September/October 2023
The Road to Alabama
Into Each Day a Little Construction Zone Must Come
Good grief! I cannot believe it has been so long since we were in touch. But I look at my info, and yes, indeed, the last time you heard from us we were fleeing the smoke from Canadian forest fires, and heading down into Montana, entering on the east side of Glacier National Park. We crossed back into the States on August 21st.
A note in parting from Canada —We keep talking about how much we enjoyed ourselves. We explored the province of Saskatchewan, finding great joy in wallowing in the grasslands; Manitoba and its lovely Riding Mountain NP; Alberta, with some terrific museums; and a snatch of British Columbia’s lower mountain edges. We didn’t leave because we were bored, but because it seemed the sensible thing to do, in light of the smoke. Our experiences reminded us that Canada is a really good place to visit, from one ocean to the other; we expect to return next year.
But fleeing the unpleasant atmosphere was the right thing to do. Canada was having its worst wildfire season ever and we’d been concerned about smoke issues when we were first heading north in early July. As it turned out, we had no problems at all during our six week stay until right at the very end, and it later turned out that much of our problem as we approached the entry back into Idaho in mid August was smoke from a new blaze near Spokane, Washington. Large fires were still burning further north in British Columbia, but our immediate problems were local ones.
The most helpful decision we made was to turn around and head back east so that we’d be east of the Rockies when we turned south to re-enter the US; that worked out just as we’d hoped. Even at the border, the air was already much nicer — clear and warm, with great views and plenty to enjoy. The mountains of western Montana are second to none, and our first sighting of humungous Chief Mountain told us we weren’t giving up a thing. We spent our first three nights on a bluff staring up at the Big Guy, feeling well protected from… whatever.
Eventually, an increasingly heavy wind atop the bluff drove us out. About 6:30 am one morning we packed up and moved further south, driving down the eastern side of Glacier NP, and after stopping for breakfast and a bit of shopping in the town of St Marys (eggs were $10/dozen!), we settled in for a bit on the edge of Glacier, at St Marys Campground. We were more protected down here, and happy for it. We had been to Glacier several times over the years, and knew that the joint would be too crowded for our pleasure right now, so we skipped it this time. But we but love this area and were quite happy to have wandered through. We were finding that driving a day and then sitting for a few was our new style. As it turns out, this is now becoming our usual modus operandi.
Back on the road, we were heading for Helena; delightfully, we saw bison near Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation. This part of Montana, in August, is still lovely; lots of green interspersed with the mown fields; getting closer to Helena we started climbing higher into the mountains; it was no surprise, as Helena got its start as a mining town.
We crossed the Continental Divide at one of its lower elevations on I-15: just above Butte, at 6368 feet. We would be crossing the Divide several more times before we were done. After we left Butte we crossed again just before joining I-90 for a few minutes, and then again at at 5879 feet once we were back on I-15 again going south. Long ago we decided that the Continental Divide is one of the wiggliest markings on the entire map of the United States. It meanders even more than the lines between Time Zones.
From Butte we were headed to Dubois, home of the University of Montana Western. If you’ve never been into the small town that’s there, it’s a charmer. Lots of pretty little park areas, nice stores, all in all a pleasant destination. Arriving in time for lunch, we decided to try out a little Mexican spot, Los Koreas. It was really yummy. And even better, there was a grasslands area outside town where we were intending to spend the night. And that was really successful. In case you’ve been through the area, it’s right along the road to Craters of the Moon. Now that may be misleading, if you’ve explored the CoM area. This is before the grass turns into lava. It was lovely and open with 360-degree views. Great stuff, close to the Idaho border.
And by now you probably want to know what in heaven’s name is the title of this message all about! Well, you see, all across the country, for the last several years, we have seen an increasing amount of rebuilding of the infrastructure of the various highways and secondary roads. It’s obvious that it goes hand-in-hand with the tremendous increase in the number and size of large delivery vehicles that are just plain EVERYWHERE on all the roads… sometimes even on dirt roads! I believe we can lay much of the deterioration of our road system to the amount of ordering and returning and deciding to have stuff delivered, all over our nation. Over the years out here on the highways and byways, we’ve really seen the change.
