Ugh! No internet the last few days! I hate when that happens. Anyway, here’s to catch up the last few days:  This must be peach country. Loved this big peach water tower at Clanton Alabama.

Monday we checked in at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. It’s a big beautiful park with 300 sites, with but the campground was packed tightly and nearly to capacity. Hundreds of kids riding their bikes and playing. They must be out on Easter/Spring Break this week here.

This area was once a major supplier of iron for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. This is just what remained of three charcoal blast furnaces after they were attacked and burnt by Union Soldiers in 1865.

This park is located about 20 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. And right at the entrance of the campground is this sign stating the Geographic Terminus of the Appalachian Mountains.

On Tuesday we went to Birmingham to see what we could see. This tall statue sits atop a hill overlooking the city. This is Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world and the Birmingham unofficial city symbol. He is designed after the mythical Roman god of the forge. It was created as Birmingham’s exhibit in the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis and won the exposition’s grand prize.

We went up to the observation balcony. Here’s Vulcan’s backside. 😉

And the view of Birmingham from the observation balcony.

Birmingham was a big player in the iron and steel industry in the first part of the 20th century. The remains of the Sloss Furnaces are now a National Historic Landmark. They are now preserved available for public tour. After watching a 15 minute video about its history we tried to follow the self-guided tour to explore it. That proved to be rather challenging so we gave up on the paper instructions and wandered around on our own. It was safe; barriers kept you away from where they didn’t want you to go. Here are some of the pictures we took while there. Click a picture if you want to see the larger version of it.

As if that wasn’t enough walking for us we drove out to the Birmingham Botanical Garden. There were some things in bloom, but not a lot. This is a large place, with several miles of walking paths. We couldn’t walk that much, so we stayed until we were pooped out and left. We’ll have to come back again our next time through this way. It was just too beautiful of a day to pass it up.

So that brings me up to date. We only stayed two nights at the Tannehill State Park and have now driven up Interstate 59 to the northeast corner of Alabama. It’s going to rain tonight and most of the day tomorrow.

• Lodging:         $45.50  (total for 2 nights)
• Gasoline:       $75 @ $1.83
• Admission to Vulcan Park and Museum:  $11
• Admission to Sloss Furnaces:  FREE
• Admission to Botanical Garden:  FREE