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I'll be visiting Montgomery AL in a few weeks, Amtrak to Atlanta, then car with a friend. I will have to overnight in Atlanta going down but expect to get back & catch my train heading back. If anyone has any tips on what to see in Montgomery, let me know. Also, we'll probably stop for lunch on the car trip back from Montgomery to Atlanta; I'm thinking maybe Tuskegee would be interesting--any info on this or other recs?
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Sojourner, how about a visit to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Site on Moton Field at Tuskegee? Like First Flight Airport at Kitty Hawk, N.C., it has become a mecca for aviation enthusiasts. The museum is well worth seeing, as it tells a stirring story of victory over discrimination that every American kid should know. Think Jackie Robinson with wings.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Yes, Mr Kisor, that is the place I meant when I said Tuskegee! But I was wondering what it was like going there--have you been? It is easy to access from the highway from Atlanta to Montgomery? Is there a good place to have lunch? Any other recommendations from anyone? Also, is Booker T Washington site right nearby and seeable too? Thanks
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Sojourner, Moton Field is less than a mile south of Interstate 85 on Alabama 81. Two more miles and you're in the middle of Tuskegee, where there are a number of restaurants. It should be an easy visit.
I haven't been to Tuskegee myself -- my wings got clipped before I could get there -- but other pilots, especially those not inhospitable to diversity, have said it's an inspiring place. I've met some of the old-timers who trained there during World War II, so have a personal interest.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Another interesting possibility might be the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, AL or the historic railroad station in downtown Opelika, AL.......both only a short drive (5 minutes or so) off I-85. Back in the day Opelika is where the routes of two great passenger trains crossed...the Crescent (on it's original route via Montgomery) and the City of Miami en route from Chicago to Miami.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Thanks for the info. Maybe we can stop at Tuskegee and then go on to Auburn or Opelika for lunch, but I am not so interested in the Auburn U campus. However, what is Auburn the town like, David? How about the town of Opelika??? Thanks for any info.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Both are mid-sized southern towns.......maybe worth a drive through. The railraod station area in Opelika had several 'antique' stores when I last stopped through there about 5 years ago.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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In Montgomery the old Union Station still stands and lots of freight still rolls by. It would be worth a quick look. I spent a few hours there during a round trip on the Floridian in the 1970s. The state capitol and the Confederate White House (home of Jefferson Davis) are interesting sights.
Posts: 561 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I've ridden through Birmingham on the Crescent a couple times but never stopped there. Being a history buff, I'd visit the sites that mark Ground Zero of the Civil Rights Movement.Downtown Birmingham has its Civil Rights District, with the 16th Ave. Baptist Church, where young girls died when the church was bombed, the infamous park where police dogs and fire hoses that were set upon demonstrators are remembered in statuary, and the museum where healing waters flow over the names of those who died for the cause of equality. I'd go to Montgomery and see the spot where Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and sparked the Movement, and visit the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where a very young, very new pastor Martin Luther King led the Bus Boycott. And I'd go to Selma and stand at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the sight of people being beaten by police for trying to exercise their right to vote broke the back of segregation. To me, these places are as important to our nation's makeup as Gettysburg, Boston's Freedom Trail, and Valley Forge. Too many people who are too young to remember the 1960's only think of Dr.King as the guy who gave the speech at the Lincoln Memorial. But it's at these places in Alabama where the real battles were fought.
Posts: 510 | From: Richmond VA USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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