As a result, the bridges are deteriorating, and we need more bridges as well as rebuilt ones; the interstate system needs more lanes on roads going through or around the cities; and much more. You’ve seen it, we’ve all experienced it. Lots of roads in terrible shape. Well, enough on that topic; just to end by saying it’s been a long time coming, and is going to be a long time in the doing, but the improvements are badly needed.
So no more muttering about roads that need repair, or the roads being repaired that are difficult to navigate (I really do dislike those orange cones, how about you?). Those are the roads we have. Our answer is to try to stay on secondary roads whenever we can. And!!! On our trip back to Alabama, we aren’t in a hurry (we’re trying to stay away from hotter weather, so we’re keeping ourselves more north-ish); and we don’t have a lot of reasons to take certain paths; we can meander at will. And that’s great! We chose to revisit some of the spots we’d been to early in the summer as part of our plan to avoid that heat so much of the country was struggling with all summer.
So, with one eye always on the weather forecasts, we headed south through Montana, heading for the Ogden, Utah area. We’d spent time there earlier in the summer, visiting with friends. Well, we’d had such a nice time we decided to come back for a second visit. You see, besides being good friends, they have this really cool workshop that’s filled with cool tools and such. Rick and Gary spent the next several days working on projects, interspersed with joint efforts to get the peaches picked, the cherries frozen and packed away for later, and trying out recipes for both. We had a grand time, and the four of us really enjoyed ourselves.
And here’s a terrific peach pie recipe. It comes from the Burris Farm Market on Highway 59 in Loxley, a fresh market in Alabama that we have been enjoying for years. They have wonderful produce, their own large strawberry farm, plenty of jams, etc. for sale, and, sometimes, fresh key lime pie. A favorite spot of ours.
Miss Kay’s Favorite Peach Pie
5 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
1 cup sugar
1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 tablespoon (approx) cinnamon
Place peaches in pastry shell. Combine remaining ingredients, and pour over peaches.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and 10 minutes.
Give it a try; we think y’all will like it.
While in this part of Utah, we took a day trip down to Heber City to check out Swiss Days, a big celebration of this and that. A bit of fun for a couple of hours. We were trying to find a woman (her company name is Basket Mary) we’d had contact with who creates and sells African fabrics; I’d seen some lovely things at a fresh market one Saturday in Ogden, earlier in the year. Finally found her, but Rick wanted to look further before buying more African fabric for our new motorhome. So that’s at a standstill at the moment (hmm). There’s always something yet to be accomplished.
Leaving Utah, we spread our wings and flew back into Wyoming, heading towards our favorite bluff in the hills above Buffalo. Along the way, more nice countryside. We were looking for the town of Green River, where in the past we’d been able to purchase some of the finest melons we’ve ever eaten. But there are two towns so named, both along the same river but in different states: one in Wyoming on I-80, and the other on I-70 in Utah. The river runs north to south. Such a headache. We chose the wrong one (on I-80); so melons are now on our list for next year. However, no real complaints — the countryside along the Wyoming Green River was gorgeous desert, with lots of interesting landscape to enjoy.
The drive between Ogden, Utah, and Buffalo, Wyoming is all quite delightful, even if you cannot find those damn melons. You drift through mountainous areas, make friends with the Continental Divide again (highest this time was 8475 feet), follow rivers for awhile, then up over the Powder River Pass, through charming Ten Sleep, with a stop at Dirty Sally’s for ice cream, then on to the bluffs above the town of Buffalo, which we always enjoy — for the second time this summer.
On arrival, we wanted to hang there as long as possible, so we’d packed in food for about two weeks. Got close. After 10 days we suddenly ran out of water. And once you pack up and get back on the road, heading out to find a water spout, it seems most logical to keep going, rather than heading back up the hill and settling down again.
And by now we had a time frame for meeting up with our buddy, Mabelle, who had been out on her own cross-country wander from her home in California. So we trekked on through to Casper, where we spent a couple of days enjoying the pronghorns in the area, then on to nearby Douglas, a nice town with a lovely park alongside the Platte River. To us, you cannot go wrong in deciding to travel through central Wyoming. With no plans to keep us moving, we could quite happily meander there for weeks at a time.
