We're Back!

As you know, I traveled to Alabama this last weekend. My primary concern was to avoid unpleasant accidents, so I didn't drink any coffee for five days. It was tough. Here is what I discovered during the trip:

Bathroom Report:

Aircraft: Didn't have to use. Wow!
Dallas/Fort Worth airport: Semi-nasty!
Travelodge--Pelham: OK, odd flushing, no spare roll of paper first day.
Peavine Falls porta-potty: Very nasty!
Moe's Southwest Grill--Alabaster: Very clean.
Walmart-Pelham: Very clean.
Birmingham airport--Ok, but those automatic flushers scare me!

We stayed at the Travelodge in Pelham, Alabama. There was a big window looking out the back towards the trees, which in turn concealed a river my scout reported.

One odd feature of the room were the pictures on the wall. Two of the same picture!

On Friday we went shopping at the Wall Mart. I noticed that front license plates are not required in Alabama.

I also noted that women call you "hon" and "baby" a lot, and that men say "ma'am".

Later we drove to the site of the reception to help set up. We stopped at Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch. It was a pretty fun place. Along the way we saw some trains.

There are a lot of train tracks going every which-a-way, probably hauling the products of the many quarries in the area. I learned that "Calera" means limestone in Spanish.

After the wedding on Saturday we headed to the reception, going through said town of Calera. More train tracks!

I saw this old drug store. I remember when we had Rexall in San Diego, but haven't seen one in years.

The traffic lights are strung on wires across the streets and their positioning seems odd to me. I noticed they don't have a traffic light at the side of the street like we do in San Diego. Several times I didn't even notice there was a light at an intersection! Good thing I wasn't driving!

On Monday we had breakfast at the Waffle House in Pelham.

I had an omelet and hash browns, and of course GRITS! The omelet was rather different than ones out here, not that wonderful, but the hash browns were excellent. I enjoyed the grits, too, haven't had those in a long time. My companions had pecan waffles. Those looked pretty good. I wish I could have had some coffee, but sadly I've been avoiding it for the last week. Did I mention that already?

After that we visited the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, then turned in the car and flew away.

I've lots of pictures of the statue area, views of Birmingham from up high, and of Sunday when we went to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark (bought a miniature bar of pig iron!), and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. But we shall save that for another day, when I get around to posting the pics.