SpringHill Suites Birmingham - Colonnade

Since nothing too terribly exciting happened while in Birmingham, AL, I'm going to take this time to talk a little bit about Continental Breakfasts.<br><br>One of my favorite exchanges in a movie is from Tombstone when Wyatt Earp asks Josephine "What's your idea of heaven?" and she responds "Room Service". I still love that and think it's quite true... but there is a vast chasm between Room Service and the Continental Breakfast. <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.

... inside the camper, a pair of camp chairs, our walking sticks, a few guidebooks, and some basic kitchen supplies (electric teakettle, French press and Melitta one-cupper for his coffee, Mountain Research pot and lid). We'll take basics like tea, coffee, peanut butter and other sandwich-makings, and then pick up fresh fruit and vegetables at farmers' markets and ...

( ) JULY 3-4, 2002 <br>THIS IS A TIME OF GOODNESS FROM THE LORD...ALL IS WELL AND THE KIDS ARE FINE. AGAIN, JUST GETTING AWAY BY OURSELVES... AWAY FROM THE NORM. WE CHECKED IN THE HOTEL. THEN WENT TO THE U CHINA BUFFET TO EAT DINNER. THE FOOD WAS REALLY GOOD. THE WE HEADED BACK TO THE ROOM TO START OUR EVENING TOGETHER.THIS HOTEL IS REALLY LOVELY. WHAT WE DID NOT UNDERSTAND ...

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.

Alright, so today started out with a semi-early breakfast at Cool Moose. Some delicious sandwiches, blueberry coffee, and a few teary goodbyes later... we were on our merry little way. We headed out of Jacksonville on the never-ending I-10.... Good God. Longest, most boring stretch of interstate in Florida. Upon finally leaving I-10 and turning into Alabama, we decided ...

... to beautiful Ross Bridge Resort. The hotel had some trouble find our reservation and we had the first scare in terms of logistics of the trip. Well they figured it out and the even gave us an upgrade to the"club level" to make up for mix up. All is well that ends well. The room is great and after cleaning up a bit we had a great dinner and then it was back to the room for the Yankee highlights and for me to pound out the ...