But even we have dates to keep. So we wandered east near or along the Platte River, until we crossed into Nebraska and settled into the Riverside Park in Scottsbluff, where we met up with our friend and spent some great time together, right after Labor Day weekend. We were near the big bluff that stood out in the prairie as a beacon for settlers to aim for. The huge bluff was only one of many that we encountered as we moseyed eastward across the state. We stopped briefly at Chimney Rock, a bit further down the road, but the day was so yucky, we didn’t bother to spend much time.
Moving further across the prairie, we spent some nights in towns and others out in the countryside, along lakes and city parks and fields of horses and cows, always generally heading east. Driving along, we enjoyed the endless numbers of trains that were our constant companions. Sometimes, staying in city parks, they were present both day and night, other times just occasionally. But you never forgot them. And some were endless — watching one train we counted 11 engines hauling the load, with one more bringing up the rear. Can you imagine waiting for this train to pass as you sat at a crossing?
Nebraska was a very major route for the prairie pioneers, with multiple cross country trails coming through, and now we understand better why this was. The state is pretty flat, making for easier travel, and it had many rivers to follow (the Platte being just one), along with remarkable towers of rock to serve as landmarks. The state is quite proud of its heritage in this realm, and Kearny, further east of Scottsbluff, has a good museum to visit and learn more, at its Arches Monument. Kearny is good for a couple of days of visiting, we were quick to learn.
While Kathy poked around at the Arches, Rick visited the Classic Car Collection. This is a nice collection of cars ranging mostly from the 30s to the 70s. Being middle America the emphasis is naturally on American cars; nothing exotic, but a nice museum to visit. You can see our photos of this museum at Motor-Museums.com.
We stopped in Lincoln, Nebraska for two big sights we’d been waiting for. Rick spent some interesting time at the amazing Museum of American Speed, and I visited the absolutely great International Quilt Museum. The Quilt Museum is just terrific and I wallowed in the many different kinds hanging on the walls of the building. The word “quilt” was used in a very general way — there were also doll clothes made of quilted material; displays of cloth made for camels, both to keep them warm but also to be used to create tents to house herders at night; wall hangings that became portable houses; three-dimensional objects such as large vases; an entire room devoted to a tapestry recreation of the ancient city of Florence, Italy. Just for starters. It was enchanting, colorful, and a super experience.
The Museum of American Speed was also a real treasure.
It is quite unlike any car museum we’d ever visited in that the emphasis is on the racing and high performance experience. The displays, spread over three floors, include plenty of interesting cars ranging from push toys to Soap Box Derby cars to midget racers and Indy cars. Also to be seen are more technical exhibits than any other museum: racing engines of all types and whole rooms filled with aftermarket performance parts for example. Altogether a rather astounding place and one we will definitely plan to visit again on future trips through the midwest. Again, we encourage you to visit Motor-Museums.com to experience this museum more fully.
We had a list of places we wanted to see and enjoy as we continued on towards Alabama — the Paducah KY quilt museum and two Kentucky car museums as just a couple of them; and we had friends in Kentucky we were hoping to visit. However, as it turned out, without even realizing it, we’d both gotten rather sick by now. We’re as sure as we can be that we just had normal everyday colds, but in this day and age it’s hard to be sure and we never did know what the problem was. We’d become very draggy, finding it hard to get moving in the morning and having no energy to enjoy what was ahead.
So we slowed down even more and had to skip a few things, with plans to get back to them another year. We crossed the Missouri River, with its lovely rolling hills, and drifted through Iowa. We found ourselves staying longer in the pretty parks we stopped at, and not minding it at all. We happened to be driving across Iowa on Highway 2, at the southern edge of the state, and the countryside was pretty and quiet. It was Amish country, always a treat.
By now it was the end of September, and some of the parks were beginning to close. It wasn’t fall, mind you, but occasionally we encountered a tree or two that thought it was. Okay by us! They were very lovely.
