Back on Track

Back on Track               September 28, 2017

Well, yesterday was not so perfect!  In fact, by the time it ended, I was having second thoughts about our excursion.  The day had begun well enough, with another rather misty morning and a slow gradual climb.  A growing vista of the town of Broadway and surrounding sheep pastures emerged, looking like a Gainsborough painting.  So far, so good.

Having consulted our guide book, we had decided to take a detour from the Cotswold Way to visit a nearby village with an estate, said to have "an almost perfect example of a Cotswold manor house".   One of our reasons for planning to walk just 5-6 miles/day was to give us an opportunity to visit sights along the way, something that we had missed on our previous long walks.

                                       Snowshill Manor, the newer part

The Snowshill Manor House is a quirky place, owned by the National Trust and therefore in good hands.  It had been owned previously by Charles Paget Wade, a WW I veteran, whose family wealth had allowed him to collect stuff to his heart's content.  And his heart's content was a LOT.  In fact, he had bought the manor house not to live in, but to house his growing collection.  He himself lived a frugal existence in pretty primitive conditions in a cottage behind the manor house.  His main interest was to collect beautiful handmade items, like old bicycles, hand-carved items, huge thread winding forms, Chinese cabinets, and decorated wooden shields.  The manor house, the oldest part of which dates back to the 1500's, is filled to the brim with artifacts.  We began with lunch in the tearoom and then spent over an hour exploring the collection and the gardens.  By 2 pm, we were back on our way on the trail.

Now comes the tricky part.  On the way to the manor house, the trail had descended rather steeply down slippery, muddy tracks.  My knee had suddenly begun complaining quite loudly, a new problem.  I borrowed the walking stick that Bruce had picked up in the woods and limped along.  After our detour, it seemed that it might be wise to take a shortcut back to the trail.  Therein lay our downfall.  We began wandering up and down hills and across fields, trying to find our new way.  There are many, many public footpaths in England!  Not all of them are labeled with names.  Bruce and I differed on our ideas of the correct direction to take.

Meanwhile, the sky was getting darker, and we hadn't seen any other walkers for a long time.  The wind was blowing fiercely, and it was a bit lonely up there on the open fields.  Finally, Bruce pulled out his "device", never far away, and used his GPS to determine how to get to the next village - just about the time that it began raining.  We stood under a tree, pulled on raincoats, and shortly afterward came upon a Cotswold Way sign, to our great relief.

                                          Staying warm in the rain

We still had quite a long way to walk to get to that night's lodging, a farmhouse right on the trail.  Luckily, my knee was feeling better - for no reason that I could determine.  I was grateful, in any case.   We passed through the lovely - but eerily quiet - small town of Stanton.  To our dismay, no tea room or open pub.  Needing a bit of sustenance, we sat on a bench in the rain and nibbled on cheese and apples, wishing it had been a beer by a cheery fire.  We kept going and came to Stanway, passing the cricket pitch donated by J.M. Barrie and the sweet little church.

                            The charming old church in Stanton

The day's last bit of excitement came when we noticed a sign, warning that the next part of our trail went through a field with a bull.  We had read that more Brits are killed by stampeding cattle than by car crashes (can that really be true ??).  In any case, we crept quietly through the field, emboldened by the awareness that our BnB lay just beyond it.  It was 6 pm when we dragged in at Maggie and Mick's Wood Stanway Farmhouse B&B.  Our fit bits registered 12 miles. We were completely done in!  This 400 year old building lacked the elegance of our recent accommodations - but it had one essential ingredient: a big, deep tub!  I soaked in the hottest water possible and then fell into bed for the best sleep in days.

Today turned out much better.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and fresh and moist after the rain.  We breakfasted with 2 couples from Wales, sibs and their spouses. We were fascinated to learn that the sibs had grown up speaking Welsh as their first language, which is related to Breton and Cornish. Apparently the Welsh government is trying to promote the continuance of the language with immersion schools as a choice.  These four hardy souls planned to walk the whole 100-mile stretch of the Cotswold Way.

