Spring Break 2023 we planned the trip around our two boys. Our oldest now lives in Tuscaloosa, AL where he is a student at University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and our youngest is assessing and auditioning for drama schools, and had an audition at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. We took off early Saturday morning and headed south east. We don’t really enjoy driving through Memphis, so we plotted a route through the deltas of Arkansas and Mississippi. As we passed rivers, creeks and levees, we were envious of the moisture levels… they were all full and flowing, while our land in Stillwater is still woe for rainfall.
The further south east we went, the greener the fields got. The fatter the cows got. The more jealous we got! After more than a few stops along the way, we rolled into T-town just in time for dinner. Our son loves The Avenue on University, so we pulled through his driveway where he was waiting outside for us to pick him up and we headed downtown.
It was good to see my firstborn, he and I share so much in common. We had a great dinner, complete with a few local brews and settled into the house for the evening. I was pretty tired, but the boys needed to do some catching up so I hit the hay and let them talk cars and movies.
The next day we were off for breakfast at one of our favorite southern eateries, Another Broken Egg Café on the Black Warrior River. I couldn’t wait to get an order of cheese grits and they did not disappoint! Single life is not conducive to full pots of coffee and unfortunately, B’s hand grinder took way too much effort to grind coffee and I was desperately seeking some caffeine. After breakfast, we took a jaunt to Target to get the boy some needed supplies. How I managed to only get him one set of sheets, I don’t know, but now he has a couple.
The boys were anxious to get some disc golf in, so they headed out to play and Ray and I took off to check out the neighboring town of Demopolis, AL. Demopolis is about 30 minuntes from Tuscaloosa, and has some interesting history. According to Wikipedia: Demopolis was founded in the early 1800s after the fall of Napoleon’s empire. It was named by a group of French expatriates, a mix of exiled Bonapartists and other French refugees who had settled in the United States after the overthrow of the colonial government in Saint-Domingue by enslaved workers. Napoleon had sent troops there in a last attempt to regain control of the island, but they were defeated, largely by high mortality due to yellow fever.
The name, meaning in Greek “the People’s City” or “City of the People” (from Ancient Greek δῆμος + πόλις), was chosen to honor the democratic ideals behind the endeavor. First settled in 1817, it is one of the oldest continuous settlements in the interior of Alabama. French colonists had founded Mobile on the coast in the early 18th century.[9][10] Demopolis was incorporated on December 11, 1821.[11]
It is surrounded by catfish and shrimp farms, along the south’s Catfish Trail. They have a fun festival every year called “Rooster Days” held on 4/1 every year. The first Rooster Day was held in 1919 where a Rooster Auction was held to raise funds to build “The Rooster Bridge” over the Tombigbee river connecting Marengo and Sumpter Counties, expanding the Dixie Overland Highway route of commerce. The Auction was amazingly popular and garnered donations of prize roosters from famous people such as President Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller and no fewerer than three Prime Ministers from around the world. While the auction action was wildly successful raising bids totally several hundred thousand dollars, only $65000 was raised. The state of Alabama eventually kicked in the remaining funds for the bridge and the commerce highway was completed. Read more about Rooster Days Here >>> http://www.roosterdaydemopolis.com/
As we drove through the rolling hills of Alabama we saw dozens of ponds for farm raised catfish and farm equipment I had never seen before. We found that Alabama raises the second largest number of catfish in the US, with over 17,000 acres under production.
We finished up our day’s run with a swing by Wynn Dixie for dinner supplies and ingredients for the key lime pie I make every year for Ray’s birthday! We cooked dinner at B’s house and enjoyed a relaxed evening at home.
