We left Orlando just after 8am this morning & headed for Montgomery, Alabama. The driving time was about 7.5hrs. As we headed north we left the palm trees behind & started to see more & more pine trees. Not long before we crossed the border we started to see fields of cotton too. It was mainly flat all the way. There were 2 things that I immediately noticed about Alabama. Firstly, there were peanuts everywhere. Signs for roadside stalls and shops selling boiled peanuts or fried peanuts. We passed a small show ground advertising the National Peanut Festival. There was a giant peanut statue in there but didn't seem to be much festival action. I have since googled it to find the peanut festival is in November. We passed through a town called Dothan which produces 65% of all the peanuts produced in USA. I will be interested to try boiled peanuts.
The other thing that stood out was the number of churches around. Some little towns were very run down with abandoned buildings & closed down shops. But, the church was always well maintained. Some of them were small & some were enormous. We are definitely in the bible belt.
Once we had checked in we decided to have a quiet afternoon as we are both very tired. We both needed some incidentals so we just went to the local Walmart. I wanted to have dinner somewhere that served traditional southern cuisine. When I googled it, I found a few with good reviews but they were all only open for breakfast & lunch. I think that is a bit strange. So, we will go to one of these restaurants for lunch tomorrow. Our drive to Atlanta tomorrow is only about 2.5hrs so we will spend the morning & early afternoon exploring Montgomery. No wallet as yet.