Saturday, October 31, 2015

It was time to pay for our free campsite this morning.  The cost - three hours of our lives wasted on a high-pressure sales pitch.  Poor Dave thought he had us sold and just could not understand how we could say "no" to such a great deal.

Afterward, we headed out for some lunch and then went to investigate Reunion Pointe, an RV based neighborhood.  We were able to talk for quite a while with the developer, Richard.  The development was small -  just 45 lots - with an RV port built into each home.  The concept and the collection of floor plans were great.  The plans were ideal for people wanting to downsize (900 to 1200 sqft, 1 to 3 bedrooms).  The 100-year-old oak trees gave the lots a great feel and Richard was going to do his best to make sure they all stayed.  We have no doubt in a few years this will be a highly desirable neighborhood, but it was a little more than we need. 

We will definitely have to return in a few years to see how this place develops.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Our stay at Gunter Hill was too soon over and it was time to move again.  But first, a few more early morning pictures.  

Our next stop - Styx River Resort, in Robertsdale, AL.  It was not a long drive at just 164.5 miles (75,599.1 total) and most of it was newly paved Interstate. We were offered three free nights if we would attend a sales pitch for the resort. The park was a little rough. It was originally a KOA that had been neglected. The new owners have been making improvements, but they have a long way to go. The roads were gravel and the small (full hook-up) sites were just sand/mud.

Thursday, October 29, 2015, Montgomery, AL

We finally ventured into Montgomery, AL, today with an extensive list of places to visit.  Union Station, below, was just a bit of serendipity as it housed the Visitor's Center.  It was adjacent to the river, so we spent an hour walking around the developments lining the water.

The Alabama Capitol was the least ostentatious we have seen so far.  We actually found this to be refreshing.  It showed a bit of fiscal responsibility on the part of the state politicians.  Their money was still well spent - the building was impressive (as long as you didn't look too closely at the details).

History buffs, especially those interested in the Civil War, appreciate this as the capital of the Confederate States of America.  Across the street was the Archives Building which was built for the president of the CSA (the Confederate equivalent of the White House).  I am not one of those Civil War history buffs, so we walked around the capitol building, appreciated the architecture, snapped our pics and left after about 30 minutes.

The 1920 murals were painted on canvas and then attached to the wall and illustrate Alabama's history.  They were created by Scottish-born Roderick Mackenzie.

Next stop - another art museum.  The museum was larger than it first appeared.  It was set in a large, well-used park with lots of trails.

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

Below is a sampling of some of our favorites. 

Ojigi-Bowing, 2010, by Karen LaMonte, cast glass (5 ft. tall)

Dusk Wings, 1860, by Thomas Moran, Oil on canvas

Daniel, 1976-77, by Joseph Hirsch, oil on canvas

 Close-up, the flesh tone is bursting with color. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

 Hills Before Taos, 1930, by Georgia O'Keeffe, oil on canvas

 Standing Donut, 2009, by Jaehyo Lee, chestnut on painted steel stand

 New York Office, 1962, by Edward Hopper, oil on canvas

 Twelve Degrees of Freedom, 1983, by R. Buckminster Fuller, chrome and stainless steel wire

The museum had an interactive section where, thanks to a full-size set, Joani was able to walk into one of the masterworks (see Edward Hopper's, New York Office above).

An extensive children's area was empty on a Thursday midday.

We headed to Cheddar's for a late lunch/early dinner before the day's final stop at the Hyundai plant for a tour. Our tour was scheduled for 6:30. We arrived at 5:59 and were turned away because we were not allowed in more than 30 minutes before our tour. Seriously, we drove down the road a half-mile, made a U-turn, returned to the gate and we were then allowed in. Cameras were prohibited so there are no pictures, which is unfortunate because the tour was very impressive.

Hyundai Plant (pronounced Hunday - photo lifted from their webpage) 

The plant cranks out 1,550 cars per day (399,500 cars/year at full capacity). They build Sonatas and Elantras in this 2 million square foot facility on 1,744 acres. Nearly 500 robots and 3,000 employees work an amazingly choreographed assembly line to turn raw materials delivered on a "just-in-time" basis into finished cars. There was so much going on we will have to visit again someday to see what we missed!

Tuesday, October 27,2015

Today was the day to wrap up a project in the works for more than a year.  The J-couch had a large unused space closed in with an upholstered panel.  It was the perfect space for a basket full of Sam's toys, but the steel couch frame needed a little dressing up.

I reclaimed some 1/2 thick inch oak from the furnace vent diffuser we removed a while back.  Joani made a template which helped immeasurably since there were very few square corners.  There were several options for attaching the trim to the frame, but they each had issues.  At least I am going to claim that as my reason for taking so long to finish the job.  It was finally installed using some twist tie wires that are completely hidden.  I think that might be the last woodworking project around the coach for a while.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Moving day again.  Today's drive was just 99.3 miles (75,435.6 total) to another Corps of Engineers park.  Gunter Hill Park on the Alabama River (actually, Catoma Creek) just west of Montgomery, AL was another beauty!  Huge, level concrete pads with full hookups right on the lake - what more could we ask for?

