This morning we woke up in Alabama, and my FitBit thought I had only gotten to bed at 3:25 a.m. Now I got to bed late (around midnight), but not that late! So I only got credit for not even four hours of sleep. That was only the beginning of our connectivity woes, as the state of Alabama seems to cause some kind of weird warp for electronics. We got on the road and took a hike at Red Mountain Park right outside of Birmingham, which was indeed on top of a mountain and had red clay for soil. Here are a couple of photos; the second one is art.
There was also a "wonder trail" for children that we went on, but Travalon didn't take any photos of that. It had some instruments, like chimes, and old pots that kids could bang on.
Then we hit the road, but my FitBit wouldn't tell me if I'd taken enough steps for the hour, and we couldn't get either of our phones to hook up to Travalon's car to play music. We drove to Montgomery and toured the old Capitol. To our disappointment, it was the historical Capitol and hasn't been used since 1985, although actual working people appeared to have offices in the building. Here is the old Treasurer's Office:
This is the view in the rotunda, looking up at the dome.
This is the historic House.
This is the historic Senate.
We went to the gift shop and got a book and a couple of fridge magnets. Then we walked around outside and saw this Confederate monument.
And this is the state flower, the Camellia, which looks like a type of magnolia.
We took a walk, following the map they had given us, to see some nearby buildings. This is the church where the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was the preacher for years.
Here is a view of the old Capitol from the outside.
We're not sure what this building is. It wasn't labeled on our map, but it looks important.
Here is another view of the old Capitol.
This is the actual Statehouse, where the House and Senate now do business.
This is the State Archives and Museum, right across from the Capitol. We had almost an hour left on our parking meter, so we went into this building to check it out.
In front of it is this map of Alabama.
I made Travalon take this photo. It's a mandolin made by a soldier in the trenches during World War I.
This is a photo of Civil War Confederate paraphernalia.
This is a little model of a small town in Alabama. We're not sure if it's a particular town or just an example of what small-town life in Alabama is like.
This is a very pretty quilt. I didn't read about why it says J on it.
Then we drove to Troy, a college town with a cute square downtown. There was this old drugstore.
There was also Momma Goldberg's Deli, where we ate dinner. Right in the middle of it, suddenly this guy kept saying, "Fifteen minutes to showtime," then the Troy Trojans fight song would come on, and then he would say, "Fourteen minutes to showtime." Over and over again, until it was showtime. It was so annoying!! But the guy was broadcasting a live sports show from the restaurant on the radio. He was interviewing the Trojans' head basketball coaches for both the men's and the women's teams.
I had to run an errand for some clothing items I'd forgotten at home, and we found this. Meet Sir Rup, the Earl of Wafford. He came with a box of heart-shaped gummies, and the box said: "I like you a waffle lot!"
You may be wondering about his name. Years ago I dreamed that I was seeing a guy, and people kept telling me he was the Earl of Wafford, but I was like, "Nah, he's just a guy." Then he took me to his family estate and showed me a Medieval chapel on the grounds. I said, "It's beautiful!" and he said, "You little fool, can't you see I'm asking you to marry me?" There is actually no Earl of Wafford - I looked it up - but you could say that Travalon is my Earl of Wafford. Only instead of proposing in a Medieval chapel, he did it in a gazebo in a marsh in the Arboretum. Still just as romantic, and really, way more fitting for me.
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