Bruce and I had an easy day planned.  After walking for an hour or so, we stopped at a tiny, ancient, Saxon church and then spent 2 hours at nearby Hailes Abbey, listening to extremely well-done audio-guides, explaining the life of monks in this 13th century Cistercian house.  There are only a few stone arches remaining from those days, due to Henry VIII's orders to destroy Catholic buildings in 1539.

                                       Ruins of Hailes Abbey cloister

The afternoon stroll to Winchcombe, our final destination for the day, took us through more sheep and cow pastures, hearing the whistle of a steam engine train and seeing its white cloud of steam billowing out behind, over wooden stiles and under massive spreading oak trees - but thankfully no steep climbs, either up or down.

We arrived in Winchcombe in time for a lovely, late lunch in the back patio of the Red Lion Inn.  We have learned - the hard way - that it's best not to eat a big meal before sleeping.  We're trying to be restrained and won't eat again today.  Well, maybe a ginger nut or two :).  We'll be in Winchcombe for two nights, giving ourselves a break from walking, looking around this more vibrant Cotswold town, staying in another lovely Airbnb.  Our knees and toes are feeling better.  We're back on track!

Off to Broadway!

Off to Broadway!                     September 26, 2017

Our first day of "rambling" from Chipping Campden to Broadway was perfect!  We had awakened to a relatively warm, misty morning with sun trying to break out - just right for walking.  Fueled by our sweet host's full English breakfast, including yogurt & the last of this season's strawberries, we set out with just light day packs. Deenie's husband had already left to take our suitcases to our Broadway AirBnB, when we emerged onto the sidewalk of this magical 18th century world.  It was 9 am.  The trail was very well marked with the National Trails acorn symbol. Along with our extremely detailed official Cotswold Way guide book, we had no trouble finding the trail.  

                What's not to love about a trail like this?

After the first long hill from Chipping Campden, leading up onto the escarpment, the terrain was pretty level and easy walking.  Birds were singing, the grass was green and lush, the air was moist and earthy-smelling - we were happy ramblers!  

The day passed quickly as we traversed fields with sheep who seem quite used to sharing their space with walkers, through small woods (copses) and many "kissing gates".   At one point the narrow path was filled with a tractor.  The farmer eased his machine over to the side as far as he could to let us pass.  

We encountered some other walkers, several of them American.  In fact, the Cotswolds seem to be a magnet for American retirees, especially at this time of year!  Not too many of them were walking the C. Way, however.  The Brits are easy to spot, as so many of them have doggie companions.  

Benches, conveniently placed at look-out points, offered a place for a brief rest and a nibble on snacks.  The path surface is very rocky and in the old days this area was not very arable due to the thinness of the soil under which is the yellow stone used in  the local buildings.  That made it more suitable for sheep farming.  We did see large fields of soybeans and broccoli, thanks to modern farming equipment, but there are still a lot of sheep.  

Broadway Tower was the big attraction on this part of the trail.  It is a "folly", a large construction with no purpose other than decorative, favored by upper class Brits in the 1800's for their estates.  This particular folly had an interesting history and is open to the public - for a fee.  It sits on one of the highest points in the area, an ancient beacon site where fires were lit to warn of enemies approaching.  During WW II the tower served as an observation point.  There is a bunker there, too, built in the 1960's for use in case of nuclear war!  Apparently England prepared itself for this possibility, just like America did.  

            Broadway Tower, a folly built in the late 1800's.    

What goes up must come down, and the trail takes a long, rather steep descent into Broadway.  It's hard on the toes, as we've learned over the course of our other long hikes.  

We arrived in Broadway at 2 pm, having walked a leisurely 6 miles.  The town is quite toney, with a quiet, manicured, well-cared for appearance.  Galleries, small restaurants, shops, hotels, and pubs line High Street.  

Our AirBnB hosts tonight are bright, interesting people about our age.  Their home is not far off the trail, in a lovely neighborhood of well-heeled homes.  We're feeling a bit pampered.  This one is a keeper!  

