Day 15: Just the good old boys, never meanin’ no harm

DAY 15: Alabaster, Alabama
Miles traveled: 2,390
States visited: 9 (just added: Alabama)
Weather: 85, sunny

I found the most awesome museum in the world. Yesterday while looking for the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, I discovered something much more exciting – Cooter’s Dukes of Hazzard Museum. Admission was free! This place has several rooms of Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia, toys, autographed merchandise, Roscoe’s actual uniform from the show, and all sorts of similar stuff. I felt the Uncle Jesse section was lacking, though. He was the true star of the show if you ask me.

They had some of the vehicles from the show – you could get your picture taken inside the General Lee for $10.

Yesterday was the driving-est day I’ve had yet. I drove 3 hours to Nashville, then 6 hours south into Alabama. I only had a couple hours to spend in Nashville. I just happened to find a perfect parking spot that was near both Vanderbilt University and Music Row, the neighborhood where a lot of country music stuff exists. I saw the home of Curb Records, GAC (the country music version of MTV), and lots of recording studios.

I drove over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and considered going in, but I cha-cha’d to find out the price and it was $28. That’s twice as much as the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame! No, thank you.

I’m not a huge country fan but I was disappointed to miss out on seeing the Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Loretta Lynn exhibits. Keilan told me that he once played a guitar that had been owned by Johnny Cash. I don’t think I’ll ever get over my envy about that.

I usually like to drive through small towns, but I had 400 miles to cover in Alabama yesterday, so I had to I-65 it. I was amused that one of their rest stops has a “Beautification Award” that they apparently presented to themselves.

I never imagined that my first traffic jam of the trip would occur in Birmingham, Alabama, but indeed it did. Montgomery and Birmingham have very attractive skylines. There’s a ton of civil rights history in Alabama, and I feel guilty that I didn’t think to seek out any of those sites until I was already driving through the area. If I’d had two days in Alabama instead of one, I would have tried to find some of those for sure.

I’m headed to Pensacola for a beach visit, and then it’s over to New Orleans for a couple nights. This will be my second couchsurfing experience of the trip. I’m looking forward to it!

Here’s the projected path of the second leg of my trip, from Nashville to Austin.