I Hope I Haven't Forgotten How to Blog

September 1^st, 2003

9:43 P.M.

It seems that I forgot everything else I set out with for this journey to Alabama. I did promise you dear readers that I would take an old analog blog (pen and tablet) with me and I would post verbatim from it...but, nooooo!...I left that sucker in the car at my mom's house Friday morning. Along with my traveling music, sleep arrangements, most of my lactase pills...*Sheesh* All I remembered to take were two days worth of clothing (to last four days) and my toothpaste and toothbrush!

But, the weekend was saved Saturday when my mother and sister took to a surprise shopping spree. I wasn't expecting to get anything, but I wound up with a few more outfits than I left home with. Heck, I brought practically no money with me (I could only afford to set aside $12 to last all weekend, and that was spent before we hit the Kentucky/Tennessee border) and was merely prepared to look around a shoot a truckload of pictures on my mother's digital camera. (I'll find out if I can post any pictures here. I don't know if that's some sort of deluxe feature I'll have to pay for or not. What I could do in the meantime is include links to what I saw down there....Check the end of this post.)

Speaking of that digital camera, this is the first one I've ever operated. I can tell it's going to take some getting used to...with the old-style cameras I'm used to, you just push the button, and the shutter snaps open. With this digital thing, there is sometimes a lag (and sometimes not) between when you push the button and when the picture is actually taking. A lot of my shots are of things I wanted to get...only a fraction of a second after they've passed out of frame. On the whole, though, I must say I enjoyed the thing. Otherwise I would not have snapped 160 shots this weekend!

Now, about the actual trip. Let me say I'm going to skip the obligatory complaints about a six hour drive. Everyone knows what it's like, or at least they can imagine it. No need for me to put my two cents worth in, here. If you've never been in a car for six hours, and you're trying to imagine what it would be like, it's pretty bad...but, it may be a little worse than you're imagining. But, I won't discourage roadtrips. Most of the time, half the fun of getting anywhere is the journey itself.

The first day...well, I don't remember much about the first day. I recouperated briefly and we hit the town(s). See, Muscle Shoals is one of four cities (towns) that share common borders. I've never been to a place like it before, but it's the kind of place where you can't tell where one town stops and the other stops. (If anyone is sitting in Lexington or Nicholasville, Kentucky reading this, think U.S. 27...where it's getting harder to tell where Nicholasville starts and Lexington stops...only more so, and in four directions.)

The four towns are Muscle Shoals, Florence, Tuscumbia, and Sheffield. According to the sites I've linked to here, all these towns are considered part of the Florence, Alabama metro area. I was going to try to direct you to the Alabama State home page, but I kept getting an error message about it. In case your luck is better than mine, gentle reader, then I'll include the link to www.state.al.us. If you get bored with the same error messages over and over again like I do, just subsitute the "al" with the letters of any stat you desire! Surf on, and be happy!

But, back to the trip. I must say my favorite part was Spring Park in Tuscumbia. It has an awesome fountain in it...this thing is lighted, and each night at 8:30 (central time), it is choreographed to music! I know my desritption can do it no justice, but, ah well! I implore anyone who has the sense of adventure to go down there and see the place for themselves!!!! If I discover I can post pictures here without incurring any costs, I'll have to tease you with a couple!
Spring Park isn't the only reason to go down there. This area is also the birthplace of W.C. Handy, and Helen Keller.

As for the second day of the trip, we spent a lot of time looking at houses in the area. Property values down there are really reasonable...we saw some nice houses down there for a fraction of what the same ones would cost up here.

Day three. Much the same. We went to a scenic overlook along the river...a place where my sister saw fireworks on the Fourth of July this year. Very impressive place she found there. One can see the majority of the four towns from that vantage point. My sister told me that the whole valley was alive that night...all across the horizon she could see little fireworks being launched out of people's back yards. I guess I know where I'd like to be next year...if the insanity at my cousin's neighborhood doesn't go on as it has every year for the past decade!

Well, folks....I hate to post and run, but Lexington looks like it's about to get hit with a pretty good storm...I don't want to loose what I've typed up here already!!

More tomorrow...I must add before I leave...

As much as I enjoyed the trip, I do enjoy my home, too!
Good night, All!