Cotswold Peace

Cotswold Peace               September 25, 2017

Bruce and I are off to celebrate my birthday in grand style, appropriate for the grand number that I have ascended to!  The actual date was in late May but we were too busy at home to travel then.  So, here we are in September in the Cotswold town of Chipping Campden, England, preparing to "ramble" on the Cotswold Way for a week or so, beginning tomorrow.  I'm excited!  

 

Chipping Campden is a beautiful town!  The buildings are all constructed of the same golden stone, found in abundance here, lending the town a warm feel. Despite the differing eras of the buildings, some dating to the 1600s (!), there is visual unity as one looks down the main street. Of course, they are all at least 100 years old, most much older, I'm sure.  Our B&B, at the edge of town, was built in 1904.   

The "cottages", the term for the ancient, low-slung row houses lining the main street, all have their own names, such as Molly's Cottage, Harrow House, etc., which gives the town a feel of times gone by.  Just behind this line of houses is a green, green field, speckled with sheep grazing peacefully.  Ah, what a bucolic scene amidst these scary times of crazy man-boys, threatening to blow us all up!  

This afternoon, I chatted with a woman working in her back garden, which looks out on this field.  She worries about the future for her grandchildren in this unsettled era and derives quiet reassurance from the tranquil, timeless quality of her sheep field. 

Meandering down the main street, we found the official start of the Cotswold Way embedded into the High Street pavement (term for Main Street) of Chipping Campden and are looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning.  Coincidentally and conveniently, our B&B host runs a luggage transport service and will take our suitcases to our next lodging in Broadway.

England's National Trails use the acorn as their symbol.   

The Cotswolds were the center of the wool industry of the 1700's, with sheep farms and wool-processing mills and the resulting wealth that they produced.  Now it seems quintessentially English, from a by-gone era.  There are lots of American couples of our age milling around, doing a bit of walking here & there, stopping at the plethora of wonderful little restos and atmospheric pubs.  Not much ethnic diversity among the residents but it is definitely sweet, friendly, and CHARMING!  

Stay tuned for more updates as we wend our way on foot for 50 miles, a few miles each day; at least, that's the plan!  

The Struggle Continues

The Struggle Continues      April 1, 2017

Our civil rights tour is coming to a close in Memphis.  The National Civil Rights Museum, located here, is magnificent - much bigger and more extensive that we could have anticipated!  THIS is the place to visit if you want the complete story of civil rights in this country, beginning with slavery and continuing up through the horrendous events of the 1960's, described earlier, but also including the March on Washington and MLK's "I have a dream" speech, the rise of black power, the 'black is beautiful' movement, the origins of the holiday known as Kwanzaa, the importance of the black musical tradition to the civil rights movement and the development of the blues and jazz.  All in one place.  That place happens to be the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was killed as he stood on a balcony, having come to Memphis in support of better wages for sanitation workers.  The museum is built around the motel. 

The Lorraine Motel was one of the few motels where blacks could stay during segregation.  The room where MLK was killed has a wreath on it.  The cars in the parking lot were the same as those there that day.  

We were at the museum for a whole day - with a break for lunch, and we still missed some of it!  We are left with full heads and hearts and questions about what it all means for Bruce and Linda.  

                                    Brave students integrating schools.  

Memphis, of course, has a rich musical tradition, which is clear everywhere in this city.  The day after our visit to the civil rights museum, we headed downtown to Sun Studios, "birthplace of rock 'n' roll".  

This is where Elvis, among others, first recorded a song and had been "discovered".  A soft-spoken, passionate young singer told us all about Sun Studio.  We left with a CD of the studio's greatest hits, featuring artists such as B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and, of course, Elvis. There are other famous recording studios, such as Stax, which offer tours, but one was enough for yesterday.   

                                             Mural at Central BBQ.

