On the road again

Another travel day means another timeline.

8:35 a.m. Depart Birmingham, Alabama.

8:40 a.m. Finally get to turn off of the street from the hotel onto the highway.

9:12 a.m. Birmingham's "modern music" radio station plays a Cardigans song that is not "Lovefool". Color me surprised to hear "Erase/Rewind". The station format is different, kind of a mix of alternative rock and singer-songwriters that play on pop/adult contemporary radio.

10:17 a.m. See the third Alabma highway patrolman pulling someone over in a ten-minute span. What is going on? It's not that busy out here.

10:29 a.m. Enter Mississippi. First time I've ever been in the state.

11:20 a.m. Exit at New Albany, Mississippi for food and gas. Get held up waiting for a semi truck that has partially slipped off the road to get back on. Although there are a few restaurants, gas stations, and other stores built up around the exit, it's not an area where'd you expect much traffic. It takes me forever, comparatively, to get around here and back to the highway.

11:59 a.m. Back on the road.

12:28 p.m. Several of the gas, food, and lodging signs by the highway have had all businesses removed from them. I know there's not a lot out here, but surely it's not that vacant.

12:35 p.m. Off the highway I see a trailer with big signs advertising psychic readings inside. That's a part of the south I haven't been seeing on my travels so far.

12:56 p.m. Enter Tennessee. I'm on the south side of Memphis and choose to give the GPS the benefit of the doubt when it comes to turning before my printed instructions direct me. Looks like a good decision. Music-wise I've picked up an HD radio station dedicated to the blues. It's not like Tom Waits DJing in Mystery Train but it'll do.

1:18 p.m. Enter Arkansas as I cross the Mississippi.

2:01 p.m. Radio station playing jazz (or something) transitions into a syndicated program heavy on 80s R&B. Hold on, did the host just say "the n word"? Maybe, maybe not. Now I'm thinking that it was a word similar to that but not with as charged of a meaning.

2:15 p.m. A plane is flying around doing all sorts of looping maneuvers. What is going on?

2:31 p.m. Pull off at a rest stop. Not too much more to go.

2:38 p.m. Back on the road.

3:16y p.m. Hear "Western Union" by The Five Americans on an oldies station. I don't think I ever realized that they were mimicking Morse code in the chorus.

3:48 p.m. Arrive in Conway, Arkansas at the home of friends.

And so marks my thousandth post on this blog.

The Magic City

Birmingham, Alabama probably isn't the first place that comes to mind when you think of a vacation destination. Frankly, it didn't for me either, but my nonsensical decision to come here just means that my time here will be about discovery.

Last night I went to Regions Park to see the Birmingham Barons play minor league baseball. The ballpark is tucked about a mile into a subdivision, which struck me as a slightly strange location. Then again, I'm amazed at how much commerce and traffic piles up out here in the greater metro area

Regions Park is pretty familiar by minor league baseball standards. There's not really a bad seat in the place.

Sports franchises have decided that the games don't just sell themselves. You have to deliver a bunch of other in-game "entertainment", whether in the almost nonstop playing of music and sound effects/movie drops except for during play. Inevitably the songs and other stuff are the same among ballparks and across sports. Birmingham displayed some local quirks--more country music made the playlist--but what surprised me was that they weren't obnoxious with the things that are done to keep non-baseball fans interested.

Such extras didn't seem to take away attention from the game. In keeping with the team's honoring of National Mustard Day, a hot dog eating contest and a mustard trivia quiz were held between innings. There was also a frozen t-shirt contest. Never fear, it's family-friendly. Two t-shirts were frozen in ice. The winner was the first to get it out and put on the shirt.

As for today's doings, I didn't have a set plan. I was having a difficult time deciding what to do. The Birmingham Museum of Art won out. What a good selection it turned out to be. I spent about three and a half hours looking at what they had on display. (I think I overhead an employee mention that about 80% of their collection is in storage.) I'm partial to the European art, of which they had a nice sampling, such as a small Degas sculpture and a painting each from Monet and Pissarro.

I was kind of stunned by the size of this vase from Wedgwood pottery. It's enormous, somewhere between five and six feet tall. Alexander the Great is depicted on it. In the next picture you can see that the story on the vase continues on the other side, and you can see how big this thing is.

The museum also had an entire gallery for other work from Wedgwood.

Their Asian art galleries reopened this year and had some impressive stuff, such as this Japanese drawing or painting of waterfalls. The BMA also has Native American, African, and contemporary art, including some outsider art. I thought I'd seen it all, but there were sculptures outside.

In the foreground is a Salvador Dali sculpture. A Rodin is in the background.

This work's artist, whose name was unfamiliar to me, had his own little space for his mixed materials pieces. It looked a lot more interesting than I thought at first glance.

From there I went to Vulcan Park to see the largest cast iron statue in the world. The Vulcan statue represented Birmingham (and Alabama) at the 1904 World's Fair.

As big as the statue is, it can be a little difficult to put the size into perspective because of how high up he is. The observation deck at the bottom of the photo is as high as one can go, so your only real look at him is on the ground far below. Still, it was a neat thing to see, and the visitor's center provided some background on the city and the area that I found very informative.

