April Roadtrip, Day 3... An Unexpected Early Start

Day 3

Monday, April 3, 2023

      The day certainly began in a promising way...  

     The Waffle House was all police officers when I walked in.  Okay, there were six.  But, they were the only customers that early.  There was no rush to get out and I had planned another walk along the river before departing Columbus.   

     Sipping my second cup of coffee, I checked the weather.  After quickly paying the bill and packing up the room, I beat feet out as fast as I could.

     For reference, I was leaving Columbus and making a brief stop in Dothan, Alabama.  With good traffic, Dothan is an hour and forty minutes drive.  Can you really blame me for the quick exit?  

     Fortunately, traffic was flowing smoothly.  When I stopped for gas I could hear the thunder rolling in the distance.  This is the radar when I pulled into Dothan.

     Dothan, Alabama was established as a farming and trading community in 1885.  They chose the name Poplar Head after a local spring.  After the Civil War, the timber industry moved in, bringing sawmills and turpentine factories.  With the town growing, someone pointed out there was already a Poplar Head in Alabama.  They would have to change their name.  Dothan comes from Genesis 37:17,"For I heard them say 'Let us go to Dothan.'"

     The arrival of the railroad grew the city even more.  The true growth came by way of Dr. George Washington Carver.  His experiments with peanuts was a boon to the industry.  Dothan now calls itself the Peanut Capital of Alabama and hosts the annual National Peanut Festival.  I would miss the festival by three weeks.  

     But, this isn't why I came to Dothan.  They have another claim to fame.  Yes, it's the world's smallest city block.

     With the early start, I realized I had a lot of time on my hands.  So, I went off in search of a coffee shop.  That's when I noticed all the murals.  This is by a woman named Katie Hughes.  I poked around the internet and found multiple artists named Katie Hughes.  This didn't seem like any of their styles.

     Sherman Rose grew up in Oklahoma and moved to Alabama to attend the Tuskegee Institute under the Civilian Pilot Training Program, graduating atop his class in 1939.  He remained with the institute as an instructor.

     

    Rose would become one of the principle instructors for the Tuskegee Airmen throughout the course of WWII.  After the war, he joined the private sector for ten years.  From 1955 to 1974, he was a part of the Army's Civilian Flight Instructor program.  This time he was also teaching new helicopter pilots.

      Johnny Mack Brown was a high school football star in Dothan and went on to play for the University of Alabama.  His athletic skills and looks even got his picture on a Wheaties box.

  

     The Wheaties box got him a screen test.  After a string of support roles, Brown got his first starring role in the 1930 film, Billy the Kid.  After a short string of starring roles, he was cast in the film "Laughing Sinners" in 1931.  You won't see him in the clip though.  All his scenes were reshot with MGM's new up and rising star, Clark Gable.  After losing out on the role of Tarzan for now being tall enough, his career took a dip.  

     After doing a few low budget westerns, he was hired by Universal Studios and would crank out twenty-nine B-movie westerns over the next four years, including The Lone Star Trail.  This was also one of Robert Mitchum's early roles.  

     Just to the right is a mural of Chief Eufaula.  His tribe of Creek had been removed from their land in Georgia and moved to Alabama, eventually being relocated again to Oklahoma.  The text reads, "In these lands of Alabama, which have belonged to our forefathers and where their bones lie buried, I see where the Indian fires are going out,  Soon they will be cold.   New fires are lighting in the west for us they say and we will go there."

 

     On the wall of a bank...

     After a nice stop at a coffee shop named Bird and Bean, it was time to head back out.

 

      The sky to the north was still leaden with some residual rumblings.  My route out of took me by the fairgrounds.  It's still three weeks to the peanut festival, but there was plenty of activity.  

     Dipping south into Florida to pick up I-10 west, the gray sky cleared and out came the sun.  Seen at a Florida highway rest stop...

      I’ve been to Salisbury, England to see the real Stonehenge.  I’ve been to Virginia and seen Foamhenge, been to Alliance, Nebraska to see Carhenge and made a side trip through Odessa, Texas for their replica.  There was no way I was going to pass up Bamahenge.

    Dairy Magnate George Barber had previously hired artist Mark Cline to create life size dinosaurs for “lawn ornaments."  When he heard Cline was the artist behind Foamhenge, he asked him to make one for his marina outside Elberta, Alabama.  

      Taking tropical weather into account, Cline chose to build it out of fiberglass.  Each standing piece is anchored by an eight foot pole sunk in concrete.  

     Finding the place was an adventure.  I encountered detours that seemed to go to dead ends.  Only when I saw a sign for Barber Marina, did I finally find the place.  There's a small gravel parking area on the right of the entrance road.  If you see the Triceratops, you've gone too far.   A short path into the trees and you encounter Bamahenge.  

    

      If you make a right from the parking area, it's a very short drive to the triceratops...

     And, if you look carefully, there's a T-Rex lurking in the trees.

    My home for the next two nights was the Microtel Inn and Suites in Daphne, Alabama.  Decent enough place but they definitely need a bigger sign at the street.  It's across from a slew of restaurants. I chose a place called Top of the Bay Music Hall.  It's a bar, restaurant and music venue.  They had a nice selection of craft beers from around the area.  But, their kitchen is closed on Mondays.  I asked, and they're fine with people bringing in their own food.   I picked up a decent chicken philly at the Wild Wind Station up the street and settled in.  

      I wound up in a conversation with a local guy who asked where all I had been.  So, I told him about Bamahenge.  He had never heard of it.  Meanwhile, two guys were having a heated discussion about the weekend's WrestleMania event. They just couldn't understand how come professional wrestling companies kept hiring such clueless referees.  I didn't have the heart to tell them.