I have a vision of Alabama in my mind fashioned from ugly and deadly civil rights battles, Jim Crow laws, and George Wallace. A favorite book is not flattering to Alabama. Slavery by Another Name is a marvelously disturbing book about the "re-enslavement of black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon, dealing extensively with an ugly part of Alabama history. I highly, highly recommend this book. I have been to Alabama before, mostly to close plants, distribution centers, and sales offices. I waited before these difficult announcements visiting blast furnaces operated with convict labor, great BBQ, and what appeared to me to be devastating poverty. So I did not come into this portion of the Loop with a good impressions of Alabama.
I find myself pleasantly surprised! The history is still there and it is still ugly and it is still true. But Alabama is surprisingly different than I expected!
Grand Harbor Marina in Pickwick Lake has a marker outside the entrance to the marina noting that it is exactly on the border of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. When leaving the marina, you turn right to head south on the Tennessee-Tombigbee canal to Mobile - we will do that in a few weeks. We turned left when leaving the marina to travel kind of east/southeast through the Tennessee River into Alabama. Our target is Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama for the American Great Looper Cruisers' Association rendezvous Sunday 10/21 through Wednesday 10/24/12. It is not a long trip, only about 20 miles, but we decided to take 2 or 3 days to get to Joe Wheeler leaving Grand Harbor on Wednesday 10/17 and needing to be in Rogersville on Saturday 10/20. I am glad we took our time.
Our first stop in Alabama was down the Tennessee River to Florence, Alabama. Our first surprise! On the way we passed through the Natchez Trace and numerous wildlife refuges.
Weather was windy but clear and kind of chilly. Not bad running weather. We stayed at the Florence Municipal Marina, another reminder how well run marinas operate. The place was packed with loopers, probably upwards of 20 looping boats. The marina manager offered a loaner van and lots of tips where to visit and eat. We grilled out on Wednesday night, another feast. We are getting much better at this docktails thing. Our combined food effort is just magnificent while still being healthy.
Florence and sister cities Muscle Shoals and Sheffield is a sophisticated community compared to anything we have seen since leaving Peoria.
Florence is known as "birthplace of the Blues". W.C. Handy, born in Florence, is regarded as the "father of the blues". According to Wikipedia, muscians come from all over the US to participate in the W.C. Handy Music Festival held every year in the Florence/Sheffield/Muscle Shoals area. The Muscle Shoals sound epitomized by "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers. Paul Simon traveled to Muscle Shoals to use the Muscle shoals Rhythm Section in early solo music including, "Loves Me Like a Rock", and "Kodachroome". The Allman Brothers Band produced music here (one of my absolute favorite bands in the world). Wilson Pickett, Bob Dylan, and most famous probably Lynyrd Skynyrd all recorded in Muscle Shoals. For Dan Ruegamer and Marissa Burik, your fav the Black Keys recorded their sixth album, "Brothers", here. Local musicians are winning awards and recognition all over the US. Who'd have thought. Not me.
Florence also has a foodie component. Local farmers are growing sophisticated heirloom produce and livestock working closely with local restaurants. We stumbled upon a bit of this without knowing. On Thursday we went to the local grocery store to re-provision. (NOTE: We stop at a grocery store in almost every community to "re-provision". Mostly we are looking for booze!!) We picked up some Mok Mills Cheese Straws made in Muscle Shoals and I found W.D. Ricks Signature BBQ sauce from a local BBQ restaurant in Tuscumbia AL next to Muscle Shoals. Later that day I saw articles about both products and W.D. Ricks BBQ restaurant written up in Northern Alabama magazine!
The marina manager said we shouldn't miss the 360 Grill so we arranged a shuttle from the marina for 12 people and we went. We wanted to take advantage of the $20 steak deal they offered on Thursday nights. We were expecting a $20 steak like what you get at Golden Corral or one of those places. After all, this is Alabama. But no, this is Alabama. The Marriott 360 Grill is at the top of a tower constantly turning for a 360 view. It is also nationally known 4 Diamond restaurant featuring that locally grown heirloom produce and great meals. The menu was amazing. We sat at 3 tables of 4 so we could all see out the revolving windows. Kermit and I sat with Edie and Joe Rubin. Two of us had the steak special, or roast beast as Joe likes to say! Edie had grilled grouper and Kermit had short ribs cooked for 40 hours - they melted in your mouth!! The steak special was nothing from Golden Corral. This was prime grade beef, perfectly cooked with a complex wine based sauce, roasted potatoes, and green beans. I wanted to lick my plate it was so good. Dessert was the cutest little fried blueberry pie with house made buttermilk ice cream. The blueberries were fresh from a local farm and absolutely burst in your mouth with glorious flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
I hope you are getting the impression that this is no ordinary place.
After dinner we stopped in the bar to hear a musician who still has a bit of work to do to come up to the high standards set by his more famous Muscle Shoals brethren. The bar was filled with gold records, signed guitars, and pictures of famous people. We saw a face of an old man that seemed familiar and tried to place it. Was it Eli Wallach? No. Maybe it was someone related to the Muscle Shoals music scene? It was starting to dawn on us that there was more to Florence/Muscle Shoals than we knew at the time. So I googled "old man musiicians at Muscle Shoals". Believe it or not after a little searching on Google Images we discovered that the photo on the wall was probably Jerry Wexler, the famous producer in the 50s and 60s who was instrumental in making Ray Charles and Arletha Franklin famous. I guess there is much more to Alabama than I expected. The other stuff I knew before is still true but there is more to the story.
There is also more to see in this town. We piled into the marina van with One September, Sareanna, and SeaQuell (Jim's Joy took off for Joe Wheeler to make repairs before the rendezvoux) and saw a Frank Lloyd Wright house (!) and Helen Keller's childhood home. Yes, there is more to Alabama than meets the eye!
Things I didn't know about Helen Keller: 1) she was quite beautiful, 2) she lost her hearing and sight through a major illness at age 2 so she was not born that way, 3) she learned very, very quickly after figuring out the "water" thing, 4) the story told in The Miracle Worker was pretty close to the truth, 5) she is buried with her first teacher, Annie Sullivan, and her personal assistant who was with her until she died, and 6) her great-grandfather was John Quincy Adams so she has quite a pedigree. Fascinating.
Loopers were awakened on Thursday morning with the low hum of trolling motors. In addition to loopers, the marina hosted a bass tournament with about 150 boats!! I never experienced a bass tournament close up like this. Tournament participants put their boat in the water in the morning and take it out in the afternoon when you are done. It lasts 3 days. The first two days determine the top fishermen to participate in the finals on Saturday.
They gathered around a platform at 6am, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and off they go!!
The put their bags in these big buckets with oxygen lines in them. They put the oxygen in their bags and move the bags into bucket after bucket.
A guy weighs the fish and immediately announces that "Billy Bob caught 3 fish for a total weight of 9.6 pounds. Let's give Billy Bob a big hand. That puts him in 38th place. You get another chance tomorrow, Billy Bob!"
After the weigh in the fisherman goes behind the screen and gives his (hopefully) still alive fish to another guy who shoves the fish down a plastic tube to take another shot at getting caught tomorrow!! It was quite an operation!!So much excitement, so little time! We left Florence AL on Thursday to go through Wilson Dam, the tallest dam we will go through on this trip with a 93 foot lift!! Very windy, it was hard to keep the boat next to the wall attached to the bollard.
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