. . . And So It Begins!

We made it to Birmingham safe and sound. The flights were pretty uneventful - an hour and a half to Dallas/Love Field and after a two hour layover another hour and a half to Birmingham. I have to say I am not a big fan of flying anymore. I am not worried about a crash, crowded flights or even terrorists. It is all the crap you have to go through. Standing with your hands over your head, with no shoes, no belt and your pockets completely empty while you are total body x-rayed. It is humiliating! None of these things will actually stop any terrorists if they really want to do something. So every time we fly (which isn't very often - we try and drive for our vacations) I am so tense from the time we leave for the airport until we get through all the security. So now that we are in Alabama and have a rental car I am good. I do have to say that everything at the Birmingham airport went well. Getting from the gate to baggage was easy, the bags came quickly and the rental car counters are just a little ways from the baggage claim. The rental car people were extremely nice and efficient. From the time we landed to the time we drove out of the airport in the rental car was only 25 minutes. Not bad.

From the airport we drove to the area near our hotel. We decided to look for two letterboxes and grab a bite to eat before checking into the hotel. So our first stop was the Irondale Public Library to find Spider's Treasure. It was an easy find shelved with books in the reference section. I found a table and stamped in. Once that was done and the box was back on the shelf we headed to Ellard Park. The sun was going down and I could tell we wouldn't have much time to find the box. We followed the clues (there were a couple of spots where we couldn't find the landmarks) and ended up at a picnic table and from the clues we knew it was the right one. From here we used the compass to find a stump - no box there. So we decided to search the area for other stumps - we found three but not one of them had Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It was time to move on because it was now dark and we couldn't really see well enough to look any more.

Time to eat - since we had just looked for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe we decided to eat at the place that was the inspiration for the book and movie. It is actually called the Irondale Cafe (and was always called this) - and even though it is in a newer building it is it the exact spot as the original. Thomas had turkey, turnip greens, green beans and a chocolate chess pie. I had fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, cream corn and homemade banana pudding with vanilla wafers. It was soooooooo good!

It has been a long day and flying always wears me out so we checked into the hotel and are just relaxing. Tomorrow we drive from Birmingham to Atlanta and then to Savannah. We well be in Savannah for the weekend - it should be fun.