay. With a full operating suite, dental suite and infirmary, it provided comprehensive care on a daily basis as well as care to other ships when they were shot up or destroyed in battle.
There are many levels to this vessel, but only time to see a few of them. There was so much to see that we almost used up all our time there, but we also wanted to see the submarine, the USS Drum, which is right next to the Alabama. The Drum is about the same size as the USS Cobia, the submarine we saw in Manitowoc, Wisconsin a few years ago. She had a crew of 75 plus 8 officers, whereas the Cobia had 70 crewmen and 10 officers. It’s fun to see how they make the most of every available space in such a small vessel. I recall seeing large stores of canned goods under the floors and along the walls of the Cobia. One thing we learned was that the sailors on the Drum had so little space for water storage that they washed with cloths wet with condensation inside the boat. But they had an ice cream machine. So when the two ships were close by, the Drum’s officers took advantage of the showers aboard the Alabama while their counterparts boarded the Drum and got ice cream.
Outside
the museum building, there is another, much smaller and older vessel, which we
learned was an actual Civil War sub.
Very few of these were made; one has been excavated recently with relics
of the crew still inside. The subs were
powered by the crew through a sort of pedal/rowing machine mechanism that
looked like something found in a modern gym.
They were only 4 feet in diameter on the inside. Clearly, this duty was not for everyone.
The day had been so strenuous we looked again for a local fish place and found a local chain, Ralph and Kacoo’s, which was wonderful – grilled salmon, grits and catfish. We took a bike ride again around the campground and out onto pier. Neil helped LCR with gear issue on the phone the following morning.
Monday, July 18, 2022
I spotted a bloodmobile in Spanish Fort, AL (Mobile area) in a strip mall. The sign said there was a critical need for Type O. I’m Type A, but they took me and it was one of the fastest, most stress-free donations I’ve had. It was a state of the art trailer, with 4-6 donation chairs, modern and gleaming and air-conditioned. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes. I asked the technicians how many donations they would get in a day – they said 18-20. They said the trailer would be moved if they were not getting any traffic.
We drove to Chewacla State Park just north of Auburn, AL. This was in deep woods, yet surprisingly, there were few enough bugs to be able to do yoga outside and eat breakfast on the picnic table. It rained in the evening and night. There was a young couple next to us with a tent. They had clothes and bedding hung outside on lines and I was wondering if their stuff would get wet again, but they managed to stash it all inside the car and tent before the rain hit. It appeared they’d had experience with rain before.
When using the bathroom and contemplating a shower, I had a feeling someone had a dog in the shower. There were noises coming from behind the curtain, like muffled yelps, someone trying to wash a pet while keeping them quiet, but no one was talking. I got out of there fast. It was kind of creepy, not to mention you’re not supposed to have dogs in bathroom areas.
We worked in place for a few days, because we wanted to see the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, which was not open until Wednesday. One thing we needed to do was scan a large quantity of discovery documents from a legal case, which needed to be put in electronic form, at a UPS store. This took quite some time and we appreciated the courteous staff putting up with us hogging the scanners while they were taking care of a busy afternoon of customers at the same time.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Like so many national historic sites we have visited, the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site was larger and had way more information and things to see than we expected. There were two huge hangars with planes, simulators, posters, photos, videos and audio with the stories of men and women who were there. We were familiar with the stories of some of the pilots, but there was more about support staff than I was expecting and more about women including secretaries, mechanics, parachute riggers, test pilots. They all were amazingly accomplished in the face of racism such that they were expected to fail. We met a couple whose son was going to Auburn U for grad school. It seems many of the Tuskegee site employees and volunteers had gone to Auburn as well. It was and is a hotbed of Black education, achievement and knowledge.
Driving through the Auburn campus, we saw a sign around two huge oak trees: Please Do Not Roll. At a complete loss as to what this could mean, I looked it up. Apparently it is a tradition for Auburn students to toilet paper trees during football season, but these particular trees are at a sensitive stage and the signs were requesting that they be spared. My confusion was due to a cultural disconnect – where I come from, this activity is called “TP-ing.”
