Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts
Spann’s Best Way To The Bama Beaches
**This was written in May 2010… but still ranks as my favorite route to the Alabama coast. Enjoy**
What a wonderful time of the year. School is out; time to load the kids in the car and head south to the beautiful Gulf Coast. Sure, I know many of you enjoy the Florida panhandle, but this is alabamawx.com after all, so we always focus on getting you down to the southern tip of Baldwin County for a little trip to Alabama’s own little slice of paradise. I have been writing these for a number of years, but there is so much to see on the roads less traveled, I always have plenty of new ideas.
Remember, on my journeys, it will take a little longer to get there, but you will enjoy memories of special places that will last a lifetime. This year’s journey is similar to one I described a few years ago with some minor variations. Clearly this is one of my favorites…
HEAD SOUTH: From Birmingham, let’s head south down I-65. No, we won’t stay on the Interstate long, because on the Interstate, “all you see is Interstate” (a line from the cab driver in the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles).
We will exit I-65 at the first Clanton exit, at the “Big Peach” water tower. You will turn right onto Alabama Highway 145 at the end of the exit ramp, and follow the signs for Alabama 145 through downtown Clanton. Needless to say, any place selling peaches will require a stop, since you are in the peach capital of the world. In downtown Clanton, you will need to turn right on U.S. 31 (headed north), and then take your next left, which is Alabama Highway 22.
LIKE STRAWBERRIES? Follow Alabama 22 for a few miles, and just past the radio station you will be turning left onto Chilton County Road 37. This winds down through Fairview, and on the right you will see the Sunshine Farms U-Pick-Em strawberry farm. Come to think of it, I believe the planted the strawberries on the right side of the road this year. One way or another, you can’t miss it. Now understand you are at the tail end of the strawberry season; they close up after this weekend. You can pick berries there during the months of April and May. Can’t beat em; get a couple of buckets. One to eat while driving south, and another to enjoy while you are at the beach. Be sure and tell them I sent you (NO, this is not a paid ad!).
TIME TO EAT: After leaving the Sunshine Farms strawberry patch, you will enter into Autauga County, and drive through the small community of Billingsley. Follow the signs for County Road 37… that will lead you to U.S. 82, which is the main drag between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa. You can eat at the Fat Girl’s Cafe, which is that at the intersection of U.S. 82 and County Road 37, or if you are in the mood for BBQ, turn right onto U.S. 82, and after about one mile you will see Jim’s Pit BBQ on the left side of the road. Hands down the best in Alabama. If you go into Jim’s, same thing, be sure and tell them I sent you. Last time I was in there they had a James Spann bobble head doll on display.
HOME OF LADY BIRD JOHNSON: From Jim’s you want to go back south on U.S. 82 toward Montgomery, and turn right onto Autauga County 1. You will be driving through the hamlet of Milton, which was the home of first lady Lady Bird Johnson; she lived in Milton until she was 13, when the family moved to Texas. Soon Autauga County 1 will run into Alabama 14; you will be turning right onto Alabama 14.
Alabama 14 runs parallel to the north bank of the Alabama River, and will take you into Selma, which is a treasure trove of Alabama and American history.
IN SELMA: Pull up Selma with Google Maps and pick a few good places to visit. Sturdivant Hall, the Old Depot Museum, and the National Voting Rights Museum are great ideas. I also suggest the historic Live Oak Cemetery, along Alabama 22, which is full of Spanish Moss and full of rich history. U.S. Vice President William Rufus King is buried there; he was nominated for the vice presidency on the ticket with Franklin Pierce in 1852 and was elected to this office by a large majority. While serving in the Senate he contracted tuberculosis and in 1853 was forced to spend the winter in Cuba. By a privilege extended by special act of congress, he took the oath of office, in Havana, Cuba on March 4, 1853. As there was no improvement in his health he returned to Alabama, arriving in Cahaba the day before his death in 1853.
OLD STATE CAPITAL: From Selma, let’s head south and west down Alabama 22. One option is to check out Old Cahawba; “Alabama’s most famous Ghost Town”. Cahawba was once Alabama’s state capital (1820-1826) and a thriving antebellum river town. It became a ghost town shortly after the Civil War. Today it is an important archaeological site and a place of picturesque ruins. Turn left onto Dallas County road 9 to get there from Alabama 22 if you want to visit.
