Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Well, we just arrived in Alabama yesterday after a 6 hour drive from Orlando, Florida. The drive was pretty interesting and seemingly didn't take that long though. Alabama is not too dissimilair to Florida really. I mean, aside from Orlando and the holiday-making hub, Florida is just like any other Southern State, with all the connotations that come along with that.
What still amazes me is just the vast amounts of lush green land that you drive for miles and miles through- it really makes you realise just how massive America is and I haven't even really scratched the surface yet- i've only driven through 2 of the 50 States!
Alabama is much 'hillier' than Florida (which is remarkably flat) and is less modern perhaps on first impressions but aside from that they share the same straight highways, decorated with huge advertising billboards (some of which are distractedly controversial, ie, a pro-life anti-abortion sign that startled me) and are peppered all the way along with the usual chain restaurants such as Charleys, Burger King, Ruby Tuesdays, Cracker Barrell (they do an awesome brekkie if your ever in town- biscuits, gravy; the works) and other such tempting diners that you know you shouldn't give in to but simply can't resist. Indeed, its not hard to see why 67% of Americans are overweight- pray I don't join that majority in a decade or so.
But anyhow, what really strikes me is how bloody nice they all are, I mean, I didn't think Floridians could be topped on that department but, oh yes, from what I have seen so far the Alabamians (if thats how you should refer to them)?! are even friendlier to the pont where I actually thought our hotel receptionist was on some sort of happy pill. Bless. It can be mildly irritating if your'e a surly Brit but on the whole is wonderfully refreshing and kinda has the tendency to rub off on you which can't be bad.
But anyhow, back to our arrival in Dothan, Alabama. Now we had two kitties in the back seat who needed a hotel and fast to stretch their legs in, etc, etc, so we first tried two nice looking hotels just off a main road. They were ever so cheap- under half what we'd pay in the UK and cheaper still than Florida but, alas, as I suspected they didn't take pets. The third did. And so we settled for a 'Comfort Inn' which was fine- it had air con (which I will stop referring to as a luxury rather than a standard) fast internet access which is a must to feed my Facebook addiction and a pool.
So, we acquanted Amsterdam and Hercules and set off to find Post and register Eric in for his Fixed Wing Course the following day. It wasn't that different to the German Base only the drive up to the Base after security was beautiful, ie, not like Germany's concrete offering. It was mounted by huge stately trees on either side of this twisty road which indicated what was seemingly vast amounts of woodland beyond. You almost felt like wanting to park up and go for a wonder. Of course if mum had been there she'd had done just that.
Anyhows, Post offered pretty much the same facilities as Germany with a large PX selling everything from tolietries to pet accessories and it has a hairdressers, health food shop and other amenities. All of which we'll probably never use but hey ho.
So we drive back to the hotel and have a pretty uneventual, early night with Eric wanting to get ready for his first day in the morning.
- comments