The idea for this trip started with Jeannie signing up for an early March quilt retreat run by the marvelous quilters of Gees Bend, https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers. We figured we might as well turn it into a road trip, especially given the late winter/early spring timing; March is not the best of months in New England. The plan includes bike trails, rockets, …
Three Presidents in 2 Days
Monday: Final packing done by 8:45. We set the trip odometer to 0 and headed out for some biking, quilting and a long journey south of the Mason-Dixon Line. It was a beautiful day, brisk (1 C.) and sunny when we set out. It was 17C. at the stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. A long but uneventful 435-mile (700 …
We got both kinds of country and everything in between
Remember Bob’s Country Bunker in the Blues Brothers movie? If not, time for y’all to watch that again! Belushi asked what kind of music do you play here? Waitress replied “we have both kinds, Country and Western!”. Well, between Bristol and Nashville we heard and learned about it all. Thursday, February 27: Apparently the cold has decided to join us …
Rockets!
Monday, March 2nd: First stop today was the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. A rainy, 120-mile (200 Km) drive from Nashville. This is our first time in Alabama – lengthening our list of states we have visited. We are on our way to Birmingham, about another 100-miles from Huntsville, so we passed on the many other exhibits …
Learning some history in Birmingham
We went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Museum this morning. The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate focused on the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s in Birmingham. It’s located across the street from the 16th St Baptist Church that was bombed by the KKK in 1963, killing 4 young girls. Kelly Ingram Park, next to the …
Hats Off to Hattiesburg
Tom had looked at riding parts of the Longleaf Trace Rail Trail and the Natchez Trace while Jeannie was at the quilting conference. When Jeannie postponed the Gees Bend Quilting Conference, we looked at those rides and decided that the Longleaf Trace looked like the better plan . We booked an Airbnb in Hattiesburg which is at one end of …
Meandering around the Gulf Coast
Saturday, March 7th: Took the long way to Mobile today. Drove down to Gulfport so we could stay along the coast road for a while. There was a nice park in Gulfport where we took a walk out to the pier. Everything at the marina and in the park looked very new. This area was hit hard by Katrina so …
Fairly good time in Fairhope
Monday, March 9th: Drove into Fairhope this morning and headed south on the Eastern Shore trail. The trail is mostly just a wide sidewalk running along the road so it has the usual cinder blocks, garbage cans, occasional phone poles and of course various landscape and construction trucks parking on it. Annoying but not really a big deal. The trail …
Burning lots of calories in Florida!
The two horses in the pasture next to our loft above the barn came over to say good-bye as we packed up and headed off from Fairhope. It was a pretty uneventful and uninteresting drive to Wakulla Springs. The inland portion of the Florida panhandle is flat and fairly barren – stands of pines being about the only scenic views …
Last Hurrah in Tampa
Friday, March 13: Hmmm. Just typing the date in I noticed that it is Friday the 13th. There is usually some spot on the local news about how people are dealing with the “unlucky” date. However the local news was busy covering how people are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Short answer, not well. We had about a 250-mile (415 …