GEE’S BEND AND A FERRY RIDE: Keep on Alabama 22 through Orrville… it then becomes Alabama 5 in Safford… soon after that you will cross into Wilcox County, and you will be turning left onto Wilcox County Road 29, which leads to an amazing place called Gee’s Bend. It is named after Joseph Gee, a planter, and the first white man to settle in the area. Gee’s plantation was sold to a relative called Mark Pettway in 1845 to settle a $29,000 debt. The folks that live in Gee’s Bend today are mostly descendants of the slaves that worked at the plantation, and most folks to this day have the last name “Pettway”.
You have to check out the Gee’s Bend quilters…. you might get to meet Mary Lee Bendolph, who was featured in this remarkable Pulitzer Prize winning article in the Los Angeles Times written ten years ago.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Now, the fun part. We will take the Gee’s Bend Ferry across the Alabama River to Camden. The ferry departs Gee’s Bend at 7:00 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 12:00 noon, 2:45 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. See the entire schedule here. Be sure and watch for alligators in the river as you cross; no telling what critters you will find in that water. This part of the Alabama is very wide; basically a lake created by the Miller’s Ferry Dam, just downstream. Quite frankly, this is one of my favorite parts of the trip.
CAMDEN: Once on the other side of the river, turn left onto Alabama Highway 28, which takes you into downtown Camden. You will then take a right onto Alabama Highway 41. Still hungry? Check out Uncle Redd’s Soul Food and BBQ restaurant, which will be on the left just a few block south of the Wilcox County Courthouse. You won’t go wrong there.
From Camden, stay on Alabama 41 all the way down to Monroeville. The drive from Camden to Monroeville is amazing for South Alabama; sometimes it feels like you are in the Great Smoky Mountains due to the terrain and the curves. Check out the old church buildings in the community of Franklin. I love this drive.
MONROEVILLE: If you have time, check out the Monroe County Heritage Museum, which sits on the historic downtown
square. The best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with its memorable characters – Atticus Finch, Scout, Jem, Dill and Boo Radley – are familiar to many in Monroe County. The book’s author, Harper Lee, is a native of this lovely Old South community. Unfortunately, the annual “To Kill a Mockingbird” production just ended, but you can still see the courtroom scene where it all happened.
From Monroeville, you will need to get on Alabama 21 south, which runs down through places like Frisco City and Megargel. When you get to Uriah, you will take Alabama 59 south, which is better known as Gulf Shores Parkway. Few people drive Alabama 59 north of I-65, but I love it. Alabama 59 winds down into North Baldwin County, and parallel to the Mobile Delta, which is just to the right.
FORT MIMS: If you have time, check out Fort Mims… you will need to turn right onto Baldwin County road 80. This site is famous for the Fort Mims massacre, which occurred on 30 August 1813, when a force of Creek people, belonging to the “Red Sticks” faction under the command of Peter McQueen and William Weatherford “Red Eagle”, his cousin by marriage, killed hundreds of settlers, mixed-blood Creeks, and militia. This spot on the Tensaw River is crawling with history… truly an amazing place to think about what happened there so long ago.
Get back onto Alabama 59 South, and soon you will drive through Stockton, and then go under I-65. Follow the signs for Alabama 59, which just north of Bay Minette becomes Gulf Shores Parkway, and you will find yourself back in the traffic with all of the people who didn’t know about the roads less traveled.
HIT THE BEACH: Just follow Alabama 59 and you will be in Gulf Shores in about 45 minutes. I always love to stop at Lambert’s in Foley (on the left side of the highway, just past the Tanger Outlet Mall) for “throwed rolls”, but watch out for long wait times during the main lunch and dinner hours. Enjoy the Alabama Coast and spend some money down there… these folks are really hurting this year due to oil scare; they depend on tourism, needless to say.
Everybody has their favorite places to eat on the Alabama Gulf Coast… but you might consider…
*Lulu’s (this is the place on the intracoastal waterway owned by Jimmy Buffett’s sister, Lucy)
*The Tin Top Restaurant & Oyster Bar (this is a little out of the way, on County Road 10 in Bon Secour, but well worth the drive)
*The Original Oyster House (right on Alabama 59… been there a long, long time)
*The Hangout… right at the public beach. The food is actually pretty good, and needless to say, it is very easy to find!
So, there you go… for me, one of the best things about a beach trip is the journey. Guess that can be said about life as well. Enjoy and BE SAFE!
Welcome to November!
Image by Kathy Bell
Welcome to November!
“November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year.” Louisa May Alcott
November is the transition month to winter across much of the country, and Alabama is no exception. The days are approaching their shortest of the year, and the heat budget is becoming increasingly negative, so average temperatures are dropping.
