Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for alabama
Home on the Stadium
By Linda Tancs
Home on the range (the title of an old cowboy song) is one thing. A home on the stadium is another. That’s the case for the Hank Aaron Childhood Home & Museum, which was relocated some years ago to rest at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. The house was built in 1942 by Hank’s dad and increased in size in subsequent years. Voted one of the best baseball museums in the country, the house chronicles both his life and storied career and features several family artifacts. The house is located at the front of the stadium.
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An Island in the Sky
By Linda Tancs
It’s no wonder why Alabama’s Cheaha State Park is called an island in the sky. Located at the state’s highest point on the southernmost tip of the Appalachian mountain chain, thousands of acres of granite boulders and ancient trees sit above the clouds at 2,407 feet above sea level, surrounded by 392,567 acres of the Talladega National Forest. The park’s name is derived from the word “chaha,” a Creek Nation term meaning “high place.” Despite its seemingly remote location, it’s only 30 minutes away from several historic downtowns like Oxford, Heflin, Anniston, Talladega, Lineville, Munford and Ashland. Get there via the Talladega Scenic Drive (Alabama Highway 281) or the Cheaha Road (County Road 42) from Munford, which winds its way through the Talladega National Forest.
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Chasing the Trace
By Linda Tancs
The Old Natchez Trace is a travel corridor used by American Indians and others, representing over 10,000 years of history. Today it’s known as Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. It’s so much more than a drive, though. It’s also a designated cycling route as well as a place for hiking, biking, horseback riding and camping. You’ll have the opportunity to see prehistoric mound sites, gorgeous waterfalls, imprints of Old Natchez at places like Sunken Trace and the hills of Mississippi at Jeff Busby Little Mountain. You’ll even find The Meriwether Lewis monument, marking the burial site of famed explorer Meriwether Lewis, near present-day Hohenwald, Tennessee.
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To limit the spread of COVID-19, attractions may be closed or have partial closures. Please keep those affected by the virus in your thoughts and be sure to follow the safety practices advocated by the Centers for Disease Control. Stay safe, and be well.
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Peace and Justice in Alabama
By Linda Tancs
Confronting a tortured past in American history, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens today in Montgomery, Alabama. Exploring the history of racial terrorism, the memorial is the first of its kind in America addressing issues such as enslavement and lynching. Set on a six-acre site, it uses sculpture, art, and design to contextualize racial terror, including over 800 suspended steel columns, one for each county in the United States where a lynching took place. The project was spearheaded by the Equal Justice Initiative with the hope of creating a sober, meaningful site where people can gather and reflect on America’s history of racial inequality.
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Rocket City
By Linda Tancs
Once coined the “Watercress Capital of the World,” Huntsville, Alabama, is now known as Rocket City. That’s because it’s the place where America’s space program was born—where the rockets were developed that put the first U.S. satellite into orbit and sent men to the moon. It’s where the power for today’s space shuttle was developed and where the modules for the International Space Station were designed and built. It’s also where America’s next great ship, the Space Launch System, is being designed. NASA’s Space Launch System will be the most powerful rocket ever built. When completed, SLS will enable astronauts to begin their journey to explore destinations far into the solar system. Since 1970 more than 16 million people have toured Huntsville’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center. General admission to the center includes access to historic Shuttle Park, Rocket Park and all indoor exhibit areas such as the main museum atrium and the Davidson Center for Space Exploration.
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Bon Temps in Mobile
By Linda Tancs
Home to the first Mardi Gras in the U.S., Mobile, Alabama, has been letting the good times roll since 1703. That rich cultural history is on display at the Mobile Carnival Museum. Located on Government Street in a historic building, the facility features royal gowns, crowns and scepters amidst 14 gallery rooms, a pictorial hallway, theater and gathering space.
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Sunset Capital of Alabama
By Linda Tancs
Alabama’s Dauphin Island is so proud of its sunsets that it fancies itself the sunset capital of the state. It’s also one of the “birdiest.” In fact, the island is one of the top four birding areas in the U.S., visited by around 400 species. No wonder, then, that the spring migration is bringing flocks of tourists and birders to the coastal area these days.
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A Blast in Alabama
By Linda Tancs
A testament to America’s coming of industrial age, Alabama’s Sloss Furnaces is the only 20th century blast furnace in America being preserved and interpreted as a historic industrial site. Located in Birmingham, the facility contains two 400-ton blast furnaces and 40 other buildings although nothing remains of the original furnace complex. Nevertheless, the oldest building on the site dates from 1902 and houses the eight steam-driven “blowing-engines” used to provide air for combustion in the furnaces, vintage engines that drove (no pun intended) the Industrial Revolution. Sloss produced iron for nearly 90 years, rendering Birmingham a great industrial hub of the South that earned it the nickname The Magic City.
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Courage Up Close
By Linda Tancs
A symbol of courage, the USS Alabama (nicknamed the Mighty A), saw 37 months of active duty during World War II, earning nine battle stars and becoming one of America’s most decorated battleships. Now anchored at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, you can experience courage up close. The park’s Wall of Honor inside the Medal of Honor Aircraft Pavilion honors the 9,583 Alabama citizens who have died in combat since World War I. The pavilion honors those 29 Alabama citizens who have received the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor given by the United States of America.
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Shrimp to Shore
By Linda Tancs
For 40 years now Gulf Shores, Alabama has been the place to be for the National Shrimp Festival. Taking place from 13 to 16 October at the Gulf State Park Pavilion, the annual fest draws 300,000 visitors each year to sample the local fare. But that’s not all. There’s live music playing from two stages, over 200 artists, and a children’s activity village. The festival is free; why not apply those unused funds to a little break in the Gulf Coast. Stay and play at any of the local hotels, campgrounds, cottages or condos. There is a shuttle that leaves for the festival hourly from the Winn Dixie grocery store parking lot at only a dollar each way.
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