This will be our last night on the road for this trip. We head for Florida tomorrow. The plan for today was to drive from Jackson, MS to Montgomery, AL. It is a shorter distance than we usually do in a day, so we decided to add a detour to Birmingham. We left Jackson at 9:05 AM and a chilly 48 degrees (does it really get that cold down here?)…another genes day for sure. The drive took us over I-20, very straight, pretty flat, and through an alley of tall trees most of the way. Like yesterday, the hardwoods are fading and showing a punch of yellow and taupe, but nothing spectacular. (After living through 50 autumns in Maine, it fails to impress.) So we didn't see much along the way. Sometimes it makes more sense to travel the scenic highways, and we do that at times, but it was not in the plan for today.

Shortly after we crossed the state line into Alabama, we stopped for lunch in Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. There was a game today. The fans had their flags out, adorning the rear windows of their cars, and people were talking about the game wherever we went. They were playing Tennessee, and we saw a few of their flags, as well. The game was at 1 PM. When we got back onto the highway at 12:30, the traffic incoming from the east was heavy…so heavy that it was just about stopped for miles. These fans were not going to make it in time for kick-off. No way. We were glad that we had made it into outgoing traffic before it got all tangled up…we were clear sailing all the way to Birmingham.

Just outside of Tuscaloosa, we saw a Mercedes Benz factory and I thought…aren’t these cars made in Germany? My trusty Iphone told me that three models are made in Vance, Alabama. You learn something every day, especially when you are on the road.

As we approached Birmingham we saw a lot of industrial activity on the left side of the road…lots of smoke stacks, and lots of factories. It went on for about a mile. It looked like mining to me and my research indicates that they mine iron ore on the Red Mountain and this feeds the steel processing plants in the area. In spite of the healthy industrial activity, the city was clean and impressive. Our tour of the city was abbreviated by road closings on one side of the city, for reasons we could not determine, and traffic jams on the other side, caused by an event that called for a mass of emergency vehicles. So we continued on our journey and turned south.

Montgomery is another interesting city, but for different reasons. The capitol complex is by far, the most impressive that we have ever seen. All of the State buildings are clustered around the Capitol Building. They are all very large, very impressive in the simplicity of their architecture, and very white. It all looks so neat and clean and very well planned. One photo of note is of the "First White House of the Confederacy" which stands right across the street from the south side of the Capitol. At first I thought it was the governor’s mansion, but it is a historic building open to the public. Jefferson Davis lived there for a brief period of time. Steve made a comment that Texas, one of the richest states, does not hold a candle to Alabama and Mississippi, two of the poorest. I will vouch for that when it comes to their interstate rest stops. Those in Texas pale by comparison in comfort and facility to those of their neighbors. I guess it is all about priorities.

We checked into our hotel around 4:30 PM and settled in for the night. Tomorrow...we head home.