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October 20, 2006
Montgomery, AL
I left Atlanta in the early afternoon and headed out of town on Rt. 29, going through some of the more run-down areas of the city on my way out and lamenting that I never made it back to photograph the area by the county jail where there were probably a dozen different bail bonds places, including one within a mile or so of the MLK historic sites tastelessly named "Free At Last Bail Bonds." I noticed that my oil was almost gone so I did the somewhat panicked search for some at a few different gas stations before finally getting some crappy quart of weed-trimmer approved sludge to dump in the tank for the next 600 miles or so. For some reason I took very few photos between Atlanta and the Alabama state line, not sure if some went missing or I just wasn't in the mood for it (sometimes I'm not, especially if conditions are really hot, cold, dangerous or raining). I can't recall much about the route I took, guessing by the presiding patterns it was probably pleasant riding once I got out of the city and suburbs.
I stopped in a town called Hogansville to rest for a few minutes and enjoy a song or two from Ryan's CD, decent but fairly boring little town on a hill. Saw a couple of young kids skateboarding, I actually saw a fair amount of that on the trip, and wished that I could join them, if not for the boots. Got back on the road and eventually crossed a river, which you'd think would be the border between the two states...but no, not here. In this case, the border follows that river, but not right next to it, so that land on both sides of the river belongs to Georgia and the border is another 1/2 mile away or something. Moreover, there's most of a town between the river and the border. Weird. In any case, this was the first time either my Michelins or moccasins had ever touched down in the state of Alabama, so it was cause for excitement.
After passing several more stupidly-named gas stations, within 20 miles of crossing the border the skies turned steel-grey and ominous. Having been caught with my (rain)pants down before on this trip, I decided that I would be wise to put on my raingear. I pulled over just as the first few drops started showing up on my visor. No sooner could I step off the scooter than the heavens sent down a real mean shower, nearly soaking me before I could scramble the raingear on (reminded me of Niagara Falls), the kind of huge drops of sudden rain that make visible splashes when they hit the road. Unfortunately it rained for the duration of my trip to Montgomery, some 70+ miles. Since it was getting dark and the rain showed no signs of relenting, I got onto Interstate 85 at some point (I believe 29 joins 85 before Auburn and I just stayed on all the way to Montgomery). Fortunately the ride was without incident and provided one of the most stunning sunsets I've ever seen.
I'd been in touch with a nice local scooterist named Rob and he offered to put me up for the night. He's done a lot of long-distance riding on his Stella (his girlfriend has one too!), so we traded stories about our respective journeys. He is in the military and is also a boardgame enthusiast. He had to get up really early in the AM to go to work but at his place I was able to let my gear dry out (for the most part) and do a web update. Rob is a great guy, wish I'd been able to spend more time visiting and riding with him.
After my web update in the morning I headed into the downtown area in the early afternoon (the weather and time had prevented us from doing a proper tour the night before). The downtown was smallish, maybe somewhere between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids size as a point of reference for my Michigan friends. I was hungry and wanted some breakfast, oatmeal was all I asked, but the place I chose, the Farmer's Market Cafe (don't let the name fool you!) didn't have it. Instead they served what are known as "plate lunches", from whose dismal, meat-laden cafeteria-style menu I got to pick a few side dishes and pray for the best. I chose badly and wound up paying something like 6 or 8 dollars for one of the beigest, greasiest, starchiest, saddest meals that I've ever picked at. Christ.
After the promising lunch I couldn't wait to see what else Montgomery had in store for me; I did a little driving around in the hot sun and eventually found the Hank Williams Museum. Fortunately the museum was nothing like the lunch and I spent a wonderful couple of hours there enjoying the exhibits, buying memorabilia and shooting the breeze with Cecil Jackson, the curator of the museum. As a big fan of Old Hank it was really something special to pull the Ramblin' Man (named after the Hank song of the same name) in front of the place and get a photo. Another highlight was the brilliant film shown about Hank's life, which I watched probably 40 minutes of and then saw for sale in the lobby, part of the American Masters series...I bought a copy on DVD. Seeing the man's suits, the car he died in, the clothes he died in, all of the great old LP covers, and possibly my favorite piece, the hand-written lyrics to Men With Broken Hearts kind of blew me away.
After I was done buying stuff, with my Map of Other Area Hank Attractions in hand, I said goodbye to Cecil and cruised around downtown Montgomery some more, admiring some impressive state-capitol type buildings. I found the statue of Hank and also found the boneyard where his he and his wife Audrey are buried, and paid my respects to their impressive graves...one Ramblin' Man standing at the grave of another, saying "God's called home his Ramblin' Man."
Montgomery has potential, it has not too bad of a downtown with a lot of nice buildings still intact. I saw a lot of abandoned motels west of town on Hwy 80, but I noticed a fair amount of construction around town, so maybe the local economy isn't too bad...hopefully they won't tear all of the nice old buildings down; towns that do that will look back in years to come, after they realize they're living in an insipid concrete hell and wonder how anyone could let such a dark transaction occur. One of the most pleasant surprises was that Montgomery also has an "indie" movie theater, a rarity in these parts, I wish I'd been able to catch a flick there. I didn't have time for the Rosa Parks museum because I'd spent so much time with Hank and needed to get to Selma.
Posted by pj at October 20, 2006 12:46 PM