A Bonus State

On Saturday, after finishing a radiator replacement on my son-in-law's Volvo, I headed south out of Nashville.  Hmm, I thought, I could add Alabama to my list of states, which already included Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee,  So I turned south on I-65 and headed toward Huntsville and Boaz.  This leg of the trip is a redo of my original trip south in, get this, 1972!  Back then it was in a 1964 VW beetle, the original one, with literally all of my possessions in the back seat.  The bug lasted until 1976, when it was replaced by a CJ-5, which lasted until Katie came along, in 1985.

The terrain has changed little, the business environment has been totally transformed.  The rickety bridge over the Tennessee River in Guntersville is now a divided four lane super bridge, Boaz has gone from the sleepy little town I knew to mega super colossal outlet central to run down outlet area.  Snead State, now Community and then Junior, College looks much the same. The mens' dorm has been renovated, the womens' dorm looks abandoned, and the library is now a museum.  It was way cool to see all the old haunts.  I almost drove down to Auburn to complete the education retrospective tour, but since I didn't make it to IUP or OSU I decided to just head for Macon.