Moving over

I've been invited to move my blog to al.com ("Everything Alabama"). This is very exciting! Go check out the latest post!
Earlier posts will move from this site to the new site eventually.

Barber Motorsports Park and Museum, Leeds, Alabama

33°31'58.35"N
86°36'49.79"W
About 11 miles east of Birmingham


I'm afraid that I tend to view motorized vehicles in a practical light. My first criteria for the perfect car is whether it can hold a piece of plywood. My second is a minimal cringe factor when hauling sick children, injured dogs, or wet sod. This garners dramatic eye-rolling from my muscle-car-craving son. It also means that the Barber Motorsports Museum was not on my list of must-see attractions. I have edited my list. Not so much because of the enshrined vehicles as for the beauty of the museum itself. Set in a lovely park containing a 2.38 mile race track and scattered with sculptures, the museum displays 500 or so motorcycles and a variety of automobiles in a playful layout. A ramp spirals up through five floors around a glass elevator framed by racks of motorcycles. Visually, it's like a bag of M&M's in a chrome-plated dream.
The displays document the history of motorcycles and motorcycle racing. Military models brought to mind Indiana Jones movies. Board track racing must have been thrilling. I wonder if the wooden tracks creaked like the wooden roller coaster I once rode? The wall of glass at the back of the museum offers a view of the track and whimsically placed larger-than-life sculptures of bugs and birds. The bottom floor is not open to the public. It contains the restoration workshops and a tantalizing collection of unusual cars, including a solar racer built at Auburn.
The museum is open daily, including most holidays. Admission is $10 for adults, $6 for children 4-12.

Horton Mill Bridge, Blount County, Alabama

34° 0'28.64"N
86°26'53.89"W
About 39 miles northeast of Birmingham

Covered bridges are icons of touristy kitsch. I still want to visit every one. Our goal on this trip was to visit the three in Blount County. This is the only one we found. (We weren't trying very hard because it was pouring rain!)

This bridge was originally built in 1894 by Thurman Horton to allow the residents of Sand Mountain to access his store and mill. As I sit fussing about a website taking 3 seconds to load, it's difficult to relate to those customers stuck on the other side of the Little Warrior River waiting for the ford to be passable to get some coffee or sugar. The completion of Mr. Horton's bridge must have been as exciting as the opening of a new mall.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1934 slightly upstream from the original and restored in 1974. It is 220 feet long and is the highest covered bridge over water in the U.S. It's right off of Highway 75, is well marked, and has a picnic area.

Alabama has 11 covered bridges which are designated in a Covered Bridge Trail. We will definitely be following the trail, although probably in chunks rather than all at once! There is also a collection of covered bridges, including this one, on Google Earth.

Calendar Note: Visit the Artrain this weekend!

We drove to Calera to see the Artrain at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. The 4-car museum contains artwork by Native Americans, a couple of working artists, and a tiny gift shop. The art was beautiful and thought-provoking. The only disadvantage to a train-based museum is that it's difficult to get far enough away from a few of the larger pieces. We also enjoyed wandering among the rows of train cars in the yard of the Railroad Museum.

Oak Mountain Tunnel, Leeds, Alabama: Haunted by John Henry?

33°31'2.07"N
86°32'47.41"W
About 15 miles east of Birmingham

While researching Calcis, Alabama, I came across excerpts from the journal of E. L. Voyles, a road superintendent for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad during the first half of the twentieth century. He claimed that trains passing through the Oak (Mountain) Tunnel would blow their steam whistles to honor John Henry, who, many believe, died at this tunnel after his race with the steam driver.
According to Dr. John Garst, from the University of Georgia, reliable eye witness accounts indicate that the famous contest took place on Thursday, September 20, 1887 near where the southeast portal was under construction. Other researchers believe the contest took place at the Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, where a statue honors the legendary railroad worker. Dr. Scott Nelson, from the College of William and Mary, has written a book, Steel Drivin' Man, that places the events at Lewis Tunnel, in Virginia on the same rail line east of the Big Bend Tunnel. (I had no idea that there were scholarly and territorial battles mildly raging about a folksong. I have always put the John Henry legend in the same genre as stories about Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, not needing a basis in fact to enjoy the story.)

The Oak Mountain Tunnel is just south of Leeds, Alabama along Highway 25. We had to park at the base of a cell tower and scramble through the woods to get to the northwest portal. (Not every vehicle could maneuver the very steep drive to the tower. My Honda Element almost got stuck trying to turn around at the bottom. For once on our adventures, cell phone coverage was excellent: my boss called as I tried to find a graceful route back out of the railroad cut.)

The cut is narrow, so we noted the wide spots we could retreat to in case of train. The tunnel is wet, but well-maintained. Even though Mr. Voyles said numerous railroad employees "had strange feelings between Oak Signal and the tunnel portal" and "most Central Engineers believed that John’s ghost haunted Oak Tunnel," we did not see or feel any ghostly presence on a warm, sunny spring day. It's easy to imagine better results on a misty moonlit night. We wanted to explore the other portal for the steel rod that supposedly is left from the race, but weren't brave (stupid!) enough to venture through the tunnel. We will attempt to gain access to that side by road on our next visit.

Clarke County Democrat Editorial: We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Jim Cox, editor and publisher of the Clarke County Democrat, has published an editorial that addresses precisely why I started this blog. Alabama is full of wonderful people and places, mostly unexplored by the average citizen. Stepping beyond our everyday paths, we can find diversion, stretch our brains, and broaden our perceptions of the state.