After a week of daily trips to service bays at 7 AM we were planning on having Saturday and Sunday off to do some touring out of the immediate area. There is indeed very little to do in Red Bay within a few minutes of the Service Center. Then we got a call from Daniel McKinney who is doing the body repair, “can you bring it in at 9 tomorrow?” Sure, why else are we here in Red Bay if not to get on with it. Daniel assured us we did not need to hang around. When he was finished he would put it back on our site for us.
Off we went to finally do a serious day of touring. About an hour north is the four city grouping of Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and just across the Tennessee River Florence. Tuscumbia has several claims to fame, the most well known is that is was the birthplace of Helen Keller. The family home where she was born and where Annie Sullivan taught her to communicate is maintained as a museum and memorial. It is clear that the Kellers were well off in a lovely 1820 house that sat on 640 acres, much reduced today but still very spacious.
We took the house tour and walked next door to the cottage her parents were living in when she was born. Her grandparents occupied the main house at that time. After the tour we wandered through Tuscumbia and came across Spring Park which is built around the water source that made the town possible. The town served as a way station on the Trail of Tears. Many Cherokee were brought by train and transferred to steam boats to continue there trail to Oklahoma.
Next we headed to Wilson Dam and Lock on the Tennessee River, part of the TVA. This lock when it was built was the largest single lift lock ever built, over 100 foot lift.
It is almost impossible to get a sense of scale without a boat in the lock, but the lower picture is the up river end of the lock and the up river lock gate is just the little metalwork area near the top of the wall, the rest is the sill!
After this stop we were hungry and we were already across the river in Florence. Using TripAdvisor and the wonderful tour brochure we settled on Odette in town. It serves food made from locally sourced produce and meats and has lovely vegetarian offerings. Carol had a cauliflower salad with black rice that was lovely. I had pastrami Rubin on sourdough rye that was heavenly and a coleslaw that was like nothing I had ever tasted. It was a vinegar slaw with pepper and a sweetness I find hard to describe. If we return to the area, we will be sure to return to this restaurant. We were not finished. We walked down the street a ways to find a new emporium consisting of a large space with three shops in it and a large cafe space to come. We were pleased to find a local farm market there where we were able to get some wonderful produce and a loaf of the bread from Odette. Happiness is!
After just a bit of wandering we jumped in the Jeep and drove a couple of miles to the only Frank Lloyd Wright House in Alabama. Built for the Rosenbaum family in 1938 in Usonian style this was only the fourth house built in this style. This is the second Usonian house we have toured. The first
was in Iowa as we were returning from Alaska crossing the country on US 20. The tour was excellent and we really enjoyed seeing this house. If you are interested in FLW structures this is a worthwhile stop if you are anywhere near the northwest corner of Alabama.
After a stop to buy some food that we could not get at the farmers market we straggled back to Red Bay to find the coach neatly ensconced on our site awaiting some minor setup to return it to home from road vehicle.
House looks like the Little White House in Warm Springs Ga. Worth a stop if you are ever near Columbus.
Julian Y.