Our daughter-in-law shares photos of her family through an online album titled “And Then There Were Five”. She used to have individual collections for her two girls but once daughter three came along she combined everything into one album. Add her and my son to the equation… “and then there were five”. It’s a phrase I thought about as I passed through the state of Alabama earlier this week. I’ve never been to Alabama but now I can claim that I have. To which I say… “and then there were three“.
In my (almost) sixty-five years of existence I’ve managed to visit 46 out of the 50 U.S. states. None of these visits were intentional, as in “I just want to say that I’ve been there”. Rather, they happened for the usual reasons we find ourselves in states other than the one we call home. Sightseeing. Visits to colleges and universities. Reunions with family and friends. Or simply traveling through one state to get to another. If you identify with any of these reasons, the number of U.S. states you’ve visited may be higher than you think.
Growing up out west in California, my parents recognized the value of a trip to the East Coast to see the sights of Colonial America. They designed a single month-long drive for me and my brothers that accounted for at least fifteen states in and around New England. Since then I’ve managed to visit most of the western states through short driving trips here and there. My wife and I honeymooned in Hawaii. One of my nephews got married in Alaska. And so on. All these years later the only states I haven’t visited are Arkansas, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.
But never mind the leftovers. Today we put the spotlight on Alabama, my most recent “acquisition”. Off the top of my head, here’s everything I know about Alabama:
- Montgomery is the state capital (memorizing in elementary school is a beautiful thing).
- Auburn University and the University of Alabama are consistently ranked among the best football programs in the country.
- Alabama was a legendary country music band.
- An Alabama Slammer is a fruity shot made with Southern Comfort.
- “Sweet Home Alabama” ranks among the greatest rock songs of all time.
Now then, having just driven from South Carolina west into Georgia, then southwest down “The Yellowhammer State” and on into Florida, here’s everything new I’ve discovered about Alabama:
- A good chunk of the state is covered by national forest.
- They have a Buc-ee’s travel center.
Let’s be honest; I’m feeling a little rain on my parade of states right now. I mean, virtually every U.S. state has a national forest, right? As for Buc-ee’s, if you’re not familiar with their mega gas stations you will be soon. Buc-ee’s has added larger-than-life dimensions to the term “rest stop”. The convenience store in their Luling, TX location is a world-record 75,000 square feet of retail. The car wash in their Katy, TX location also breaks a world record – 250 feet from one end to the other. In Alabama you have four opportunities to stop at a Buc-ee’s.
To all of its residents, I say Alabama deserves more respect than a walk in the woods or a stop at a glorified gas station. A little online legwork tells me I can opt for the following instead:
- Visit the world’s largest space museum, up north in Huntsville.
- Raft on North America’s longest mountaintop river, just outside of Ft. Payne in the Little River Canyon National Preserve.
- Spelunk in Cathedral Caverns outside of Woodville, including a look-see of a 45-foot stalagmite column nicknamed “Goliath”.
- Reacquaint myself with America’s Civil Rights Movement in a multimedia museum in the heart of Birmingham (which is pretty much in the heart of the entire state).
- Board the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship turned into a floating museum, docked in a memorial park down south in Mobile.
Okay, Alabama just moved up a few rungs on the ladder of respect, even if my upcoming drive back home only includes more views of the forest and a stop at Buc-ee’s. At least I know somewhere beyond all those trees and gas pumps lies worthwhile attractions. That’s more than I can say about Arkansas, North Dakota, or Oklahoma.
Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
You’ve been in more states than I have. I’ve mostly traveled west of the Mississippi and only a small number on the East Coast. I’m going to have to travel faster if I’m going to see all those.
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I did not realize I was so close to seeing them all. Convenient timing in that I was in search of a blog topic.
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Wow – you’ve been to 46 states? I never kept track, did you include just driving through, no stops, LOL.
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Oh, I’m sure there are one or two drive-through states on the list, but like Alabama at least they all included stops… just maybe not at a Buc-ee’s 🙂
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Dave, I was in Alabama awhile back while traveling by car with my parents – the people were very friendly, as are all Southerners. We do not have a Buc-ee’s around here so I Googled and the closest one is in Ohio. A former blogger lives in Ohio and she and her husband took a trip down Route 66 last year and she showed photos of the inside of a Buc-ee’s where they stopped. I was amazed how big it was. We have Sheetz gas stations and their amenities, which I guess don’t come close in comparison. That sounds like a wonderful trip for you and your brothers, seeing 15 states including the New England states – there is so much history there. I’ve never been to any of the New England states and I understand it’s beautiful to visit there in the Summer months and/or to visit and do some leaf peepin’ at their exquisite Fall foliage, especially the train trip that goes through there. I do understand that Northern Michigan’s beauty as to foliage is comparable to New England’s foliage … the only time I went up to Northern Michigan to do some leaf peepin’ and the leaves were still green, despite that week being suggested as “peak week for peepin’!”