Aside from not feeling so great, we were traveling slowly because we had one more set of friends we hoped to visit before heading deeper into the south and arriving in Alabama. Our buddies in central Tennessee were fitting us in between some family visits and a river cruise that was coming up. Fine by us — we didn’t have a lot of energy, and we wanted to recover before landing on our friends’ doorstep. We hung out in Iowa for a bit; it was just as nice as ever, and has some lovely parks to enjoy.
We crossed the Mississippi River, then ducked into Illinois for a few minutes on our way into Kentucky. Along this corridor we passed by Metropolis, the home of Superman. Next time! Then crossed the Ohio River and into Kentucky by way of Paducah. Not only does Paducah have that great quilt museum, but it’s the home of the first Waffle House we ever frequented. (Gonna get a plaque for it one of these years!) The Corvette Car Museum is also nearby, in Bowling Green. But we kept to ourselves, and kept on moving. We wandered through bits of Iowa (Bloomfield was a charmer),
Something we have now realized. We are no longer spending as much time traveling on small back roads to unknown places; we are staying closer to the major interstate highways and state routes that cross from one side of the United States to the other. We realize that in the Tiger we could — and did — take any old road we were interested in with no fear of getting stuck or not being able to turn around any time we wanted. Now, being in a much larger vehicle, we have to be more circumspect in our decision making. Not surprisingly, staying on more major routes means that there is far more traffic than we are used to, and a huge percentage of it is comprised of VBTs — that’s very big trucks for those of you who still live in quiet rural areas where you travel on country roads singing John Denver songs.
It isn’t quite as delightful as in times past, but the United States is still a great place to travel in.
So we made our way across Kentucky, through that beautiful state, heading into Tennessee. Somewhere south of the state line we spent a lovely weekend in an Army Corps Of Engineers park southeast of Nashville — Floating Mill Park, near Silver Point. Some of our favorite countryside. It being the end of September and supposed to be the best weather before winter, it was jammed to the gills, but we had managed to find a spot for ourselves down near the water. We were close enough to a military compound to hear Reveille being played every day. A great place to visit.
And then we trundled off to see our friends Bobbie and Doris, who live outside Pikeville, at the southern edge of the Appalachian Range. We had a good time, with a pretty drive out to an apple farm, an enjoyment of each other’s adventures, and a chance to learn about the history of Pikeville. This is a truly beautiful area and if we were ever inclined to settle down someplace permanent… We had a great time, and left promising return visits.
And then we were getting close to our winter home, as the next state south of Pikeville, TN is Alabama. We made a stop in Huntsville visiting our old friends the Apple Store people to fix a battery issue, then across the Tennessee and Montgomery Rivers, and down-down-down almost to the Gulf Coast, where we came to rest at the Escapee Plantation in Summerdale, a lovely campground we have enjoyed for more than twenty years and where we will stay until we begin our next set of adventures.
We’re settling in here quite nicely. We have a lovely little spot to call our own, nice folks nearby, our own tree starting to turn gorgeous colors, and plenty of time to enjoy the out of doors. We arrived in mid-October and enjoyed a succession of beautiful days in our first month. It’s mid-November by now, and getting colder and rainier.
We’d love to have you consider coming by for a visit. Our buddies Joe and Gail spent a few days with us earlier this month, heading back to California from a trip they made to see the fall color in the northeast, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. We wandered around the local countryside, showing them a bit of the Gulf Coast and Mobile Bay, along with some of the cotton still in the fields and mighty fine local BBQ.
We expect to stay here until next spring, probably heading out in April. We have German friends who are planning to come to the States for a few weeks, and we’re going to show them the South in Springtime. We know it will be gorgeous, with all the flowers in bloom, the rivers producing splendid waterfalls, antebellum houses by the handful, Civil War sites to learn from, and plenty of southern cooking to enjoy. We’ve not gotten so far as to think about what we’ll do after they leave the area, but we’ve never had trouble organizing a summer’s worth of adventures, so stay with us.
We expect the winter to be peaceful (and warmer here than further north) and we have lots to do — projects on the motorhome, exercise classes (both here in the park and down at the local YMCA), and many chores to complete.
So have a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season, and we’ll hope to see you around sometime next year.
Stay safe, be happy, and stay in touch.
Much love from Rick and Kathy
Please visit the Photo Page for this story