Traveling North

Space Camp

It is hard to believe we have been back in New York for a month already. I have been so involved with catching up the family that the blog has gone dormant. I will catch us up over the next few days.

We left you in Huntsville, Alabama a fantastic small city with a thriving downtown that is home to a number of coffee shops.

Our coffee collection grew in Huntsville.

Honest Coffee Roaster was in a temporary location on Clinton Ave. It was not hard to find on the second level of U G White Mercantile. We enjoyed their ethically sourced Colombian blend as walked around the interesting mercantile shop that features made in Alabama products.  

Down the street and around the corner we found Kaffeeklatsh a shop that features coffees and teas and a professional tasting staff. I had consumed enough coffee for the day but Fred enjoyed a cup of the Costa Rican blend and liked it enough to bring a pound home.

We enjoyed walking through the downtown area and up and down many of the cross streets of the Historic district. There is some great architecture represented with homes dating from the 1820's. There were ornate Victorian and Queen Anne structures and homes in the Greek Revival and Federal styles. We enjoyed the gardens and landscaping as we got our steps in for the day.

We enjoyed lunch at a great little bar that we passed signs for on Clinton Ave.  

Pints and Pixels is located on the third floor of U G White Mercantile building. We climbed the stairs and passed through a steel door to enter a unique bar full of vintage pinball machines and video games. 

It was very nostalgic to listen to the bells and pings and we enjoyed our lunch while sitting at the bar. We earned tokens with by purchasing food and drinks. It was a great excuse for another round of craft beer.

Huntsville Veterans Memorial

On our way out of town we passed the Huntsville Madison County Veterans Memorial Park. It is an impressive structure of walls and fountains that drew our eyes and compelled us to stop. The main component of the memorial is a horseshoe shaped wall that provides a timeline of all American Wars from 1775 to the present. The dates of the conflicts and the casualties associated with them are inscribed on black granite markers that sit in front of the wall. The names of Madison County residents who died during these conflicts are also inscribed on the black granite.

The park contains several impressive statues and more are in the planning stages. 

Rocket Park

Our reason for stopping in Huntsville and the highlight of our trip was to visit the US Space and Rocket Center home to Space Camp. The facility is adjacent to Redstone Arsenal where the Marshall Space Flight Center is located. 

We had been intrigued by this facility since the 1980's movie Space Camp and were glad to have a chance to visit. 

The Space and Rocket Center museum has an extensive Rocket Park. There are 27 rockets in this collection that astronaut John Glenn once called "the finest rocket collection in the world"

Pathfinder

A separate outdoor exhibit called Shuttle Park features a fully stacked STS (Space Transportation System). Orbiter Pathfinder sits atop 2 solid rocket boosters and a genuine external tank with main engine nozzles. It is huge and impressive. In case you don't recognize the shuttle name, Pathfinder is a test simulator constructed by NASA in 1977. It is made of wood and steel and is approximately the same size as a working shuttle. It was used to figure out methods of moving and handling a shuttle without potentially damaging a working unit.

Indoors the exhibits get even better.

International Space Station Sleeping Berth

ISS: Science on Orbit is a life sized exhibit of what life in and on a the Space Station is like. We saw a sleeping berth with personal items strapped down around it. Imagine sleeping in an upright position and strapped into a sleeping bag so you don't float away! There were also replica racks of the Payload Operations Center where astronauts co-ordinate the care of science experiments. 
We spent a while speaking with docents at a mockup of the Huntsville Operations Support Center. The support center monitors the astronauts on ISS and guides them through caring for the experiments on board. 

Celestial Dreams collection by Kathy Chan

One of the Special Exhibits currently on display is called Celestial Dreams. It is a Space Jewelry collection designed by artist Kathy Chan who is inspired by the cosmos that surround and include the earth.

Part of the Saturn V displayed on the ceiling of the Davidson Center

The exhibit the Huntsville facility is most proud of is its Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle. The Davidson Center for Space Exploration was built to house it. As you walk through the Davidson Center the rocket is suspended above you with its stages exposed. You can walk right underneath the immense vehicle and gaze into all of its various parts.