The other thing that we had to do was to try some barbecue.  Last week, when we told someone that we were headed for Memphis, we were immediately asked if we had chosen our barbecue spot yet!  What?  It was over a week away. That's how important barbecue is in these parts :)!   Several folks suggested Central BBQ as the place to eat.  Honestly, we hadn't been looking forward to it - too much greasy meat, but it seemed a necessary southern experience.  Well, we are converts!  We ate at the downtown Central BBQ yesterday and again today at the original location, close to our BnB!  Two days in a row!  Same meal!  A slab of pork ribs, half with dry rub and half wet, with two sides: mac & cheese and cole slaw.  We shared the order, and it was perfect. Oh, my! So delicious!  Guess we'll have to add this guilty pleasure to our annual fried clams binge. 

                 Central BBQ, an iconic spot in Memphis.  

When traveling, Bruce and I like to stay open to serendipity.  As we were headed out for a walk in our neighborhood today, we encountered a march.  Everyone was wearing pink and yellow.  As we got closer, we could see that most of the marchers were Black woman wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words "Sista Strut".  It turns out that they were walking to raise funds and awareness of breast cancer.  The crowd just kept coming and coming (estimated at 5000!!)    We couldn't see either end of the long line that filled the street on this beautiful spring day.  Of course, I took photos.  Many participants waved and said hello and a few invited us to join them.  We did join in and had a great chat with a young woman who told us that breast cancer is unusually high among Black women, due to life style choices, poor diet, lack of exercise, etc.  Thus the march.  The whole experience was a gift in our day!  

Participants in the Sista Strut walk to raise awareness of breast cancer.  

We're staying in another cool Airbnb, located in the "hip" neighborhood known as Cooper-Young, in midtown Memphis.  Our hosts are young professionals from out of town.  Their home is in the bungalow-craftsman style that dominates the area. 

                Our Memphis Airbnb in Cooper-Young neighborhood.

Cooper-Young is another neighborhood that is racially mixed and being rejuvenated by young couples who are able to afford the house prices here.  Nearby is a collection of great little restos, a cat shelter :), book stores, antique stores, a comic book store, etc.  We're loving its walk-ability and cool vibes and great food.  

Tomorrow we fly back to Maine.  We hear that there will be snow, darn it!  We're eager to get home anyway, snow or no snow!  Our tour has left us with a deeper understanding of the sacrifices and courage of the civil rights movement and an awareness that, as a country, we are far from finished.  The struggle obviously continues, which is part of what prompted this tour.  Issues such as voter suppression, income inequality, mass incarceration of Blacks, poor schools, lack of respect, police brutality... all beg to be attended to.  

Florida

Florida                       March 31, 2017

"In Florida, you never go into the woods.  Because things never die here, they just get bigger."    
 Advice from a long-term resident, formerly of East Boston, Mass.

Because I'm the thorough type, I'm including recollections of Florida, even though we were there before we went to Alabama, making it a bit out of sequence.  

We spent a week in Florida, after returning from Cuba.  It had been meant to be a brief interlude, primarily to check out Venice, Florida.  It seemed that half the folks in our town of Gorham are spending time there in the winter.  Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but quite a few people that we know use Venice as their winter escape, including my cousins Gary & Diane Olsen.   Bruce and I could envision the day when trips to third world countries would be just too demanding.  Would Venice be a place for us, when that day came?  

Off we went in a rental car, starting in Ft. Lauderdale, just outside of Miami.  We had contemplated trying to make do with taking busses in the south, but we're glad that we sprang for the car.  It made life so much easier and allowed us to roam around more freely.  

Robert's lovely home was situated close to the airport - and wedged between two Interstate highways.  Pretty noisy.  

After spending a couple of days in a wonderful Airbnb in Ft. Lauderdale, hosted by a fellow named Robert, who became a new friend over glasses of wine and sharing of stories, we set out on Alligator Alley.  It's the long, straight road that crosses south Florida, partially through the Everglades, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico coast.  We were excited to be seeing this part of the country for the first time - with our own set of wheels, something that we hadn't had for 6 weeks.  The day was sunny and bright; the land was flat and open and surprisingly undeveloped.  Guess it's hard to build on swamp land.  

