After a pretty slow February and March as far as traveling around goes, I’ve now picked up the pace, heading to a weekend retreat up in northern Virginia. Friday, I said goodbye to Birmingham, home of good food, an old friend and a new one, and photographic opportunities, and headed up the road a few hours to Huntsville. My Alabama explorations are almost done now.
Huntsville has been on my radar since I started vagabonding, mainly because an old running buddy and his wife live there. I missed them last fall when I changed plans so we met up this past week and had a great visit. We both think the last time we met up was in St. Louis about a million years ago, when I was training for a marathon and he ran a few laps around the park with me to keep me going. Early nineties, maybe? As I said, we’re old. We don’t remember 🙂
Huntsville also has two things on my “find them all” list of obsessions: SR-71 Blackbirds and Saturn V rockets. I was disappointed the Saturn V was not available for viewing; as it turns out, VP Pence was visiting the next day and security was already all over that building. But, since he announced there that we’re going back to the moon and beyond, I’ll cut him some slack. Just this once, though. Next time I’m in Huntsville, I better have access to the Saturn V building, dude.
Huntsville also has a great state park, Monte Sano, with a wealth of hiking trails and I took advantage of that a few times. The daffodils at the top of the post are from one hike here.
Now I’m on the move, a couple of one-night stands as I inch my way northeast up the Tennessee River Valley and up the other side of the Blue Ridge. Last night’s stop was at Melton Hill Dam, a TVA campground outside Knoxville. Quiet, small, birdsong and water views, what’s not to like about this place?
Oh, and the coolest thing I did this week? I touched the moon. Well, I touched a piece of it.
They have worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there – and all the time they’ll get there anyway, you see.
Jack Kerouac
Ah, I love Udvar-Hazy. I used to go there almost every quarter when I visited my data centers in the Dulles area. It was quite a moment when I realized I was staring at THE Enola Gay and not a reproduction. The Discovery shuttle is one of my favorite places to hang out there. I might have bribed more than few of my data techs with “if we finish early, we’ll go visit Udvar-Hazy” and it was amazing how early we’d finish 🙂 The retreat is near Charlottesville, so not close to the DC area.
So far, I’ve seen SR-71s at Edwards and March AFBs in California, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and Udvar-Hazy. I don’t actually know how many there are, I should find that out! Same for the Saturn V. I missed the one in Houston, I went through Galveston instead on my last cross-country jaunt.
While we have been to several spots that focus on space exploration (Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, DC Air and Space Museum, etc), we have not yet made it to Huntsville. It is absolutely on the list! Sounds like they’ve got some cool stuff there.
I love your idea of tracking down all of the SR 71s and Saturn Vs. If you haven’t already visited the Udvar Hazy Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, it has an awesome SR 71 display. I’m not exactly sure where your retreat is, but if you have time, I’d highly recommend a visit to that museum. It is a massive hangar that holds all the planes that are too big to fit in the downtown Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The Enola Gay is there as is the Discovery Space Shuttle.
Anyway, safe travels to our old stomping grounds! If you can deal with the awful traffic, it’s a great place to visit!
Love the Kerouac quote. Thanks for this beautiful post. ❤