Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 36 – Day 36 Birmingham to Summerville, GA

July 10, 2015

We have not been on any good twisty roads since our day with Jim Foreman on the Angeles Crest Highway and Rim of the World, a little more than a month ago. Today brought a pleasant change.

Shortly after leaving the hotel we were on AL Hwy 25, a nice two-lane road through the country. We got some warm-up twisty turns for a number of miles on this road. We also got to wait for a freight train for the first time. We saw plenty of freight trains while on Route 66 since it is a major train route that runs parallel to Route 66 and I40. We also crossed a lot of train tracks on the many secondary roads, but never had to stop of a train.

I saw a RR sigh going down Hwy 25 and just before coming around the corner heard a train whistle and next thing I saw the red flashing lights (no safety gates) and a freight train running diagonal across the road. We had plenty of time to stop, but it was a little exciting.

We continued on after the train passed and changed from one county road to another moving more or less east. Road through Talladega, but didn’t stop to see the NASCAR Track.

We stopped at a gas station for a break and Judith almost took on a passenger – one ugly looking bug.

They had expensive Non-Ethonal Gas at this gas station too.

 

$3.35.9 a gallon

We headed for the Talladega National Forest and Cheaha Road, which really gave us the twisties back. There were lots of elevation changes, switchbacks and changes in road surfaces. It was a pretty technical road and I was a little concerned how Judith would deal with it, but she handled it just great and had lots of fun.

After Cheaha Road, but still in the Talladega National Forest we moved on to AL 281 and then on to a few different lesser county roads. The entire segment was very pleasant – two lane winding roads with no traffic.

Next a few miles of boredom, but that took us to Little River Canyon National Preserve and AL 176, another technical road with lots of changes. At the summit we stopped at the Gray Wolf Creek overlook for a rest and look-see. 

We dropped back down to the flat lands and into Summerville to our next luxury motel.

One of the other residents at the motel was a real good old southern Redneck named Stewart. I am not being prejudice when I call him a Redneck – he said so himself (although I think he was pretty liberal). Stewart was around his mid 30’s, held a good job and was nice and funny as could be. Later his friend Sharon came by and she was also a lot of fun.

We have a lot of very nice people on this trip.