2 posts tagged “birmingham”
After a hearty Southern breakfast (biscuits, white pepper gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage patties) at Bogue's
Restaurant, I visited Sloss Furnaces, a former steel producing site that’s now a museum and historic site. Quite impressive and nicely preserved.
I then set out on my way to Atlanta, mostly on Highway 78, avoiding the big Interstate. This again meant that I saw a lot more of the landscape and small towns on the way, the main reason I’ve been doing this road trip.
Just around lunchtime, the weather picked up, first it stopped drizzling and then the sun came through and I actually got to see some of Alabama’s famous blue skies.
At one point I got lost as I missed a turn (sometimes turns on smaller roads aren’t signposted early enough and even when the satnav tells you to take a left, it’s sometimes not easy to spot) and had to take a bit of a detour until I could find a spot to turn around. Just after the intersection with a county road, there was a collection of old and slowly rusting machinery from tractors and other farm equipment to pickup trucks, just there, dumped by the side of the road, even partially overgrown but still almost like a museum. A fantastic find and a cool photo opportunity.
The nice weather continued all the way through Georgia and the scenery was mostly lovely, too so a nice end to my road trip.
I arrived
at my motel, unpacked to repack tomorrow morning, went out for Jamaican dinner
(oxtail curry as they had run out of goat) and worked on my diary and photos.
I've managed to roughly reconstruct the second leg of my journey, from Nashville to Atlanta.
Set out later than intended due to the alarm not going off (had overlooked that the time was pm) but still managed to get out just before 10. I first took Highway 61 South to Robinsonville, Mississippi, where all the casinos are and had a look around the Horseshoe. I picked a random slot and sacrificed one dollar for nothing. I was steadfast and didn’t break a ten dollar bill to continue (or was mad enough to insert one into a machine). If at all, I’d have joined a Blackjack table but I would have needed some more time to do that. Still, it was interesting to see and it was quite busy even on a weekday late morning.
The drive through Mississippi was rather boring as the roads were straight and the landscape flat.
I had a late lunch at a place called Buttahatchee Bar-B-Que off the highway near Hamilton. Shame they had run out of brisket but the pork was lovely, too.
Traffic around Birmingham was a bit heavier than before (obviously I had picked rush hour again) but it wasn’t too bad and my Satnav guided me unerringly to Glas’ street. As I was trying to find the number, my host for the evening pulled up, introduced me to his cat and showed me his apartment. The evening consisted of a little tour and history of Birmingham, Mexican dinner and Stardust, the fabulous film adaption of Neil Gaiman’s story and more chats with friends when we got back.
The route:
