9-23-209 Alabama

Today I visited Auburn University in Auburn Alabama. I decided to park my car at Chewacla State Park which is about 3 miles outside of Auburn. I originally wanted to do a 40 mile bike ride that started from the library on campus, but there was no parking. So I decided to take a tour of the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. The campus is pretty sweet. The best being the football stadium. I cant wait until JMU gets a stadium like the D1A teams. I rode about 18 miles then returned back to the state park to get my car. I needed to shower, so I snuck into the campsite facilities and washed up. From there I decided to go to Montgomery AL. This city is very rich in history. I’m not the biggest history buff, but I am pretty interested in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the home of the “Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement” era. Parking and touring the city was actually pretty easy. I simply paid $1 to ride a tour bus as long as I wanted. The people were very friendly and excited to show an outsider their town. On the tour I saw the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The church where he was a preacher for four years, the state capital buildings, and most importantly the Rosa Parks Museum. I decided to actually pay to go into this museum. I would have to say I was well worth the money. I learned so much about the Civil Rights Movement and Rosa Parks involvement. After the museum, I wandered around town until the sun went down. Some random security guard noticed that I was not from around AL, and he decided to show me all of his favorite spots around town. He was pretty shady, but very informative. I never knew that Montgomery used to be called Philadelphia. Once the sun went down, the town complety shut down. I then went to the local Walmart to sleep for the night. I was immediately kicked out of the parking lot. The security guard told me that you cannot sleep in cars in their parking lot. I actually parked next to an RV that was there for the same reason. He told me that they were fine, but I was not. So I had to go to the local truck stop to sleep for the night. After about an hour at the truck stop, I was awakened by a gentleman banging on my window. I freaked out until I realized that he was a security guard. He simply wanted me to turn my car around. Tomorrow I will head into New Orleans, LA for the weekend.
http://montgomery.troy.edu/ROSAPARKS/MUSEUM/
http://www.dexterkingmemorial.org/