Along the way, there were several places to stop and fish in the waterway that paralleled the highway - or to just gaze at herons and try to spot alligators.  

Gary & Diane's "park" in Venice, where they hang out in their RV from January through April, was several miles from the closest Airbnb that we could find for our 4 nights there.  Our host was a bit of an oddball.  Luckily we had things to do every day, and we spent very little time at his house.  It was a "manufactured house", located in a massive 55+ development with an abundance of American flags and lots of golf carts.  

Over the course of our few days in Venice, we got a flavor of life in this pretty, planned community.  One day we rented bikes and, with Gary, wheeled along a fabulous off-road trail that went for miles along the inland waterway, over bridges and through neighborhoods. It was glorious, and I was very happy!

              Spinning along on an off-road bike trail in Venice, Florida.

 Another day the Olsens took us to nearby Englewood, where we had lunch at a beachy resto. Venice itself was full of boutiques and nice little restos, a museum that told its interesting history, a theater, etc.  

                                       Good times with Gary and Diane.

On our last evening, we took a picnic to a beach to watch the sun dip into the ocean, something that we don't get to do in Maine.  It was too windy and chilly to dip ourselves into the water!  

    Diane, Gary, & Bruce, bundled up and huddled against the wind.  

Venice had great infrastructure for outdoor playing, i.e. bike trails, beaches and parks, plus golf, tennis, and yoga - but we're not sure that it's right for us.  After our 3 days, we continued up the west coast of Florida.  Skirting Sarasota and Tampa and St. Petersburg, the traffic and development and congestion seemed never-ending.  As the non-stop shopping malls and chain stores and big, busy highways were beginning to peter out, we stopped at Tarpon Springs, a cute town known for its sponge-fishing heritage and Greek roots - and tourist shops!  Back on the road, long stretches of woods and rural poverty began to dominate the scenery.  

After spending a night in a Days Inn in a forgettable northern Florida town, we took an hour to explore Manatee Springs State Park.  Now that was not forgettable!  A woodsy boardwalk took us along a river of clear water fed by springs, where we saw manatees hanging out just below the water's surface and trees filled with huge, black vultures.  

                                     A momma manatee, so we were told.

                          These vultures were BIG and a bit intimidating ...

                                           especially when up close!

Our destination that day was Pensacola, on the Florida panhandle, just shy of the Alabama border.  We stayed a couple of nights and one full day there.  The day was spent visiting the National Naval Aviation Museum, a huge and surprisingly (for me) fascinating place where one can learn about the historical development of our nation's use of air power in military conflicts.  I'm sure that much of the credit for my enjoyment of the experience goes to our guided tour, given by a retired black pilot who was engaging, witty, and knowledgeable.  

The WW II-era training plane used by 18 year old George H. W. Bush, youngest naval aviator at the time.  The museum put the #41 on it.  

Both evenings we ate at Five Sisters, our introduction to upscale soul food, within walking distance of our Pensacola Victorian B&B. 

                 Outside wall mural near the Five Sisters resto in Pensacola.

In our admittedly limited time there, we found Pensacola to be refreshingly diverse in relation to Venice.  Unfortunately, the B&B was located near a railroad track.  We had no idea that so many nocturnal freight trains could be tooting their way through Florida! 

                              Front porch at the Pensacola Victorian B&B.

So, that was our Florida experience.  It was brief, only a week, stretching from the suburbs of east-coast Miami, over to the retirement havens of the west coast, and up to a coastal city energized by its military presence and cultural diversity.  The next day we continued north to Montgomery, Alabama, where our story continues in the last - and next - posts.  