The Davidson Center is like a timeline for the space program. We were amazed all over again looking at all of the exhibits and remembering the accomplishments of the the last 50 years. 

It's all here. 

The fears of the US/Russian Space Race with duck and cover drills and backyard bomb shelters.

President Kennedy's inspiring speech of the early 1960's that set a goal of manned lunar landing  by the end of the decade.

The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

Celebrated astronauts are honored and lost lives are remembered.

Our visit was everything we hoped it would be.

US Space and Rocket Center

1 Tranquility Base

Huntsville, Alabama

Pints and Pixels

115 Clinton Ave East

3rd floor

Huntsville, Alabama

Honest Coffee Roaster

114 Clinton Ave

Ste 106

Huntsville Alabama

Kaffeeklatsh

103 Jefferson St N

Huntsville Alabama

Huntsville Madison County Veterans Memorial

200 Monroe St NW

Huntsville, Alabama

Visit to Red Bay, Alabama - Home of Tiffin Motorhomes

Red Bay is a city in Franklin County on the border of Alabama and Mississippi. It was founded in 1907. Red Bay is home to the Tiffin Motorhome Company. So after our visit to Gulfport/Biliox, MS we started driving on US-49 & I-59 to Marion, AL for a one night stop on Monday April 10th.
The next day we were off again on US-45 north to Red Bay. We arrived at about 2PM Tuesday afternoon. We found one of the many "Service Type" camping/parking areas. So we parked and set-up the coach for the night. Only $20 dollars per night with full-hookup, paid by envelope on an honor system.
We had a appointment with Nick Brewer RV Electronics - Satellites & Antennas on Wednesday morning April 12th. Nick is part of the Tiffin After Hours group and was going to install the second-hand DirecTV HD Satellite Antenna on our motorhome.    I picked up the dish in Bradenton, Florida last November for only $75 dollars at an RV park Garage sale.
The first day we had to just wait for our appointment. We visited the Tiffin Parts Store. We found a few small items to make some repairs within the coach. We also got some small bottles of touch-up paint for the coach too. We visited the Piggly-Wiggly Market in town. We stopped at the Mason Jar on Main for breakfast.
Finally on Wednesday morning I called Nick, but found-out that he could not work on the motorhome till about 5PM. So we just stayed around the coach for must of the day. But at last it was time to take the motor home to Nick's shop about 1/2 mile down the road.

The Behemoth has a new crown

After about two and half hours the Satellite Antenna was installed, Radio Aux Jack was installed, new CCTV Jack plus about 50' of cable was also installed too. All of this work was completed at a very reasonable cost. Thanks Nick for a great job.

Chassis waiting for a build.

On Thursday morning April 13th we visited Tiffin Motorhomes  and enjoyed a factory tour. One of the things I liked was that Tiffin has a complete wood working section/shop. They make all of the cabinets, tables, and counter-tops for kitchen and bathroom that are installed within all of the motorhomes that they build. Talk about some great wood working tools and equipment wow!!! I loved it. 

Tiffin cabinet makers at work

Cabinet build in progress.

Kitchen cabinets being built

Waiting for the glue to dry.

Sidewalls 

Wiring harness shop

Then we left Red Bay on a short drive of about 60 miles northeast to Huntsville,AL for a visit to US Space & Rocket Center. 

Montgomery, Alabama

The Alabama Capitol with marchers foot prints leading to it's staircase.

Montgomery Alabama is a great capitol city. We were only there for a day found and it to be friendly and walkable. Parking was easy and we found a variety of things to see and do.

Fred and I drove into the city on a workday Monday and expected to find a lot of traffic. We must have timed it right because we were able to get right in to the Capitol building and found metered parking not far away.
Alabama's capitol building is beautiful. White Alabama marble, a grand staircase and a stately rotunda make  an impressive structure that is fitting for a Government building. The building (circa 1851) is designated a National Historic Landmark  as the first Capitol of the Confederacy.  Statues of Jefferson Davis and a Confederate monument grace the landscaped lawns which were originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, author of New York's Central Park and North Carolina's Biltmore Estate.
Those steps were the end point for Dr. Martin Luther King's 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery to petition then Governor George Wallace to end racial discrimination in the state of Alabama. The crosswalks in Dexter Avenue leading up to the capitol are painted like the soles of the many shoes that marched with him.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

We took a walk down Dexter Avenue and passed the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King led the congregation in the late 1950's.