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Buc-ee’s lived up to its expectations. We couldn’t help adding almost an hour to our day-long trip because every display and product is worth a look, whether you buy or not. The three or four highest-paying positions in a given location of Buc-ee’s are well above six figures. Full benefits and retirement accounts for everyone who works there. No wonder every employee we talked to was in such a good mood!
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That’s incredible! They have a heck of an incentive to make customers welcome and ensure they return!
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Timely post, I am on my way to Alabama right now for a concert. It got postponed a few weeks ago from the hurricane and we found out it was postponed halfway into our drive from Atlanta. I was so close to visiting Alabama for the first time and then we had to turn around. Will finally make up for it today!
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Report back on what you come across (besides a great concert)! I’m sure we’ll pass through the state again one of these days.
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BTW, who are you seeing? Must be quite the ticket to be travelling all the way from New York!
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lol it’s the Jonas brothers! I’m going with Jon’s sister. We loved them growing up so we had to do this for our younger selves 😂 mom’s night out!
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We saw Sons of Serendip in concert just last night. They took fourth place in America’s Got Talent back in 2013. Took our little town’s venue two years to get them but they were worth the wait. Fantastic vocals and instrumentals.
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Very cool!! Nothing like good music live.
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It’s too bad your missing states are so spread apart. Hubby has been to all 48 contiguous states. I’m missing the Big Two plus Oregon and Idaho. We once drove into Maine, took the first exit, turned around, and drove back out just so I could get that one checked off. I wish I had had leisure to visit it longer. Kind of missing out if I don’t explore.
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As part of that childhood trip to the Northeast, my parents drove us to Maine for a lobster lunch (which in Maine is prob as common as going to McDonald’s), then turned the car right back around in pursuit of other states. So yeah, I can’t really claim I’ve seen Maine, let alone remember anything about it.
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A very impressive track record Dave! I’ve only seen New York, Florida and Michigan….and driven through Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont coming back from a trip to the Canadian east coast on the American side, as we thought we’d drive down to Boston but didn’t realize it was that far! On a bus trip to Florida in high school (remember when kids used to go there on spring break) we passed through a lot of states, but I only remember stopping briefly in Georgia.
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Florida continues to be a Spring Break choice for our college students, but the destinations have shifted from the southern part of the state to the panhandle. Ditto out west, where it used to be California but it’s now the gulf coast of Texas. As an American, I’d find a review of your provinces more interesting than a quick take on one of our states like Alabama. I didn’t even know there were ten Canadian provinces. I’ve only been to two – Alberta (Calgary) and Quebec (Montreal) – perhaps the same ones most Americans have visited? It was only recently I knew anything at all about Nova Scotia (Halifax), thanks to the remarkable story behind the planes landing there after 9/11. A blog post series on the provinces would be great! (yes, that would be an unabashed hint 🙂 )
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Thanks for the suggestion Dave, but I haven’t been any farther west than Manitoba as my sister lived in Winnipeg for a short time, which I found very flat, so I’ve not seen the Canadian Rockies, or BC. I liked Quebec, esp. Quebec City but found New Brunswick just something to drive through, but loved Prince Edward Island – we only spent a few days there but I could have spent a week, whereas I found Nova Scotia boring other than the very scenic Cabot Trail and some whale watching. I’ve never been to Newfloundland although I have friends who live there and could go, but it just doesn’t appeal to me, although it’s become lately a bit of a destination for filming movies. I’ve never been to Inuit either – way too cold for me. There’s a short summary for you!
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PS. Most of the Canadian population lives in the southern part of each province, because most of the large northern wilderness which is full of those trees that cause the wildfire smoke in the summers, fine if you like hunting and fishing, and scenic in the fall in the Muskoka cottage country region when the leaves change, but otherwise there’s not much up there, just isolated small towns, mostly Indian/aboriginal with the odd mining town or in Alberta the oil sands. Contrary to what you might hear on the news Alberta and Quebec will never separate – they just use that as a tactic to get more money out of the federal government (Alberta has no provincial sales tax). It would be kind of like if Texas (oil rich too) threatened to leave the US unless they got more federal transfer funds, IMO.
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I am weak on the Western states, but have pretty well covered everything east of the Mississippi. I am going to have to figure out the ones I have not been to. We drove through Alabama a number of years ago on a big triangle trip that took us from Indianapolis to Dallas to Myrtle Beach, SC and back home.
There is a Buckees planned for the county to my south in Indiana, so it is clear that I will have to go when it has been finished.
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