The Struggle for Freedom and Equality

The Struggle for Freedom and Equality      March 29, 2017

"...until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."              Martin Luther King

I hadn't known what to expect in Alabama.  Bruce and I have traveled very little in the south, never in this state.  It has a pretty horrible history in the human rights realm, especially during the time of the civil rights movement.  This is the state where George Wallace reigned supreme in his hateful, strong-arm governance.  There's a reason that so many of the civil rights sites are clustered in Alabama, places fraught with incidents of unimaginable violence.  Even now, it's where our current President has gone looking for his Attorney General, an allegedly racist individual.  (BTW, today we stumbled across a beautiful college campus in Montgomery and discovered that Jeff Sessions is an alum!)  I guess that I did have expectations, after all.  But, it's been many years since most of those egregious events took place.  And, the other side of the hateful history is a story of towering courage and human dignity.   What would Alabama look like, feel like now?

One of the first hopeful signs as we traveled north on the interstate highway from Florida was the happy discovery that National Public Radio has a strong presence in Alabama!  Yay!  We were headed for Montgomery which we hoped to use as a hub for our civil rights tour.  It's within a reasonable distance from Selma, Birmingham, and Tuskeegee, which were also on our tentative agenda.  We booked 4 nights in an Airbnb in Montgomery which turned out to be one of the best we've ever stayed in!

                         Alabama State capital building in Montgomery

Montgomery is the capital of the state of Alabama, situated about a third of the way up from the southern border of Florida's panhandle.  Its population is about 200,000, a bit smaller than Birmingham, which is to its north.  I tell you all of this because I, myself, wasn't familiar with Alabama before we arrived.  I did know that Montgomery is the location of a cluster of sites which were important to the civil rights struggle - and that's why we're here.   These include the Dexter Street Baptist Church and its parsonage, where ML King preached and lived with his family as a young minister just out of seminary.  At great personal peril, he was called upon to lead the bus boycott that resulted, after 13 months, in desegregating local buses.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church which a young M.L. King served as pastor.

Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in 1955, brought the struggle to a head, has a museum dedicated to her in Montgomery.  The Southern Poverty Law Center, long an advocate for social justice, has created a wonderful Civil Rights Memorial Center there, dedicated to 40 people who lost their lives during the civil rights movement.  There is also a museum honoring the Freedom Riders, young folks who risked their lives by riding buses into the south in an attempt to desegregate interstate transportation.  These brave kids were brutally beaten in both Montgomery and Birmingham.  The 1960's era effort to secure voting rights for black citizens in the south, punctuated with murders of political activists and ordinary people trying to secure this most basic right, ended with the famous march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery.  Obviously, this city had a lot to see and absorb about that pivotal time in our nation's history.

          Rosa Parks statue at the museum honoring her in Montgomery

On a spring Saturday in 2017, more than 50 years after these struggles, there were not a lot of people visiting the museums in Montgomery.  We visited both the Rosa Parks Museum and the Civil Rights Memorial Center in one day.  Both were impressive buildings with thoughtfully presented information.  Reading the personal stories of the victims and seeing the number of individuals who lost their lives in this struggle is compelling.   The Civil Rights Memorial, while focused on American blacks, also reminds us, through its displays, of the civil rights of other groups - immigrants, gays and transgendered people, Muslims.

Beautiful memorial designed by Maya Linn to commemorate people & events of the civil rights movement.  It's located at the Civil Rights Memorial & Museum in Montgomery, sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, headquartered across the street.  

Two days later, Bruce and I went to the small town of Tuskegee, about a half hour east of Montgomery.  The town itself is pretty shabby with boarded up homes,  empty storefronts, two Dollar Stores, and a big Piggly Wiggly.  We were to learn later, as we traveled across the state on secondary roads, that Tuskegee's look of poverty and abandonment, is typical of many towns in rural Alabama.  Our actual destination, however, was outside of town.  The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site is where the US Army had hosted an experiment during WWII to see if African-Americans had the mental and physical abilities to become fighter pilots.  The Tuskegee Airmen became celebrated, skilled, and fiercely courageous pilots.  They were fighting for a "double victory", both to help win the war and to improve the situation for blacks at home.  They returned to humiliating conditions of segregation, and worse.

