We spent 2 nights in Birmingham as a stop between Nashville and NOLA. We chose Birmingham for its rich history. We arrived very early after making good time getting out of Nashville.
Our first stop was the Southern Museum of Flight. It was reasonably sized with some fantastic aircraft including the A-12, the precursor to the S-71. It had a whole section dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African American squadron in WW2. They also had lots of low fidelity simulators which kept me and Moose busy.
After we checked into our hotel. It was an “Extended Stay” chain. Situated on the main highway, sandwiched between better looking hotels but next to a Walmart. The check in was smooth and it was at the front desk that you “ordered” your ammenities. I booked the hotel because it had a kitchen. Upon reading the reviews it was clear that it was empty! At the front I got plates, bowls and cutlery… for 2! Even though we were clearly 4! Alas, it was a decent size room, didn’t smell like smoke and was dirty cheap. Plus it had free breakfast. And by breakfast they mean a pot of coffee, some Nature Ways bars and some dirty packaged muffins. Still, really cheap!
The next day we hit up the farmer’s market, finally one worth going to! Also the first one we went on a weekend. It had tons of local fresh produce, meat and treats. We bought dinner including fresh pasta, Shiitake mushrooms, smoked pork sausages and multicoloured peppers. The Shiitake mushroom stall also had logs for sale that you could just harvest the mushrooms off. The multicoloured peppers were a bit of a dud. Turns out small purple and yellow peppers are more bitter than green ones! Moose was unimpressed.
After the market we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This was a free entry because Hanika scored us memberships to the Winnipeg Art Gallery which offered reciprocal entry. The museum was fantastic. It was an honest and confronting testament to the brutality of racism that existed/exists in the US and especially the South. It’s easy to forget that MLK, sit ins and the Freedom Riders happened only 50 years ago. Of course there we parts dedicated to MLK, Rosa Parks and prominent Black businessman AG Gaston. The museum in Montgomery AL came highly recommended but we didn’t make it there.
It was a short stay in Alabama but we saw a lot. We packed up and headed for Jackson MS.