Day 16

 Day 16-Thursday, May 6

 

Left our campsite and returned to Montgomery, stopping at the Vintage Café, a converted bank in a very leafy neighborhood, where we had delicious biscuit, egg, sausage, and cheese sandwiches.  If McDonald’s version was this good I’d eat there every day…and weigh 300 pounds too!

 We spent the rest of the morning at the Legacy Museum, operated by the Equal Justice Initiative, which is dedicated to the history of slavery.  It was incredibly moving,  and a must see for anyone who travels through this area.   I couldn’t help but compare slavery in the US to Nazi Germany; asking myself how could any humans be so cruel? 

"The peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice."  MLK

 It’s hard to not look upon the voter registration laws that are being revised in so many states.  Are we returning to Jim Crow?

 

A form of slavery still exists in our prison systems.  In addition to having an incredibly disproportionate percentage of Blacks, many prisons lease out their prisoners to various industries and companies for ridiculously low rates.

 

Leaving that museum we drove to the Memorial for Peace and Justice which is also operated by the Equal Justice Initiative.  This memorial has an outdoor garden that memorializes  lynchings that took place in the US in both the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  Large markers for every state and every county display the names and dates of Blacks that were lynched.  One of the guides at this memorial shared with us the story of two 90+ year old sisters whose brother disappeared when they were young, and they never knew what happened to him.  They discovered his name on one of the markers!  If such a story doesn’t move you…

 Leaving the Memorial, we then drove to the Court Square Fountain/Artesian Basin which is located where the slave pit of the Montgomery Slave Trade was located.  Slaves were held in adjacent buildings and then brought to this pit through tunnels.  Prospective buyers would look down on the slaves and bid on them.  In this square there is also a statue of Rosa Parks, who was arrested near this spot when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.  The courage of these freedom fighters is remarkable and should never be forgotten.

 Before leaving town, we stopped for lunch, and then drove by the home of Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald who lived here in the early 1930’s.  Zelda grew up in Montgomery and wrote her only novel in this house.

 Leaving Montgomery we headed for Tuskegee, home of the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, and the Army Air Corps Field, Moton Field, which is now a National Historic Site where the Tuskegee airmen were trained.  Unfortunately the museums were closed due to COVID, but we did get to talk to a guide at the airfield who was very informative.  We also drove through Tuskegee University. It was very quiet with only a few students on campus.  There was a Vietnam war fighter jet, a Phantom, on display which was piloted by Daniel “Chappie” James, the first Black four star general in the Army and a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute.

Leaving Tuskegee we had a short drive to Auburn, the “safest town in Alabama.”  The university campus, home to 24,000 undergraduates, is beautiful. The town and the university are dominated by their love for football.  Their stadium seats 80,000, and while evesdropping on dinner conversations we frequently heard the word “football”.   The football stadium which seats 80,000.  

 For dinner, in anticipation of Joni’s 70^th birthday,  we splurged and went to an elegant farm-to-table restaurant, the "Acre."  For apps we shared fried green tomatoes for an appetizer, and our main courses were steak for Joni, and duck for me, and we capped off our meal sharing a banana bread pudding.  This was our best meal of this trip!

On the left:  “A seedless mojito:  new rum, watermelon juice, parking lot mint, lime soda.”

 On the right:  “Port l’Orange:  Bombay sapphire gin (domaine de canton), elderflower tonic, zinfandel port, blood orange juice, and flowering garden thyme.”

fried green tomatoes with gulf crab remoulade and pimento cheese

 

Black Angus ribeye, baked sweet potato, white cheddar gravy, garlicky salsa verde, fried shallots

a duck breast with goat cheese risotto, micro radish greens, ancho-chili honey, ginger croutons

As the sun started to set we drove to our nearby campground, getting to our site just prior to dark.  We’ve now stayed at three campgrounds in Alabama and this was the nicest; clean bathrooms, well maintained campsites, and lots of space between sites.  I would definitely return here, but of course…I forgot to take a picture of this one!

 

Our mileage for the day=102.