The Spring Trip home, 2014.

My wife says I need to follow up on my post of December 17, 2013, wherein I implied we were going to do some specific things in our trip home from Pensacola College in the spring of 2014. Which we did, but she chastised me because I failed to report on it.

This year on the way home, instead of heading into Mississippi, we stayed in Alabama. We stopped in Alabama and saw the incredible grave of Hank Williams. It's the best I've seen, and I have been to many. I thought Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee's were something, but the Hank Williams was very impressive.

From there we headed north, naturally, and swung over to Florence, Alabama. I wanted to go there for many reasons. First of all, it's close to Muscle Shoals, the home of where a lot of the music I love was born. We were able to visit the FAME studios. (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises). This is where Aretha Franklin cut "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You." Wilson Pickett did most of his great stuff here. Otis Redding recorded here. Duane Allman slept in the parking lot until they'd let him in on the sessions. That's him on Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude." He takes off on a riff that virtually invented "southern rock." The usual 20 minute tour turned into an hour and a half for us because the manager took an instant liking to me. I got to play a guitar that Duane Allman used to noodle around on (among others), and my wife got to play a piano that has been played by everybody from Aretha Franklin to Alicia Keyes. And she got to play the organ that was played during the opening of "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You."

Then we stopped at the other Muscle Shoals studio where everybody and their brother recorded. Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, too many to list. This is where The Rolling Stones recorded "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses."

Once back in the hotel, the wife was flipping through some literature, and mentioned that there was a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence. So that was added to the next day's itinerary.

The next day we were able to visit the childhood home of Helen Keller and yeah, I even got to stand at the pump. I have Assistant Directed this play, and I was in this play once, and the whole Helen Keller miracle is one of the great American stories. Then we were able to visit The Rosenbaum House, the Frank Lloyd Wright creation in Florence, Alabama. I loved it and befriended the director who gave us the royal treatment, because I mentioned I was a docent at the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids. It was a wonderful visit.

From there we visited the childhood home of W.C. Handy, whom some consider 'father of the blues'. And after we visited the University of North Alabama, (alma mater of George "Goober" Lindsey) and see the extensive George Lindsey exhibit there.

It was, as always, a great trip. I love the south. If they weren't all red states, I would live there. I will live in Florida someday. And that state goes either way......