Hyatt Place Birmingham / Inverness

... over it. Now the fruit bin is what holds my wonder, if it exists that morning. I long for a green apple or appropriately ripe banana. Sadly, they are usually soft red mealy apples or maybe brown bananas... again, if they actually have fruit that morning.<br><br>I am over my daily ration of bread line breakfast. I need more. I love breakfast too much.<br><br>Oh, how I long for eggs. Real scrambled eggs. And bacon. And homefries... <br>

We had a one night stop over in Moody. We passed Talladega raceway on the way there but as it was a longer drive we didn't stop off along the way. We also got held up in our first traffic jam. A truck had gone off the interstate and crashed. Delayed us by about 40 minutes. The Super 8 wasn't the worst or the best motel but we both slept well after dinner at Cracker Barrell.

As most of you know I have been sick since my last blog and yesterday was pretty much a write off. I arrived in Birmingham at 11.45am after taking a 4 hour ride on a Amtrak train. The train ride was quite comfortable. I was able to get two seats to myself and there is a lot more leg room on a train than an airplane. The taxi driver had never heard of the hotel I was staying at and couldn't find it on his GPS. Luckily I had the additionally information that it was off a certain ...

A few days ago we realized that the day we leave, marked in our brains as Memorial Day, comes a week earlier than we'd been thinking. Oops. At least we saw the light soon enough so we won't miss the flight. (Memorial Day this early in May feels very odd.) This trip is no big deal but will serve well as a test travel blog. Something to play with between meetings and meals.

... along the way. We'll be visiting family and staying in inexpensive hotels until we get further West, and then we'll mix camping in with staying in some lodges and inns. I hope to be able to post every couple of days -- not so much detail that our readers will be bored, but enough to give you a flavor of the trip. Hope you enjoy it half as much as we plan to!

... WAS THE 4TH OF JULY HOLIDAY AND THE HOTEL WAS VIRTUALLY EMPTY (NOT THAT I MINDED, ALMOST, JUST THE TWO OF US). THE GROUNDS WERE VERY WELL KEPT. THE ROOM VERY CLEAN. ANYWAY WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME. WE WALKED THE GROUNDS. THIS HOTEL WAS ON A HILL SO IT WAS HIGH UP. AT THE END OF OUR CORRIDOR WAS A LARGE PICTURE WINDOW. WE SAW SOME GOOD FIREWORKS FROM THERE. WE PLAYED GIN RUMMY ...

Here we are in Alabama, the birthplace of Marty. She found a map at the visitors center that actually shows the town where she was born. Yesterday was good. After the trip down the Natches we had a drive on I-20 with a lot of trucks. Why don't they put all that freight on the train? We are planning a stop on Huntsville to visit Martys cousin and to see the old family home; then on to Chattanooga.

... on the town square to totally disinterested townsfolk. We then rode to Birmingham which is a beautiful city. The local chapter of the Lifesouth treated us to a picnic at a park for dinner- we had burgers and all the fixings. I am so overwhelmed by the LifeSouth community that is treating us all like stars. We are all getting pretty tired by the meet and greets after a long day of cycling. hopefully, we a making a difference.

Okay, enough of the history stuff. It was time for us to get lost in the mountains. We've spent the last few days driving through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. We took the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia which was a breathtaking drive with the fall colors in full peak. The dips of the valleys on either side of the road can be overwhelming in spots. We entered the ...

... figures ever cast; standing on a pedestal 124 feet high, he's 55 feet tall and weighs 60 tons. And he's a prizewinner! Made of Birmingham iron and cast locally, he was designed and made as an exhibit for the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, and won the Grand Prize. He's named, of course, after the Roman mythical god of the forge, so is a symbol of the city's years as a "steel city." For nearly 90 years Birmingham's ...