A few photos

 Sailing with Veronica in NOLA

 SAN JOSE Mission Church in San Antonio

 Swans in Lady Bird Johnson Lake in Austin

Nests under a bridge in Austin

Midday in Montgomery (apologies to Alan Jackson)

The best part of traveling is the serendipity. Our second leg managed by accident to touch on most of the road trip themes – the Appalachian fall line, barbecue, country music and the Civil War. It all began with a comment from our nephew Jake in Texas. When he heard about our trip, he had one suggestion: Dreamland BBQ. Leaving Atlanta, I googled it and found one of their restaurants was in Montgomery, AL, directly en route to New Orleans . Montgomery, of course, was the first capital of the Confederacy and a catalyst of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. A couple more searches turned up the fact that Montgomery and several nearby Alabama towns lie on the far southern edge of the Appalachian/Piedmont escarpment. Who knew Alabama had a fall line? The combination was too much to resist. We stopped at Dreamland for an early lunch, then drove north to find the fall line. The barbecue was great – try the pork ribs- but disappointment awaited. The fall line is about 15 miles north of Montgomery, near where the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers meet to form the Alabama River. We drove to Fort Toulouse-Jackson Park, which is located at the rivers’ confluence. There was no easy access to the rivers' fall lines on foot, so we had to give up the quest in order to get back on the road to New Orleans. Our disappointment was magnified by the fact that the information center about the nearby Wetumpka meteorite impact crater was closed that day. Montgomery is also the home and burial place of the legendary Hank Willaims. We headed south to I-10 to Mobile and NOLA with the words of Alan Jackson’s Midnight in Montgomery ringing from the car speakers:

See the stars light up the purple sky, Feel that lonesome chill. Cause when the wind is right, you'll hear his songs, Smell whiskey in the air, Midnight in Montgomery, He's always singing there.

Beyond the fall line

Today we started our epic road trip – 3700+ miles to San Antonio and back over the next three weeks. Let’s see how it goes. The first stop is Lawrenceville, GA to visit old friends tonight. For the first 800 miles we’ll be beyond the East Coast fall line (if you want to know what the fall line is, see here), up in the Piedmont highland. We’re taking the scenic route down the Shenandoah Valley to Roanoke, then south to Charlotte and southwest towards Atlanta. The valley is summer lush and emerald from the recent rains, and reminders of the Civil War are everywhere. We just passed Brandy Station, site of the largest cavalry battle ever in North America. An early battle in Lee’s Gettysburg campaign, it was fought 150 years ago last week. June and July 1863 were busy times in the Civil War. The road trip will coincide with the 150th anniversaries of at least four key Civil War campaigns - Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Port Hudson (LA) and Tullahoma (TN). Our route will take us through all of the campaign territories. Blog posts on each to follow. And if you want to learn about the effect of the fall line on the outcome of the Civil War, start with this blog.