Road Trip 2026 #4

 Items I should have noted yesterday ...

Drive-in movie theaters! There were several, the one pictured to the left was convenient to stop and take a photo. And it is still active!

 

While I have seen a lot of cows, I did see at least one herd of sheep. I had to take a second look, because it was clear that they had been recently shorn! The second agricultural item I forgot to mention was the poultry barns. Suddenly, I began seeing poultry barns - which I recognized from having seen them growing up. These were different, they were constructed of blocks rather than the wood-framed shingled barns of New England. I am guessing that this was to help keep the poultry cool. From the size, I am guess that they were for chickens, and most seemed abandoned. I did see a couple of newer metal clad ones currently in use, and at one intersection there was a chicken processing facility which let me know that this poultry was raised for meat rather than for eggs -- although the latter is still a possibility.

The morning was devoted to Luray Caverns. A separate set of photos will be mounted on Flickr later (and this will be edited with a link). The caverns were amazing, and needless to say, it was much cooler underground. It seems to me that they are still developing ... there were many places which were damp (more than condensation from warm air hitting cold air), look at the photos.

After leaving the Caverns, the next decision was where to spend the next night. I chose Gettysburg. Waze took me via back-roads on a circuitous route. Among my revelations was how close the Caverns are to Maryland, and also how close Gettysburg is to the Maryland border. The route took me through Harpers Ferry, and if I had planned a little better, I might have spent some time there either at the National Park or at the headquarters for the Appalachian Trail.

 

Dinner was at a "real" diner in downtown Gettysburg! {Formatting note: I am having difficulty getting the text to wrap around the photo the way I want. Right now I am suspecting that there was an "upgrade" to the software which makes that less intuitive - or no longer possible.}

Day 5 will be the last day on the road for the trip north! 

Road Trip 2026, #3

I dilly dallied this morning, and then headed out to Dunkin! (Yay, Dunkin!) It just happened to be on US-11 as I was leaving Bristol. (I'm still not sure if I was in Tennessee or Virginia!) Leaving town, I saw the cabbages.

The route was scenic. This part is definitely in the hills. The terrain is no longer flat, and there are real mountains in the distance. (Note to self: Get some shots of the mountains.) Today had lots of agriculture: corn, cows/cattle, and soybeans or cotton. It's hard to tell from 55mph whether those plant are soybeans or cotton -- from a distance they look very much the same.

There continue to be lots of churches. Fewer Baptist churches, and more Lutheran with an occasional Catholic church. Also a good number of Church of Christ. They often appear near an intersection with a smattering of houses (6 - 10) and sometimes an open (and often a closed) gas station. Occasionally there is a closed general store, and even more rarely an open one (without gas pumps).

The first big town I went through was Abington. It is an incredibly cute town. It seems larger than what Wikipedia reports for its population (8,375). A nice downtown. Architecturally, it seems to have almost every style represented. There are early settlement buildings (hewn logs with daub between), classic wooden Colonial era buildings, solid brick homes and storefronts, and the more modern. (On reflection, I am not sure I can identify a 21st Century style, but all the others were present.) Lots of arts and crafts stores and Main Street (Lee Highway) seemed pretty active for a mid-week morning. But, that could be because it is summer!

I kept on US-11 all the way to Wytheville. Another cute downtown where I stopped for lunch.

Driving along had me thinking about the businesses I was seeing. (I think it was the Ashley Furniture on Main Street Wytheville that set off this chain.) There are national chains everywhere: CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Target. The first two often in the business district the other two more likely to be on the outskirts of town. There are churches (see above). There are the banks. Most of the banks are local or regional often with names like {ordinal number}{optional place name} [State/National] Bank {of place or region}. Which makes one of my favorite names Fifth Third Bank. While there seem to be regional grocery stores, they tend to be more regional. I know saw one Kroger, and have seen several Food Lion. Any other chains are not familiar enough for me to remember.

Driving on US-11 yesterday was not particularly quick, and after Wytheville, I decided to get back on the Interstate to make time to Luray Caverns. The universe had other ideas. There was an accident on the Interstate and Waze helpfully navigated me off. But, I think I put a lot more miles, and I know it felt much less direct. As a result ... no caverns. That will happen as the start to Day #4. 

 

Road Trip 2026, #2

 After a solid night's sleep, I headed out on I-59, through Birmingham and beyond. The last several years there had been much reconstruction between Birmingham and the Georgia border, but most of it has been completed, and the road was in great shape, a pleasant drive. As I approached Fort Payne, the signs for the "Alabama Museum" intrigued me, and I headed off. It is technically the "Alabama Fan Club and Museum" and is a collection of memorabilia (and gift shop) for the band Alabama (not the state!). 