Why did I call this entry “Southern Surprises?” Alabama was a surprise to me in many ways. I had a mental picture of the state as one huge rain forest, with unfriendly locals. It was so much more than I expected. There were mountains, and hilly areas that reminded me of the Wisconsin River valley near where I grew up. We saw huge fields indicating a vibrant agriculture scene and large logging operations. And for some reason, the largest cemeteries I have ever seen, going on for acres and acres, manicured land filled with stones old and new. Not to mention the people, who, as I said earlier in this post, were found to be friendly and accommodating wherever we went.
There were a few local terms I saw on signs and menus that were unfamiliar. I know what a hoagie is, and a grinder (sub sandwiches), but what’s a ryder? Turns out it is like a sub in that it can have almost anything inside, but on the outside is pita bread. And a growler? This is a glass jug they sell craft beers in for takeout.
I want to mention the squirrels, too. Like the Midwest, Alabama is full of squirrels, but they are different – longer, skinner, dark charcoal gray or black instead of brown, with long slender tails, more like fast rats than Chicago squirrels.
Friday, July 22, 2022
We drove to Huntsville and camped at Ditto Landing. The campsite was in a new, open area away from the boat landing, with no shade, so it was spacious but very hot. Because of the heat, I did standing yoga poses only outside, on a rocky area in the shade of the trailer. We saw many trailers with occupants who came and went as if going to work during the day, and we theorized they may be temporary workers in the aerospace industry, which is booming in Huntsville. The new area of the campground suggested they are expecting more business of this kind in the future.
In the morning I saw a bobcat on the edge of a grassy area near our campsite. It came and went quickly so I did not get a picture, but it was clearly wild, with powerful leg and hindquarter muscles, stockier and larger than a domestic cat, with small furry ears.
The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville is fairly expensive as museums go. A lot of it seems Disney-ish, geared toward kids, with displays that seem like carnival rides while of course illustrating some aspect of air or space travel. We signed up for a tour simply because it was free. This turned out to be a great idea. A bus took us to a farther area of the park where a very enthusiastic guide, an ex-army Air Force pilot, lectured about various warplanes. He gave a really interesting talk, sometimes under a shelter where we had bleachers to sit and sometimes under the wing of a plane he was explaining to us. To a certain extent it was a sales pitch for the Center’s space and aviation summer programs for teenagers (which are quite elaborate, with flight simulators, dorms similar to military installations, and leadership activities designed to test the kids). Even at that, it was a lot of good info about military flight in general. The guide told us of the debate about Navy pilots vs. Air Force pilots: He, of course, thought Air Force pilots were better, but said Navy pilots do have to learn to land on an aircraft carrier which is a very hard thing to do. He said on commercial flights you can tell an ex-Navy pilot from an ex-Air Force pilot because the Navy pilots land faster and harder. During his presentation, in the background we could see a group of high school age kids in a pond, doing an exercise that appeared to involve coordinating their exit from a mock vessel that was sinking.
Sunday,
July 24, 2022
The Huntsville Museum of Art is full of wonders and surprises, including a textile exhibit by artist Betty Grisham, with quilting, needlework, and painting, sometimes all on the same piece, as well as some Native American textile art.
Monday, July 25, 2022
On our way back north, we went back through Nashville and this time went to the city’s center. Downtown Music City is not to my taste – too much like Times Square in New York, with lots of glitzy signage, huge restaurants and expensive shopping malls, all crammed into the downtown area, with the expected crowd of tourists eager to spend money. Our goal was the National Museum of African-American Music, which opens right onto a street full of the aforementioned restaurants and stores.