The storm track is becoming more active and precipitation totals are increasing. There is a secondary severe weather season in November in Alabama that in some recent years has been busier than the spring primary season. In 2002, an unusually strong outbreak on November 10th produced a series of ten tornadoes across North Alabama that killed 12. Two of the tornadoes were rated F3.
PRECIPITATION: On average, 4.63 inches of rain falls in the month. The most ever observed is 15.25 inches in 1948. It generally rains on nine days. Thunderstorms are observed on average on two November days. On average, there is a trace of snow. The most snow ever observed in November was one inch.
TEMPERATURES: At the start of the month, the average high is 69 degrees. It will fall to 60 degrees by month’s end. The normal monthly high is 64.5F. In November 1931, the normal high was 72.4F, the warmest November on record. Average lows start off at 46 degrees, and fall to 38 by month’s end. The average low is 41.8F. The coldest average low was in the cold winter of 1976-77, when the November average low was 33.8F. In the eleventh month, it has been as cold as 5F, back on November 25, 1950. The next coldest reading was 8 degrees higher…on November 24, 1970. It has been as warm as 85F, on November 1, 2000 and again three years later on November 2.
MISCELLANEOUS: The sky is cloudy 33 percent of the time. The sky is clear 31 percent of the time. Only October averages more clear sky time in the Magic City. Dense fog is observed on one day in the month on average.
My Tiny Corner of the World
Already out on a half-mile walk around the walking track this morning, well before sunrise. I enjoyed it even in my short-sleeved shirt. It was 39 degrees. Just me and a little 8-pound puppy and three birds
Immediately out the door a bird with a deep base voice objected. He was hidden deep into a huge Bradford Pear tree in the corner of our back yard that still has all of its deep green leaves.
I am convinced now that birds do a lot of networking. I believe they warn each other about intruders (translation: humans and dogs) In tree number two, another bird objected that we were passing through. Same with a third bird in tree number three. Wonder why they are so concerned? Do they think Molly is going to climb their tree and get them?
No other sign of life. The teen-age squirrels were probably still asleep deep in the thick hedge-row.
There is widespread frost, light to moderate, but entirely on roof tops. I did not see any in the grassy areas. It was 39 here, 40 at Birmingham Airport but it was a below freezing 30 in Haleyville and 36 at Tuscaloosa. I feel sure it was about 34 or 35 in Pinson.
Only two trees in our entire neighborhood have come through with great autumn color. Even the Old Crow Motel did a brownout. Took several drives this week across Deerfoot Parkway crossing two ridges and two valleys. Color was very disappointing. I always take a drive through Washington Valley which is a beautiful drive anytime. Going north on US 11 north of Springville there is a left turn up a slight rise and it opens into a beautiful curved drive across a broad valley between two ridges, featuring trees, creeks, horse farms, you name it.
ON THE ROAD SUNDAY
Mike Wilhelm of Huntsville, a 33/40 Skywatcher and excellent storm-chaser and I plan a long trip Sunday in search of color. Mike says the color is good in North Alabama. We plan to tour Desoto and Guntersville State Parks and Bucks Pocket. If time permits, I hope we can take one of my very favorite drives which is up the remote and narrow Paint Rock River Valley.
We will share our findings later and I am sure Mike will post some photographs.
Strange Day…
I have probably had over 100 e-mails today from people telling that their browser was alerting them to the fact that the blog here had “malicious code”. Here is the deal… which involves getting pretty high on the “geek meter”…
First off, rest assured there is no malicious code now on the blog, and you are perfectly safe being here.
We use a fairly complicated script to serve the ad messages here, which allow us to provide this service at no cost to you. Without the advertisers, there would be no blog.
The ad server script we use had a security hole, unknown to me, and allowed a little monkey business in our underlying code this morning. As far as we can determine, the javascript inserted did no harm to any blog user, but was enough to trip the Google bot alarm, and we were flagged. That, in turn, resulted in some browsers giving the security alert.
The latest version of the ad server script has been loaded which is clean, and at some point during the next 6 to 10 hours we should be in the clear by Google and you won’t see the browser alert again.
Most of you know we are going to relaunch the blog with a look that will be a little different, but with the same information as always. The problem today was not related to that project. Bottom line is that I need to pay more attention to the times when the scripts running the blog are updated, and I will sure commit to do that.
So hopefully tomorrow morning all will be well in blog land, with no browser alerts or any other monkey business.
Hope you are having a great weekend.
National Weather Highlights
As a throwback to the famed weather historian, David Ludlum, I mocked up this National Weather Highlights graphic that mimics the simple images he used to create with a typewriter for Weatherwise Magazine. Hats off to you, Mr. Ludlum!