From there, I headed out on US-11 North, through the remainder of Alabama and into Georgia (23 miles). Downtown Fort Payne was definitely cute, and when Flickr returns, I'll be adding all my photos including one of the downtown murals there. I am not sure what drives the economy in Ft. Payne, but it was interesting to watch the transition as I headed North (actually, northeast, but the road is labeled N-S). There were some very nice, new homes, and a country club, and a new development. This was followed by more modest homes, and eventually a return to the rural. The land forms are definitely different, having moved from the low flat land of southern Mississippi to the hills of northern Alabama, but there were some notable similarities in the small towns, remnants of past commercial activity, and the clear economic divides. Going into Georgia, I lost an hour as I transitioned from Central Time to Eastern Time. 

I also decided to try to find Lookout Point in Chattanooga (again). After returning to the Interstate, I stopped at the Welcome Center and the nice staff member gave me some good hints. The previous time I tried, I must have missed a turn somewhere ... This time I had success. I'll post the plethora of photos from that visit in a separate Flickr folder. [7/29/2026, 9:05am -- Flickr seems to be having issues, but I will come back to it.]

After that exploration, I headed out to Bristol (VA or TN, I am not sure. The city straddles the border! They share a public library system.) The hotel I chose to stay at is next to the Interstate and adjacent to a car dealer with an interesting way to advertise.
 

Road Trip 2026, #1

This will be a series ... I am headed for a week in New England, but since I am retired, I don't have time pressures. I'll be driving as I usually do, but I decided it was time to see the sights.

Last year I noticed something about my route ... I normally take I-10/I-12 to Slidell (LA) and pick up I-59 which goes all the way to Chattanooga - part of it concurrent with I-20, part concurrent with I-24. I then pick up I-75 to I-40 through Knoxville and on to I-81 which goes along the "back spine" of Virginia through West Virginia and Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Last year I went all the way to Scranton to pick up I-84 to traipse into Connecticut. What I noticed was that even with that variety of Interstate routes, and numbers, I seemed to be paralleling US-11.

 In its inimitable way, Wikipedia, that source of all good pop culture info, has a comprehensive article on US-11. In that article it notes: "U.S. Route 11 or U.S. Highway 11 (US 11) is a major north–south U.S. Highway extending 1,645 miles (2,647 km) across the eastern U.S. The southern terminus of the route is at US 90 in Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_11)

 I had a dentist appointment in the morning, and my dentist is in New Orleans, so I decided to start this year's trip by heading out on US-11 from the beginning! 

Here's my intrepid traveling companion, Chickie, on the car roof with the intersection in the background. The starting point has no marble marker, nothing to indicate that it is the beginning of such a long route!

Getting there involved taking Claiborne Avenue through the City and then catching up with Chef Menteur Highway on the other side of "the high rise." The early part of the journey on US-11 goes though the swamp ... parallels some waterways, and works its way through Irish Bayou before crossing I-10. The bridge for US-11 is low, but not unreasonably low to the water. It runs across Lake Pontchartrain between the railroad tracks and "the Twin Spans" of I-10. I saw a freight train headed to New Orleans as I headed towards Slidell. {No photos, I was driving!}

 The route through Slidell goes through some of the more water-focused neighborhoods before becoming a major street headed through the city. Eventually, it joins for a bit with I-59 to get into Mississippi. I went back on US-11 and followed it through Mississippi to just north of Laurel. It served as a reminder of how rural so much of the country is. There were large stretches of just vegetation. I saw areas where timber harvesting had taken place -- and saw about a dozen loaded log trucks along the route. Many small communities with older abandoned gas stations and other businesses. Some nice houses, and some trailers. Some were very well kept, and others, not so much.

I was charmed by downtown Hattiesburg -- although the route signage disappeared after the business district. I thought it was a cute little city. I had heard much about Laurel (MS) and the charming houses. However, it must be that US-11 does not travel through those neighborhoods, and I was underwhelmed.

After Laurel, I got back on the Interstate, and reached Tuscaloosa for the first night's stay.

More tomorrow! 

ALA Annual 2026 - Where is Michael?

 It's been a couple years. ALA stopped doing the January event a couple years ago (and I had stopped attending before that). Last year, with retirement imminent, I did not go to Philadelphia. But this year, I am in Chicago! It has been a few years since Aaron Dobbs and I pushed the envelope of Google Calendar and the ALA-provided scheduling app. [Google Calendar has (or had) a maximum of 42 events a day!]

 Here's what my Chicago schedule looks like -- always subject to change:

 I am having issues in getting this to show as an agenda ... so you may have to click on the icon in the upper right to see that format.