I’m not sure what I expected. It’s a huge task, chronicling such a broad topic as African-American music. It is difficult to represent music in a building. I remember the same sort of issues with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Here, there were many artifacts such as guitars and costumes, as well as screens with videos of various artists – though hardly ever a complete song. The museum was organized as a timeline but because there were numerous ways in and out of the rooms, it was easy to get off the timeline when walking through. Walking from room to room, the sounds necessarily overlapped.
Upon entry visitors are given a bracelet with a chip. There are many stations with headphones and recorded music, and you can download songs to record your own playlist which is yours to keep. Toward the beginning of the exhibit there was a room where visitors could sing in front of a green screen with a gospel choir. A group of women in front of us did this. There were pegs for choir robes but no robes, so they appeared as members of the robed choir but in their street clothes. Thus the one interactive exhibit I saw at the museum was not completely functional.
Finally, as museums go, it is expensive. Though there were entertaining moments, I cannot say it is a must-see. It would be fun for someone who enjoys recording playlists and videos and playing them back again. There was a small exhibit of music-themed art in a separate room toward the front of the museum, and that was honestly the highlight for me. The paintings and collages were beautiful and the silence was a welcome relief after a long time of hearing many kinds of music being played at once.
We had to drive more quickly on our way back north, in order to make the Watkins family reunion with Uncle Steve, LCR’s brother, in northern Wisconsin on the last weekend in July. This was a weekend full of family, food and connections (except for internet – the campground was that remote!) and of course some drama, in the form of a mini-forest fire which fortunately was extinguished as we watched. We returned to Chicago full of food and memories.
____________________________________________
Gas
prices: High – as always, Chicago at
$5.69
$4.27
in Lexington, TN
$4.18
at mile 147 on the 20
Low:
$3.89 in southern Georgia
____________________________________________
Signage:
Tribble Vapors - Name of cannabis shop in Springfield, IL (Clearly owned by a Star Trek fan)
Free belly rubs with exam. Sorry, pets only. – Vet clinic in Collinsville, IL
I go where I’m towed – Sign on RV spare tire cover
Push button for assistance – and there is a mousetrap affixed to the sign – Nashville I-24 campground
Pride is like the summer. It’s always followed by a fall - Church near Nashville TN
Nothing Bundt Cakes – Name of bakery in Smyrna, TN
No animals in showers – Colbert Alloy Park Campground, Muscle Shoals, AL (I thought this was funny until, in another campground, I did actually hear someone with a dog in the shower!)
Please note, we do not refund admission fees because you were frightened by an animal. This is nature. – Posted on Dismals Canyon website
Chickens have no teeth. Don’t be a chicken - Peterson Dental, Alabama.
We tote the note - Used car lot in Birmingham (means they finance, I think)
Traffic calming ahead - Road sign in Tallahassee
Puff 4 Less – Weed dispensary in TH
Righteous Ink Den – Tattoo parlor in Woodville, FL (near Tallahassee)
Please be considerate of our sensitive septic system. (Sign continues with instructions not to flush twice without waiting after the first time.) - At the Visitors’ Center in St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge
Ancient
wisdom, modern skill – Tattoo parlor in Tallahassee, FL
The whole world is understaffed. Be kind to those who showed up – sign outside restaurant in Tallahassee.
Cannabist – Dispensary in Tallahassee
Thanks teachers! After school supplies sold here – sign outside a liquor store in Nashville.
Desperation Depot – Liquor store near Lebanon, IN, with full parking lot at 2 pm.
I am made of sugar and spice and real estate advice - sign with photo of young woman in a low-cut top in Huntsville, AL
One Nation Under a Groove - theme of National Museum of African American Music in Nashville
Life is a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up - quote from Biggie Smalls in NMAAM in Nashville
Puffin Stuff - Dispensary in Lebanon, TN
You're going to want to give up. Don't. - Church sign near Nashville
And the winner:
Stay safe, stay groovy – Muscle Shoals Sound Studio website
/lbr
Comments
Post a Comment