Birmingham AL

Spent a couple of days in Knoxville TN and then moved here to Helena Alabama which is outside of Birmingham, today. Got here about 3pm Central. Back track a couple of days and this is what we did.... Stayed at an Escapee (we are members) campground at Raccoon Valley in Heiskell from Thursday morning till today. This is a great way to camp - the sites are very inexpensive ($14/night) with full hookup. Very clean, very secure. Only members of Escapees can camp at these parks. And there are many through out US and Canada. Anyhow, once we settled in we spent the first full day just getting our breath. Grocery shop was the only thing on the agenda. Yesterday, Saturday, we did our first real sightseeing since leaving Tuesday.

We started out by going to the AMSE which is the American Museum of Science and Energy. Euuuuu, you say! But very fascinationg. A good part of the museum was dedicated to the Manhatten project and the secret city (Oak Ridge) and the part the Manhatten project played in WWII. They developed the bombs that landed on Japan and ended the war. Then we went on to the Museum of Appalachia. An outdoor museum as well as indoor buildings that housed artifacts of every day life in the Appalachia. Lots of history, and it was done by one man. He had bartered, bought, swapped, whatever to get what he needed - banjos, old furniture, Mark Twains' house, Indian artifacts, complete houses and buildings (schools/outhouses/barns/private homes) whatever. Very nicely done. And, the museum was having auditions for their homecoming days - so musicians were everywhere playing and practicing, waiting their turn to play old time music. Kinda felt like Nellie and Jeb and Granny Clampet were just around the corner! Dave took lots of pictures and I'll send them on in separate email. Here's a tast of what we saw...

Weather has been great - have had to have the furnace and space heaters on at night, but during the day has been about 50. When we got here in Helena it was 66, and we don't have the furnace on for tonight, will have the space heaters ready to go just in case. Tomorrow 'sposed to be 70 - but rain. That's okay - it's even green here! And right now I hear tree frogs (peepers) singing. How cool! The road (I59) from Chattanooga to here was just awful - we called it the horsey trail - was bumpty bump bumpty bump for about 2 hours. Chip didn't like it, nor did we. I have to say that the cats have gotten the hang of it - Chip only talks for about an hour, then quiet. Grace doesn't say a word, just stares at me, then lays down. Once we get to a site and about 10 minutes after shutting down the truck, the cats are moved in and they get reaquainted, and life is good for them.