I had considered going out to see some live music tonight, but I'd been out and about and on my feet all day, so I didn't feel up to it. I have no familiarity with the band, although I've read some good things. It probably would have been worthwhile, but with approximately six and a half hours of driving to do on Friday, taking it easy (and composing this post) have been perfectly fine for the evening.

The trip begins

A long travel day calls for a timeline of the goings-on on the road:

5:30 a.m. Wake up a half hour earlier than planned. Not ideal in the sense that at best I got four and a half hours sleep--that's pushing it--but I'm awake and might as well take advantage of the light traffic at this time of day.

6:15 a.m. Depart Columbus for parts to be revealed. A banana, Tim Horton's medium coffee with cream, and a double chocolate donut provide my fuel. GPS and I have first disagreement on which way to go. I win.

6:35 a.m. Go what way?!?! If I'm heading to the southern United States, why would I want to take I-71 north from the southern part of the city's outerbelt? This could be interesting.

7:22 a.m. There is a large carpet (or something resembling one) in the middle of I-71 south.

7:35 a.m. The coffee demands pulling over to a rest stop. I didn't want to break this soon, but when you gotta go, you gotta go.

8:14 a.m. Cross the border into Kentucky. I was pleasantly surprised to zip through Cincinnati without much slowing down or any complete stops on the highway.

9:05 a.m. See the second semi pulled over by a cop in a ten to fifteen mile span. The highway patrol is thick this morning. Within an hour I will see two more drivers have been pulled over.

9:25 a.m. The coffee is going through me like a sieve today. Take a quick break at a rest stop just north of Louisville.

9:36 a.m. Pretty cool. The speed limit sign on the GPS changes at practically the same spot where the sign is along the interstate. It's an overcast day with a fair amount of fog wherever I've been.

10:17 a.m. I believe that Garmin gave my GPS voice the name of Samantha. She is not going to be happy with me as I've chosen to stick with the directions I've printed from Google Maps rather than follow her. It appears she has a thing for going around cities than through them. The arrival time wasn't affected by my choice, so it would seem that either way works fine. That being said, maybe Samantha has called out for this semi to ride my tail in a construction zone. He's been way too close for too long. Pass me, buddy. I'm in the right lane.

10:43 a.m. There's the sign for Hart County and the Central Time Zone. So make that 9:43 a.m. Also, these drivers in Kentucky are nuts. More passing on the right than the left and speeding like crazy.

10:00 a.m. And we've reached the halfway point as far as miles are concerned.

10:46 a.m. Cross the border into Tennessee. I would have stopped to get something to eat by now, but I don't expect most places are serving lunch until 11:00 a.m. Central.

11:10 a.m. Stop for lunch just north of Nashville. Win a free value drink at Wendy's via a Tennessee Titans scratch off card. Think that will be accepted outside this state? Also time to refuel the car. Looks like I got around 34 miles per gallon. Nice.

11:42 a.m. Back on the road. Again I choose to ignore Samantha's directions, which would take me around the city and bring me back to the road I'm already on at the southern side of it? Weird. Again, my choice isn't penalized with a later projected arrival time.

12:52 p.m. There's nothing on the GPS window but the road on which I'm driving. Kind of creepy. I pass the exit for the Jack Daniels Distillery and David Crockett State Park. Why so formal? Also, Tennessee drivers have seemed less aggressive but drive exceptionally fast.

1:07 p.m. And for the first time I have entered the state of Alabama.

1:39 p.m. Beginning to feel a little tired. Cruise control has helped with making the driving seem like less work, though. Luckily I don't have a lot of distance yet to cover.

2:12 p.m. I have a front row view of the car in front of me clipping a critter scurrying across the road.

2:14 p.m. Now there's a shredded tire in my lane. This is unrelated to the roadkill. I've encountered a few work zones while here in Alabama, yet despite the signs warning of doubled fines, I'm the only one slowing down. Even when I've gone with the flow of traffic at 65 in the right lane, I'm getting passed like nobody's business. Granted, some of these zones have had no workers and no barrels, so maybe there is no construction to slow down for. Still, the speeds people are driving are kind of freaky.

2:58 p.m. Arrive at the hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. I didn't listen to Samantha again. This time she slapped me with a five minute penalty on my projected arrival. Oh well, I made it here with a relatively easy drive. The air is lighter and temperature is lower than I was anticipating, but you'll get no complaints from me on that front.

You're probably wondering what in the world brings me to Birmingham. Nothing in particular, actually. It's on the way--in a very roundabout fashion--to my second destination. I opened up an atlas, looked at where I might go, and on a whim decided to come here. (Having a minor league baseball team playing at home helped. Nashville and Memphis' squads are on the road.) I also liked the idea of being able to cross off Alabama and, after Friday's travels, Mississippi from the list of states I've been to.

I'm going to see the Birmingham Barons play tonight. I don't have any particular plans for tomorrow, although I'll likely check out the Vulcan Statue and may go see some live music at what looks to be an interesting venue. What I do doesn't much matter, though. I'm just glad to be on vacation and seeing someplace different.