I started the day with Capt. Gary Kinney. Gary is a captain on the Navy
research vessels out of Panorama City, but lives in Dothan. I met him last year
when he was a fellow rider in the Scooter Cannonball. He has some great
scooters and we caught up on his latest projects and told lies about the
Cannonball.
Big Red and me rolled out about 9:30 under cold gray skies....again. We
headed in the direction of Fort Rucker, Alabama home of Army Aviation. I am a
former Army Aviator and one of the few that has never ever set foot on the home
of Army Aviation at Fort Rucker. They have an aviation museum there and I had
slight interest in visiting it and it was not until I got there that I decided to
go in thus breaking my life long goal of never entering the Home of Army Aviation. Entering the base is much easier than in the past; just show a drivers
license and you are in. The museum is fairly well done with almost every helicopter and airplane including some WWI ones that were in the Army. There was hardly
anyone there but the few, all in one family, were about as obnoxious as they come.
The mothers were on their phones while their children acted like they were in a
park climbing on the exhibits, yelling and running around the whole place. The
father was no better in his flight suit leading family or friends around. The
little bastards were completely ignored by their parents. To bad the weapons
were not real.
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| dog in the back is a normal sight |
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| one of these must be the way |
Back on the road, I stopped to look at a Huey that had caught my eye when I
rode in front of the Daleville city hall. It was painted with the number and
emblem of one of the units I was in in the Army. Sure enough, I had been with the 134th and
there is a good chance that I flew in this Huey often. I am not one of those guys that
think this is one of the greatest things that ever happened, but the chances
of coming across a aircraft that I flew 40 years ago halfway around the world I
found interesting.
Off we went down the highway once again. In Brantley we pulled up for lunch
at Michael's Southern Foods. When I saw the “lunch buffet” sign I turned around
and was leaving. But I looked in the kitchen door and saw a guy washing dishes and I asked if he was the dishwasher and he replied “I am everything”. I inquired if
they had a alternative to the buffet and he said you can order off the menu. I
turned around and in went in for lunch. Salad choices were Small Salad, Large Salad,
Chef Salad. I did not want a Chef Salad but after hearing the description from the waitress I decided it would better suit my desires. The salad came out on a large plate
with lots of shredded cheese, some croutons, two cucumber slices, about 6 pieces
of lettuce and about a pound of fried chicken. Welcome to the south. I enjoyed
the break, got my money’s worth of tea and hit the road again.
Alabama has been hard on "illegals". Looks like they are going after the fish now.
A little after 2 pm the sun came out and it started to warm up. I was now
on Al 10 a rural road with little traffic.
what are the chances of seeing a Vespa in flowers and a surfboard in the background in rural Alabama. I did not see this when I took the picture.
art??
Gas stations are sparse so I stopped at a small store and pulled up to the
antique pumps next to a Harley trailer. Almost instantly two gentlemen, a tall
lanky guy with a do-rag and a balding shorter gentlemen came out to inspect Big Red. I learned
quickly they were JR Godwin of JR’s Antique Harley’s and Classics, and James
Huggins the manager of this little store. JR was impressed with Big Red and Vespas. We retired into the store and talked bikes and rural Alabama. While I was
there people came and went, mainly one at time, buying beer and gas, all
on credit. I bid them adieu and headed further into Pine Apple. No one knows how
the town got it’s name back in the 1860’s but there are several theories and
one even blames the Yankees for it. At the town hall I visited with a lady going
into the post office who welcomed me to Pine Apple. She told me the gas station
is known as “The Mall” since it is the only store in town. Pine Apple is a nice
really little town with some old southern homes most in good repair but like most towns in rural areas it is dying.
This is timber land, but there had been almost no logging trucks. That
changed after I passed Camden and the International Paper plant. A steady onslaught of trucks started with as many as 10 in formation. The good news is they
were all going the other way and not in the direction of our travels, thus they
were not trying to run over us to get around us to get to the next load.
Back on the road we crossed into Mississippi about 4 pm. Going from a poor
state to the poorest state in America. We arrived in Meridian about 5 and
called it a day.
