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.