Heading south

Now that we moved out of our house we hit the road again, this time heading south. 

We made it from northern VA to Knoxville, TN without stopping once.  We got gas and lunch there and then hopped back in the car.

We only drove through a corner of Georgia and then continued on to Birmingham!  This was my first time being in Alabama :)

We wanted to see something historical so we headed to Birmingham's civil rights district.  We parked near Kelly Ingram Park and then walked around.

Osmond Kelly Ingram was a sailor in the U.S. Navy in the early 1900s.  He was the first enlisted man from the U.S. killed in action during World War I and received the Medal of Honor after his death.  He was aboard a ship at the time and was blasted overboard when the ship was struck by a German submarine torpedo.

We spoke with a Birmingham resident and apparently they felt like this park was a bit misplaced.  This park dedicated to a white war hero was located smack dab in the middle of a predominantly black area in Birmingham.  During the public segregation era blacks weren't allowed to walk through it.  There is a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. as you walk into the park because he staged many demonstrations here in the early 1960s.  In the early 90s the park was redone and rededicated as a place of "revolution and reconciliation".

We also found the Temptation's memorial (famous for many hits including My Girl).  It was pretty cool :)

Then we hopped back in the car and headed west to Mississippi.  It was starting to get dark so my picture didn't come out very well.

Did I mention that Chris and I brought two of his sisters with us on this one?  Lauren also called about 11 hours prior to our departure time to ask if we had room enough in the car for her.

We got pretty crowded in that car, but we're having a good time!