Day 13 (27 May). Mostly Alabama

From: Montgomery, AL

To: near Forest, MS

Miles today: 224

Total miles: 3001

Long post today.

Fair weather when I got up, and I drove the 10 miles or so to downtown Montgomery, Alabama.  After strolling around a bit, I went to the official Visitor Center (in the old train station) and watched the short video loop.  The message was pretty clear: blacks and whites together were asking you to come visit Montgomery!  We’ve got Jefferson Davis AND we’ve got Rosa Parks!  Plus Hank Williams! Come on over!  I had to admire their enthusiasm. 

There are, in my opinion, some problems with Montgomery becoming a southern tourist destination like Charleston or Savannah.  The first is that the waterfront (where all the cotton was shipped) is on the narrow end of a hair-pin turn in the Alabama River.  Thus, there is just not that much “waterfront.”  Second, when the railroad arrived in the 1840’s, it cut right across the shoreline, between the docks and the town.  Thus there are no old warehouses right along the river that can be turned into shops and restaurants.  Third, the historical (that is, antebellum) section of town is actually pretty small, and mostly occupied now by lawyers offices (this is the state capitol). The largest buildings downtown seem to be new hotels.  There is nothing wrong with any of this, but it does mean it is harder create a tourist haven.  I do note that Maxwell Air Force Base is nearby (I saw two F-16’s land while driving by), and Hyundai opened a manufacturing plant there some years ago; both of these provide good jobs for the region.

Left: The Montgomery Waterfront -- pretty much all of it.  Right: Same spot, other direction; pedestrian tunnel under the train  tracks

One thing that does apparently bring in tourists by the busload (literally) is the Rosa Parks Museum. I took the 30-minute multi-media guided tour, and it pushed all the right buttons. The recorded narration told the canonical version of the story: that Rosa Parks spontaneously decided one day not to give up her seat, and when she was arrested the plan for the bus boycott spread like wildfire. The true story is actually better, and the guide did spend some time discussing it. In fact, the entire incident was carefully (and brilliantly) planned by a group of blacks and whites working together for months ahead of time.  Rosa Parks was selected to be the “face” of the boycott movement, over other volunteers. Also importantly, when the bus boycott began, the white riders also avoided the buses. Some were apparently afraid of violence, but many whites stayed away because they supported the boycott!  This takes nothing away from the courage of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King (a local reverend who took up the cause), or any of the blacks that took the brunt of the viciousness that followed.  But it does say something positive about the whites of Alabama; they were not and are not the monolithic racist block that those of us not from the region often presume them to be.  Although the gerrymandering of US House Districts in these states does not help this cause. 

I was one of three guests on this (9 am Wednesday morning) tour.  The other two people were a retired white couple from Florida.  I asked the (black) tour guide afterwards if more blacks or whites visited the museum. He had to think about it; apparently, like New Yorkers and the Statue of Liberty, not a lot of locals of either color come by.  But on the whole, he said, probably more whites; but the real situation is that lots of the visitors are from other countries, including India (the guys who gave us Gandhi)! 

After that I rode the 50 miles to Selma, and rode over the legendary Edmond Pettis Bridge.  On the other side was the town of Selma; now THIS would make a great tourist town! Block after block of lovely historical buildings.  I would spend a weekend there over Montgomery any time.  

My motorcycle on the Edmond Pettis Bridge

Snapshots of Selma.  Lots of attractive buildings. 

There was a small National Park Service museum at the base of the bridge that has been there for about four years now that showed the old newsreels of the violence 50 years ago.  The most disturbing thing I saw all day is shown below.

I had been traveling along US 80, a well-maintained 4-lane divided highway, to get to Selma. Nice road, but like Interstates you don’t really get to see much of the local scenery from it.  So I took some much smaller roads to the south that basically paralleled US 80: Alabama 22, 5, 66, and 28 combined.  These roads were gorgeous, very reminiscent of the Virginia piedmont roads that I enjoy driving so much when home.  Lush scenery, gentle curves and hills; this was the best “riding quality” that I have experienced so far on this trip.  My only regret is that I did not see any other riders out enjoying these fine roads on this fine day.

Alabama Countryside

By the time I found my way back to US 80, however, big thunderclouds were brewing.  I donned my rain gear and for the rest of the afternoon moved between conditions that altered between overcast and scary. There was one point after I crossed into Mississippi where the clouds were appearing to descend, and there were huge wind gusts; I honestly looked around for tornados. 

I am settled in a small motel in the Bienville National Forest in Mississippi, outside the town of Forest.  More tales from the Deep South tomorrow!