Events of Saturday, January 22, 2011

                As the heater hummed to life this morning, I awoke to the now certain realization: we are not in Florida anymore. It was COLD! We awoke around 7:30 our bodies time, 6:30 local time and enjoyed breakfast in our PJs. Then we unplugged, pulled in, and drove over to the only showers in the campground a considerable distance away. We walked into a very interesting building. After entering through a laundry room, there was a hallway. The first doors on the right and left said “Men” and the second doors on the right and left said “Women”. Exploring these we found a single toilet on the right and two showers on the left. Continuing down the hallway there was a weight room and game room. But we were there for the showers. So after crossing the hallway several times, the showering commenced.

                Often when the six of us shower at the same time at a campground, we are concerned about water pressure. That was not a problem here. However, hot water was. The water started out scalding hot, but as we all frantically tried to moderate the temperature, it quickly petered out. Now soapy and wet, we were faced with the unpleasantness of finishing a shower in freezing cold water. Whatever heat there was in the building could not be felt after these cold showers. Thankfully, Jim, knowing his girls would be freezing, moved the RV closer and cranked up the heat. We emerged, wrapped in towels and coats and grateful for a warm, dry, clean RV in which to change. Now warm and clean, we were ready to embark on our day – or almost ready.

                A common dilemma, in some of the more rustic campgrounds we find ourselves in, is getting the RV level. Last night, we had moved the RV on and off the levels, forward and back and side to side without success. Finally we pulled out of our pull through site, turned ourselves around and finally were able to make everything level. However, now the water and sewage were on the wrong side of the RV. Not an insurmountable problem – we just filled up our fresh water tank (located on the opposite side from our water hook up) and planned to dump in the morning. So as we exited the campground we maneuvered into a different site to dump our grey and black water and then into another site to fill up our fresh water again. Stopping for gas on our way out of town we were finally ready for the adventures of the day.

                Since we were only going to spend one complete day in Alabama, it made no sense to change our clock from EST to CST. So we actually got quite the early start on the day. We arrived in Birmingham, Alabama just before 10am. The plan for the day was to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute which opened at 10. According to the website there was supposed to be a MLK Walking tour, but no one we spoke to knew anything about it. At 10 we were ushered into the Institute and our time of learning about the Civil Rights Movement began.

                The Civil Rights Institute uses a variety of media to share the powerful lessons of the Movement. The tour begins with an 8 minute documentary on the history of Birmingham, its founding, the impact of the Civil War, the industrial revolution, and the segregation of its people. As the movie concludes the screen lifts, leading the viewers into the Barriers Gallery, which demonstrates through various set ups the inequity of segregation from the 1920s up to 1954. A timeline of events for each decade shows where different issues around civil rights started to come to a head. Next was the Confrontation Gallery, where voices share a variety of strongly held opinions about race. Then, the Movement Gallery takes us through the history of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1963. Dramatic media presentation and four mini-theatres cover such topics as the Freedom Riders, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the “Give Us the Vote” campaign, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, Bloody Sunday, and the March on Washington. Again, helpful timelines  for each decade contrast what was happening in the rest of the country with what was going on in Alabama. It was interesting to note that at the same time our country was putting men on the moon, it was denying men of color the right to vote. All in all, it was a very well done museum.

                The knowledge our kids had about the Civil Rights Movement was mixed. In fact the most frequent questions we heard were, “What were you doing during the Civil Rights Movement? Do you remember hearing about the girls dying in the church bombing? Did you march on Washington?” It took a couple reminders to re-orient them to our ages and remind them that we either weren’t born or were toddlers during most of these occurrences. However, it did raise some new questions for me. I was born in the South, in Savannah, GA in 1965. I was surprised to find out my older brother, also born in Savannah, GA, was born on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1963, when fire hoses and police dogs were set upon peaceful marchers. How did this affect my parents, Northerners on a military base where my father was stationed? What were their lives like? What sort of segregation did they see and how did they feel about it?

                These questions were on my mind as we headed to lunch in the RV. After lunch we explored the placards and statues in Kelly Ingram Park, located across the street from the institute. The placards were set up to define the march routes and the statues commemorated the events that took place in the park – lunging police dogs, fire hoses, children faced with jail for peaceful demonstration, pastors on their knees praying. Located on the corner, next to the Civil Rights Institute and kitty corner from Kelly Ingram Park is the 16th Street Baptist Church, the site of several bombings during the Civil Rights Movement. The most notorious bombing killed four young girls primping and preparing for participation in Youth Sunday. We had learned their names and read their stories at the Civil Rights Memorial and learned further details at the Institute. The church was closed to tours today, but it was quite something to stand where such significant history had happened.

                Finished now with Birmingham, Alabama, we decided to drive on to Decatur, GA, the home of my older brother, Keith and his family. We were actually a day ahead of schedule, so we called them to alert them of our imminent arrival. Finding that they would be unable to host us or provide a boondocking space outside their home due to construction, we decided to meet up for dinner. They directed us to a parking lot that would fit our RV, and soon cousins were hugging cousins, and together we headed off to dinner. We enjoyed a fabulous time at Melton’s App and Tap with the cousins at one table and the adults at the other. Initially the cousins weren’t sure what they were going to talk about, but that didn’t last very long. Soon all the girls were talking and laughing and the boys were discussing engineering and possible college options. Christopher, the oldest cousin, is 18 and a senior in high school. Claudia is three months older than Lindsey and, as they talked, they determined that they were twins separated at birth, as they found they shared many pet peeves, challenges and preferences. Keith and Malu were eager to hear about our trip, and the time sped by. Soon, it was time to leave and figure out where we might boondock for the night.

                So as they returned us to our RV, we were treated to a driving tour of Decatur that featured a special tour of its parking lots, as we searched for a boondocking site. The most promising result was the parking lot behind Christopher’s high school or one behind Claudia’s middle school. However, most states have rules about parking on public property like schools, so we were hesitant. Online, we found a Walmart in downtown Atlanta that was four blocks from the Tanseys’ church and less than a mile from “The World of Coca-Cola” that we would explore later the next day. So we said our goodbyes and headed downtown.

                Driving around downtown Atlanta on a Saturday night is NOT my idea of fun. Our GPS seemed thoroughly confused and kept leading us in circles. We never found the Walmart that we had found online and the Walmart we did find had a multilevel, very well lit parking garage for parking – not an ideal spot to boondock. We also ran into a considerable amount of post-performance traffic. After driving around for an hour and a half, risking detection in a school parking lot seemed a lot more promising. So as the kids readied themselves for bed, we returned to Decatur, pulled into the back parking lot of Renfroe Middle School, and boondocked there.