Road Trip 2009

About a month ago we decided to change our summer vacation plans. Given that our last three trips to the beach and/or campouts have all included heavy downpours, we decided that we just didn't want to chance it. Instead, we decided to get our geek on and go on a mini-road trip, with our main destination being the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville, Alabama.

We left bright and early Sunday morning. Since there is really no direct way from Albany to Huntsville, we ended up on backroads for the first third of our trip. Our first major stop was to stretch our legs on the Georgia side of Lake Eufala.




(The kids were inspired to act out a scene from Titanic.)

The view of the lake itself was lovely, however the experience was marred a bit by the copious amounts of feces everywhere. Birds, dogs, and who-knows-what- other-creatures use this area as their own personal litter box. Technically, this area is known as the Walter F. George Resevoir, but to us it will always be known as POO POINT.

We crossed over the lake into Alabama, and there was much rejoicing in the van! The kids began remarking how different Alabama was from Georgia and how neat it was to be there. Jed's major observation was that "Alabama was a lot hotter than Georgia". Who knew he was so sensitive to the ambient temperature?

Not too far into Alabama I saw this sign:


Call me crazy, but when you see a sign that directing you to a 'BIRD DOG STATUE' I'm sorry- you HAVE TO STOP! This is what we found:





Smack dab in the middle of town, in the middle of the road, no less! It turns out that Union Springs, Alabama is the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Who knew??!??!? They really love their bird dogs, as evidenced by the Bird Dog motif being everywhere, even the benches lining Main Street:


We felt we really needed to pay homage to this great town, and to Bird Dogs around the world, so we posed for a picture in a fitting manner:


So to those of you who have travelled extensively- Europe? Boring! Hawaii? Total cliche! South America? Whatever! *We've* been to the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Take that, suckas!

Back in the car, we started driving again, eventually arriving in Birmingham around 1:00 pm. As we were leaving Birmingham, I remembered that our church has a temple there, so we decided to find it. After a quick call to my mom for directions, we realized we were only a few exits away. Lucky!




I realize it's no Bird Dog Statue, but then again, what is??

Our final destination for the evening was Huntsville. We were staying with a family friend who also would be our "behind the scenes" tour guide the next day at the Space Center. We arrived by 4:00 and we glad to be able to stretch our legs for more than five minutes. Jeff and Cindy live on 20 acres outside of Huntsville, so there was *plenty* of room to roam.

Our hosts were FANTASTIC! Their home was lovely and they fed us until we were ready to pop. After dinner, we went back outside and I was SO HAPPY to see FIREFLIES!!





The girls had never seen them before (it's too hot down here), and even Jed got into it. It seemed like there were thousands of them flying around. The kids were walking around, but I just sat in the grass and after while the fireflies would just land on me. It was very cool.

By this time it was getting late, and we had a busy day to look forward to on Monday. So it was off to bed for us...