Vegginator II -- Mandy has a sense of humor

"Mandy" is our nickname for Kent's new GPS, ourchased what seems like a long long time ago. One of Mandy's features that can be especially handy is "find me a restaurant."

After leaving Quon to the vaguaries of Alabama troopers and cars that burn oil, Rachel and I continued north. We had a memorable stop in Montgomery, which seemed to have been the site of a recent neutron bomb attack. Seriously, the place was deserted. We wandered around the eerily quiet but otherwise lovely city for a while, and were lucky to stumble onto the Civil Rights Memorial. Its centerpiece was a beatiful fountain with a quote from MLK, and a history of some key dates in the Civil Rights movement, including the Selma march,Rosa Parks, Johnson's bill,and King's assassination. Coming on the heels of Ward 9, the crash, and Quon's quandry, it was a soothing and contemplative stop. Later we'll post some pictures...

Our next stop was Tuskegee, where we visited the memorial to the Tuskegee Airmen. Sadly, all of the memorial is inside a closed building -- we had hoped for at least one plane to photograph for Kent, but nada. Then we drove by Tuskegee University, andtook a look at the Booker T. Washington Monument. By now, it's getting dark and we're getting hungry, so we turned to Mandy to find a restaurant.

Now, Mandy is really just about location, but I think she led us into the woods on purpose. We picked a place that had an interesting, non-chain food name, and headed off into the Alabama night. It's always a hoot when Mandy says "turn here" and the "here" looks like a long driveway, but we're game enough,so we give it a whirl. It all led us, 8 miles later in the wrong direction, to a very very very dark corner on the far edge of nowhere, empty except for an unlit sign hinting that the restaurant was somewhere back in the woods at the end of an unlit driveway and obviously, closed. Sigh. Way to go, Mandy.

Making this long story short, we drove off into the night and settled for Micky D's, which our close friends and family will know is a very rare thing for us. And last night, we were reminded why. yech.

After the feast we headed off to Columbus, Alabama, which of course turned out to be merely 30 minutes away and stuffed full of interesting places to eat. But not for us. We got a room and called it a day.

And that's what I'm going to do now. There's lots to tell about today's journey, and I promise to catch up next time I'm able to get a working internet connection on Adam's beater laptop.