Broke Down Palace #2 At Sunset

El Beth El Sunday

I put the landscape view of The Gates Of Zion in the banner; these, I cropped for detail.

I love seeing these self-styled churches/temples, they're so unpretentious and in-your-face.

Broke Down Palace #1

Small Town USA - Leaving Georgiana

If there's one thing that I left Georgiana, Alabama, knowing it's that I had completely forgotten what life was like before Walmart and fast food, or any kind of franchise for that matter. People in Georgiana aren't having it, maybe not by choice, but maybe then, maybe they don't mind either.

Under an overcast winter sky it wasn't a pretty town, the buildings are a little run down but it's clean and it has a train yard in the middle of all that and even better, what's left of the Ga-Ana Theatre, opened in 1930. It looked to me that life in small town Alabama was alive and near well. And here's a souvenir picture postcard to take home with you.

From here we're headed for Monroeville, Alabama and the monument to Atticus Finch, with stops along the way. Woooo-woo!! Aaaaall aboard!!!

Back On Track: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

(enlarge these two photos for details)

After leaving Montgomery my next stop was Georgiana, Alabama - or George-Anna as they like to say - home of the Hank Williams Museum.

The boarding house mentioned as Williams' boyhood home - a stout but friendly building if there ever was one with a fab covered porch full of rockers - is now part of a larger complex that includes a covered pavilion, a large yard, and this...

now slowly returning to the elements. While the museum was closed on that Sunday, I'm fairly certain that the most interesting thing about the site lies just beyond this train car, running north and south. I don't know who owned the rails in Hank's day (today CSX, as seen in the banner, is boss) but I have to wonder if young Hiram wasn't influenced early on by the passing trains that must have loomed large in his boyish mind. Who doesn't identify with the wistful sound of a train passing by in the night?



We'll linger here in Georgiana another day and then I'll be showing you some "broke-down palaces", found while I was on my way to Monroeville, Alabama, home to Harper Lee, Truman Capote, and "Atticus Finch".

Banner Drop

For Barbara: When Waffles Don't Happen*

You lookin' at me?

I like the indignant leeps! Burritos are more refined than these mini-me cayouses I think.

*See previous post for details.

We Interrupt Our Travelogue To Bring You This Important Announcement From Our Sponsors, The Itty Bitty Burrito Committee

Burrito #1: "I think I ate too many waffles."
Burrito #2: "Yes. Yes you did."

Photographed on the road to Eloe, FL.