Picking Cotton

Here I am on the edge of a cotton field near our dwelling in Prattville, Alabama. I don't know  why most of the cotton fields we drove by remain unharvested. The cotton fields down here by the gulf are a good ten inches taller than the fields near the center of Alabama. I would like to learn more about cotton farming while I am down here.

Great Mileage

Wowser! I got great mileage coming down from Mount Cheaha ro Talledega, Alabama! Mileage of 171.7 is not too shabby!

Museums in Montgomery

Here is a statue of the famous Rose Parks. This statue was just put up in December, 2019. I stood next to her and realized Rose was a little taller than I am. We went to her museum and library. The exhibits there were excellent. The museum started with a film. Then we entered a room with a bus. We stood and could see the image of  Rosa getting on the bus. We also saw the bus driver asking her to give up her seat. Later we saw the police who arrested her. I highly recommend the Rose Parks museum.

After that we went to the Legacy museum and memorial. The Legacy museum is new and very interactive. Slavery is a tough subject. Alabama had more slaves than any other state. The Legacy museum also talks about the criminal justice system, education, health care and a whole range of social issues. After the Legacy museum we took the free shuttle to the Legacy Memorial. This photo here is from the Memorial. Each metal block hanging down represents a county and the black people who were lynched in that county. The name of the county along with the name and age of each victim were engraved into the metal of the block. Alabama had some lynchings but other states such as Oklahoma and Mississippi and Georgia had more. Even Minnesota had three lynchings in Duluth. A rainstorm came while we were visiting this outdoor Memorial. Rain fell sideways and we rushed to the shuttle bus in our rain coats.

We visited the church where Martin Luther King was the pastor but it was closed for tours earlier today. His parsonage home was also closed.We drove by the Confederate White House. From this house Jefferson Davis made the decision  to start the Civil war.This building was not open for tours today which was okay with me. My mind and soul were full to the brim with sorrowful information about the crazy idea of white supremacy.

Lookout Mountain Parkway

After driving the little river canyon wildlife drive we drove the Cheahah State Park road where we went to the highest elevation in Alabama (see picture). We also took the Lookout Mountain Road and the Talledega scenic drive. On this day we had a lot of scenic driving! Northeastern Alabama is very beautiful. Other than crows and turkey vultures we didn't see many birds. We heard one nuthatch. We saw a few dead deer on the road but only one squirrel crossing the road on a telephone wire. We had a nice long drive south to our place in Prattville, Alabama. We found our rooms eventually and were glad to bring our bags inside. We will stay here two nights. Tomorrow we visit some civil rights museums.

Little River Canyon

After leaving the town on Harvest, Alabama where we stayed at an Airbnb, we drove east across Alabama to the Little River Canyon. We stopped in at the National Park office to get a lay out of this spot on the southern end of the Appalachian mountains. We took a mile and a half hike hoping to see one of the green lizards who breath through their skin but we had no luck. We did see the water falls and the rapids. We know people kayak through there but there is no way I would ride a boat down that waterfall. The temperature was in the mid 60's so I wore shorts. The sky was overcast but it did not rain on us. We took the scenic drive through the national lands and stopped at every scenic overlook.Some of the rocky outcroppings had carnivorous plants but we didn't see anything we could identify. We spent a lovely morning in this canyon and it sure felt good to walk around instead of sitting in the car all day.

Huntsville

We finally were able to finish driving through the extremely long state of Illinois. Kentucky and Tennessee were easy compared to Illinois. Once in Alabama we drove to Huntsville. We wanted to visit the US Space and Rocket Center. This science museum has information about the Apollo missions, the space shuttles and the future of space travel. I learned about Werther von Braun, a Nazi scientist who was recruited by the United States to design rockets. He was a leader down here in Huntsville. The center's exhibits are dated.  The best part of our visit was the guided tour of the Apollo rocket and the  Apollo 16 capsule with the parachute hanging above it.

Mount Vernon

We drove for ten hours today and decided to take a rest. We're in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Tomorrow we drive through the Shawnee National Forest so we would like to see that in the daylight rather than drive through in the dark.