Entrance to The Alley

Railyard Brewing Company

We walked down toward the river and found the site of Rosa Parks bus stop and the Hank Williams Museum before ducking into Alley Station an entertainment district that groups together bars, restaurants, and live music in an environment that provides indoor and outdoor seating away from street noise and busy sidewalks. it was like a little oasis from the downtown heat. The Alley is near Riverwalk Stadium the city's minor league ball field and that's where we found Railyard Brewing Company where Alabama brewer Jamie Ray produces craft ales in a great environment. Railyard offers a  pub style menu and a variety of brews from a Pale Ale to a Double Black IPA. The bar is in an interesting old building that was once part of the warehouse system for the railroad. The atmosphere is dark and cozy with exposed brick, old wood beams and railroad memorabilia that included a reception desk shaped like and engine. Fred sampled and enjoyed some of their offerings.

We had wandered a long way and made our way back up to the Capitol giving our Fitbit's a workout. No trouble recording those 10,000 steps this day!

First white House of the Confederacy

Our last stop was the First White House of the Confederacy. The building is Italianate Style and is furnished in period pieces from the 1850's to 1860's.  It was built in 1832 by a relative of Zelda Fitzgerald and leased by the Confederate Government to serve as the first home of it's President. The house features many artifacts of the Confederacy and Jefferson Davis's presidency as well as a research library.  It was an interesting walk back in time to see the house fully furnished as it would have been in 1861.

The Wright Flyer

We enjoyed our day in Montgomery and headed back to base. Along the way we stopped at a red light on Maxwell Blvd.and spotted an airplane mounted on poles in a small pocket park. It was a replica of the Wright Flyer.  We discovered that the Wright Brothers first flight school was located in Montgomery at the area that is now Maxwell Air Force Base. While the flight school was only in Montgomery for a year it is considered an important reason for the development of interest in aviation in Alabama.  I love learning this kind of history. It made our day and we were happy to discover another facet in the history of American Aviation.

Tuskegee Airmen

Control Tower at Moton Field

Montgomery Alabama provided a short lay-over on our way to Pensacola Florida. We stayed in the Fam-camp at Maxwell-Guntner Air Force Base just off of I-85. 
While in Montgomery we discovered Moton Field the National Historic Site dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen.

Hangar 1

Tuskegee University was chosen in 1941 as the aviation training center for the group.  The Institute had a history of dedication to aviation and with President Roosevelt's endorsement became one of a select few private American institutions to own, develop and control facilities for military flight instruction. It was the only primary flight training center for African American pilot candidates during WW II.

This listing Gulf sign looks like it has been there since 1941

Fire Supplies building

Classes were taught at the University but flight training took place at Molton Field. Part of the space is an active Municipal Airport. We were lucky enough to watch sky divers on the day of our visit.

Beyond the active runways much of the old airport still stands and the hangers and outbuildings remain. The tale of these first African-American Pilots, navigators and bombardiers  along with their trainers and support teams has been preserved here as part of our National Historic record.

The 2 hangers at the field showcase a museum that brings the stories of the airmen to life through films and a National Parks oral history project that captured their stories.

 The Tuskegee trained squadrons served as bomber escorts over Italy and Germany during World War II and had one of the lowest loss records of all of the fighter groups.
They were known as the "Red Tails" because of the 4 fighter squadrons that flew with the 332nd Fighter group that flew the P-40 and P-51 Mustang with the tails painted red.

The Tuskegee Airmen were remarkable in their achievements both at War and at home. Officers fighting segregation within our borders staged a nonviolent protest at the officer's club in Freeman Field Indiana that brought notice to the Military's need to desegregate.
It was not until 1948 that the armed forces were directed to provide equal opportunity to all individuals.

Ghost structures represent buildings which no longer stand