Rainy Weather

Our Week in Alabama

Wednesday, March 11. Travel day to Montgomery Alabama. Along the way we made an interesting detour to Mt. Olive West Baptist Church. Hank Williams attended church here as a young boy and developed his love of gospel music. This is a stop that would appeal only to those with an interest in country music. I recall listening to Hank Williams on the radio in the 1940’s prior to the days of TV. Songs like Jambalaya, Your Cheating Heart, You Win Again still resonate.

Gunter Hill, a COE park is where we decided to stay for a few days while checking out Montgomery.

We started by taking a tour of the Hyundai Auto factory, Montgomery’s largest employer. This is an example of what American industry can and should be. It’s highly automated, unbelievably clean to be a manufacturing facility, union free, and focused on quality. Their production is down only two percent during this troubled time.

Day two, we visited downtown sites including the State Capital, the Hank Williams Museum, The First Whitehouse of the Confederacy (The Capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, VA after only three months to be nearer the center of Conflict activity), Hank Williams final resting place in Oakwood Cemetery and Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King was Pastor before moving to Atlanta. For lunch we stopped at Chris’ where we enjoyed Hank’s favorite Loaded Dogs (mustard, onions, sauerkraut, and Chris’ secret chili sauce), fries and bottled coke. Chris’ has been in business at the same location since 1917 so they must be doing something right.

Day three, we traveled to Selma AL for a day tour. Selma was not what I expected. This is a town that I could enjoy spending multiple days in. The downtown area is loaded with well preserved and restored homes and businesses (over 1250 in the historic area) dating to the civil war era and before. Of course, there’s also lots of civil rights, voter rights etc. stuff around the town too. For those who were around in 1965, you may remember that the Edmund Pettus Bridge was the sight where the voting rights march to the capital began. If you’re inclined, this would probably make a good subject for some bedtime reading to brush up on some 1960’s civil rights history.

Now that we're overloaded with country music, how about some good western stuff? Frank and Jessy James stayed here when stopped in Selma. How's this for good western stuff?

It's raining cats and dogs. It's time to move on to get away from this.