Montgomery, Alabama – 2/17/2017
February 17, 2017 (Friday)
Michael went down to the lobby and got some breakfast for us. He worked on the blog for awhile and then we headed out the few miles to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. We read that it was the first Confederate State Capitol. It was a nice drive and the traffic was good. Also, the weather was pretty perfect.
Went through security and entered the Capitol. Nice young woman at a desk answered any questions and gave us the self-guided map. We walked around upstairs and downstairs. Lovely in areas. The dome was beautiful with a stained glass feature at the top.
There was a huge room where they were displaying artwork, and another room that had a memorial set up for the fallen soldiers from Alabama. Very touching.
We left the Capitol and walked the grounds a bit. Very beautiful with flags from all the states flying in front. Then we walked across the street and went to the First Confederate White House. From what I understand, Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived there for about six months. The man who greeted us at the door, Yankee Bob, told us quite the stories of the history of the home, furniture, and people who lived in the home. He was also very generous and gave us a little booklet with more history. This “war of Northern aggression,” or “war of Southern independence” thing is fascinating to us Californians.
As we were leaving Michael was bombarded with phone calls and we got a little distracted for awhile. It seems there is a severe storm back at home in Prunedale and our skylights blew off the roof. Also trees are down everywhere. In addition, as if that wasn’t enough, a brother of Michael’s is having some medical tests done. Always hard when we’re so far away but, hopefully, everything will work out.
The drive today was a little over 200 miles (about 3-1/2 hours). We were on secondary roads, but they were quite nice and the drive was lovely. We got to see small towns, big towns, an Army base, and lots of other interesting things along the way. Alabama is a lovely state, so green and lush. We did stop for a late lunch somewhere at Panera Bread.
We crossed another time zone so we got into our hotel home at around 5:30 PM, a nice Howard Johnson we got using Wyndham Reward points.
Michael spent the evening trying to catch up on the blog. That was our day. Hope yours was great!