                             Tuskegee Airmen training for duty in WWII

We also visited Tuskegee Institute, another National Historic Site and the college founded by Booker T. Washington.  It is a thriving college on a beautiful, historic, 5000 acre campus.  We ate lunch in a lovely dining room in the Kellogg Conference Center (established by the Kellogg Foundation) where students who are studying the hospitality industry or nutrition can get hands-on experience. Arriving a bit late on a Monday, there was only one other couple eating there.  It was quiet but delicious.

Detail from the amazing stained glass window in the Tuskegee Institute Chapel, featuring bits of lyrics of black spirituals.

Our Montgomery story wouldn't be complete without a description of our Airbnb there.  It's one of the best we've ever stayed in, and we loved it! It's a former in-law space on the back of a 1930 home in the Capital Heights historic area.  Because it's owned by a young art history professor and her sculptor/carpenter husband, it's very artsy and beautifully appointed.  We had our own entrance with an outside lawn area where we could sip our evening white wine.  And it was reasonably quiet, despite being fairly close to downtown.

  Note the piggly wiggly painting - on cardboard - above the bed :) and all the natural light!  

On Tuesday, we left Montgomery, heading toward Memphis, our final civil rights stop.  Montgomery had been surprisingly pleasant - traveling as a privileged white couple in 2017.  It has lovely wide boulevards and pretty, historic neighborhoods.  We hadn't made it to Birmingham or all of the sites that we had hoped, but it was time to move on.  We are anxious to get back home.  And we have a few more intriguing places to visit first.

On our way west, about 50 miles from Montgomery, we planned to stop in Selma, the famously significant town in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Although blacks had had the right to vote at that time, they had been prevented from doing so by a culture of terrorism, not to mention various impediments such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and other laws.

The Selma story unfolds along the 50 miles of Highway 80 that leads to the state capital of Montgomery.  This is where the march in support of voting rights took place, over the course of 4 days.  It had begun in Selma, some time after Bloody Sunday, when local police had beaten back marchers with billy clubs and dogs and tear gas.  When ML King asked for clergy from throughout the country to march with him, the group grew eventually to 25,000.  The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson as a result.

Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, over which the civil rights marchers traveled.  

I must say that the National Park's Historic Sites has done a fabulous job of documenting this historical era.  All of the museums that we visited were extremely well designed with a plethora of informative pamphlets available.  And it is all FREE!  Even the two private museums that we visited were either free or very inexpensive.  I have never visited a city/state with as many public tablets situated along the streets, describing events and neighborhoods and important buildings.  We are learning so much, backing them up with google searches!

We traveled through many Alabama towns as we wended our way west on secondary roads.   We seemed to be seeing the un-doing of rural, small town America.   Between down-trodden towns, the countryside seems to be keeping up with the times.  We passed many large fields, flooded with water to raise catfish and tilapia.  The land is flat and gently rolling.  Rare is a real hill.  Springtime is brightening the fields and bringing forth hopeful tiny green leaves on trees. While we drive, we're listening to Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, a fascinating memoir of growing up in Appalachia.

Looking at the map, we had decided to break the trip into two days.  Oxford, Mississippi, seemed like an interesting place to stop for the night.  It's the home of Ol' Miss University, where William Faulkner lived and taught for many years.  As we were to be reminded, it also has a strong civil rights connection as the school where James Meredith's effort to study broke down another barrier to blacks.  In 1962, when Kennedy was President, James Meredith took it upon himself to move the ball forward by applying to Ol' Miss, a bastion of whiteness.  It took the power of the courts and US Marshalls and a resulting campus riot and the death of a French journalist, but he finally was admitted and graduated.  Nothing has come easily in this struggle!  

So, here we are in Oxford, staying in the Airbnb, serendipitously, of a music-loving young journalism professor at Ol' Miss.  He's gone off to teach and left us with a houseful of wonderful books!  We may never get on the road :).