As Joani said, the nice thing about Corps parks is their 3:00 pm check-out time and the bad thing about the parks is their 3:00 pm check-out time.  Since we crossed into Central Time, we arrived at noon.  We had to wait in a large parking area for our site to clear.

When you take your house with you, sitting in a boat launch parking lot for 3 hours is no big deal.

Just to the side of the parking lot was an interesting find.  I would hate to be in the storm...

...that brought down this tree taking out the boardwalk to nowhere.

The fall color was nice from our site.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast included rain for the next several days so there may not be a lot of hiking.

All of the rain, fortunately, was pretty soft and gentle.  The wind (15 mph), however, caused pine cones to crash on the coach that made us jump out of our skin!

I'm so looking forward to seeing the sunshine on the trees across the river.  It might not show up for 3 more days!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Today, we visited Auburn University, a really nice college town about 30 miles down the road in Auburn, Alabama.  I think most of the population was wearing orange and blue - clearly a lot of Auburn Tiger fans.  We forgot about crossing into the central time zone which made us early for lunch, so our first stop was the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art.

I know we have seen the birds below at least twice before.  The bronze sculptures highlight the sad circumstances behind the extinction of all five species.

The Lost Bird Project, bronze 2007, by Todd McGrain

More Chihuly glass - 600 pieces, weighing more than 2,000 pounds, hanging from the ceiling.

Amber Luster, blown glass, steel 2003, Dale Chihuly

17-foot chandelier

The sculpture below appealed to me for some reason.  Maybe I was just mystified by what processes would be required for its creation.

Curvae in Curvae, cor-ten steel 2011-12, by Beverly Pepper

Chinese woodblock prints were technically intriguing, but not really my taste.  I found I will never read Chinese - three characters on each print indicated it was part of the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road collection.  I could see some similarity, but would never have seen them as the same from print to print.

This was my favorite

46th Station: Kameyama, woodblock print

The realism achieved in the oil painting, below, made it one of my favorites.  You could almost believe the sun was shining on the canvas.

The First Communion, oil on canvas 1882, by Birge Harrison

One collection included some strange and unique sculptures created with recycled items including shoes and irons.

The Worrier, bronze 2014 by Willie Cole

Ironmaster/GE Male Figure, Metal iron parts, cord, wood, and wool 1998, by Willie Cole

Outside, a walkway around a lake led us past a number of interesting pieces of art.  The one below took us by surprise with its realism. Joani actually thought she saw these guys move.

Self-Portrait as Bunnies (The Bathers), mixed media floating sculpture 2014, by Alex Podesta

Joani found the Auburn University Museum of Natural History on Google Maps.  There were no signs outside and even inside the building people were unsure what we were talking about.  The door below was the museum's main entrance.  We charged right in and checked in with the first person we saw.  He explained this was a research lab with some specimens, but really no funding to make it currently presentable, so nothing to see.  Back outside we realized we were illegally parked, so we quickly exited the campus.

Now I understand why the "visit the museum" link on their website would never load.

Auburn's iconic clock tower was completely encased in scaffolding so I had to take this picture of a picture to complete the campus record.

Our primary reason for the trip to Auburn was to attend the Southeastern Raptor Center's raptor show (each game weekend Fridays at 4pm).  We were hopeful it would be as good as the shows we saw at Callaway Gardens years ago.

It was great!  The amphitheater was in the sun and it was plenty warm, but halfway through the show, we were shaded by nearby trees.  At showtime, the crowd was more than twice what I captured in the early picture below.   

This poor Screech Owl just looked sad.  Maybe it was because they did not let him fly free.

These are rescued birds.  No mention was made of his eyes, but they look a bit off to me.  This sweet little Eastern Screech-Owl, named Groucho, is only about 8 inches tall.

The Barn Owl, below, was quite vocal.  We were told it was a lot of owl cuss words, but if it was really upset I don't think it would have perched so calmly on the handlers arm.

David caught him in mid-screech, mouth wide open.  He was not happy about being awakened in the middle of the day.

"What!?! You ran out of mice!!!"

This hawk was blinded in one eye...

...which makes hunting in the wild nearly impossible.

This is Percy, a Lanner Falcon.  We learned a Peregrine Falcon is the fastest creature on earth (when in its hunting dive it can exceed 200 mph.)

I think the look on the Great Horned Owl, below, was the same that I saw on several of my teachers when I was misbehaving in class.

Check the lens on this hawk's eye. It looks like a telescope lens - no wonder he can see dinner from so high in the air.

Below is Nova, also known as War Eagle VII.  He is a Golden Eagle and he flies at Auburn games to help get the crowd in the proper spirit.