Birmingham AL: Ruffner Nature Preserve and Vulcan Park

Monday, May 23^rd

On the way to Birmingham, a rubber grommet connector for the rear airbag system broke. Roger knew what it was since it had happened once before. Thanks for our RV friend, Dennis M., we had a spare. So, Roger pulled off to the side of the highway, climbed under the RV, and fixed the problem. While he was under the RV, semis continued to roar past us and shake the RV unmercifully, leaving me terrified that we were not going to survive the stop. But, other than the grease on his shirt and shorts, we were soon as good as new. The lesson to be learned here is not to ever travel in an RV without someone as mechanically-gifted as Roger! Aside from our mechanical problem, the trip was gorgeous due to the tree-lined highway.

We drove into Birmingham about 6:30 and situated ourselves in a Walmart parking lot. Then, we unhooked the car and drove out to the Ruffner Nature Preserve. We took a great hour-long hike through the woods and up the mountain. Absolutely beautiful! We were amazed to see quite a number of 60-foot high trees that had recently been uprooted. The whitish leaf photos show the leaves that had been imprinted into the walkways around the buildings. They were imprints of actual large leaves and were quite impressive. At the top of the mountain, we found a high tower used by the local schools for broadcasting.

When we left the nature preserve, we drove downtown to the Vulcan park to see the world's largest iron sculpture. The city of Birmingham commissioned the creation of the statue for the 1904 World's fair in St. Louis. The statue was chosen as a means of showcasing the iron works in the area. The statue now sits upon a huge pedestal on the top of a hill overlooking the city of Birmingham. We took the elevator to the viewing balcony. The picture showing the Vulcan's rear end is taken looking upward from the viewing balcony. The city lights are also taken from the balcony. The iron collage is inside the museum building.

The road from Birmingham to Nashville was also tree-lined and gorgeous!