Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. The middle part of the trip was hard to write as I had serious flashbacks that affected me deeply.
I flew down to Birmingham via Charlotte. I had some trouble on this flight because American Airlines scheduled a 30 minute layover in Charlotte. I don't mind the short layover, but it was quite a walk from Gate B to Gate E. When I got to the gate, Group 5 of 9 was already boarding!! That was quite a close shave!!
After getting some rental car called a Mustang, I drove from Birmingham to Huntsville to go to the US Space & Rocket Center. (There is a reason I mentioned the convertible & it will come up later.) All throughout the drive up, I kept hearing car noises whenever a car passed me on the right or I passed a car that was on my right side. I kept looking at the windows & checking to see that they were closed, but nothing unusual there as I saw that the driver & passenger side front windows were closed.
It was interesting when I got to the US Space & Rocket Center. I didn't know that they had made a working replica of the Lunar Roving Vehicle to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2019. Also there was the Huey, Little John, Honest John, & a memorial to the first US animal to fly in space. The US Space & Rocket Center also has a restaurant in the middle of the grounds, perfect for eating lunch. For the selfie enthusiasts, the staff marked out selfie spots.
After the visit ended, I started the drive back to Birmingham so I could check into my hotel & eat dinner. After checking into the hotel, I decided to drive to the dinner place with the top down & see if I would enjoy driving without a roof over my head. The entire 15 minutes, I was scared that my sunglasses would fly off or some loose paper would fly off! Not only did I not enjoy it, I discovered when I got to the food place why I had been hearing car noises - the mustang doesn't close properly when putting the roof back! The Passenger Side Rear Seat Window doesn't close all the way! I told Enterprise about this, & they were very helpful - they switched cars for me, & I ended up driving an SUV for the rest of the trip.
A word of note: I was not actually affected by the Cloudstrike Shutdown that affected the airline industry. I flew into Birmingham on Thursday, & Cloudstrike happened on Friday. I am so glad that my laptop was not with me on the trip, as that might have been another headache to deal with.
After getting breakfast at a diner along the way to Montgomery, I arrived in Montgomery to visit as many historical places that I could for the afternoon.
I actually had a flashback during my time, I think at the end of my visit, at the Memorial to a Mock Trial I participated in during 8th grade. For this mock trial, I was an accessory defendant, & there were clear instructions that I could only be found guilty if the main defendant was guilty. (Sorry, I don't remember the rest of the details of the mock trial.) I remember seeing three people in the jury vote me guilty despite voting the main defendant not guilty. I remember at the time being angry that someone would vote me guilty when they voted the main defendant not guilty, & those three guys laughed when the teacher wasn't looking. (I believe the jury voted x-1 to 1 the main defendant was not guilty. I don't remember how large the jury was, but it wasn't only 12 people.) I am 99% sure those three would not have cast a guilty vote on me if I was white. At the Memorial, at the end of this flashback, the flashback mutated into one of the many scenarios I read. I realized that had I been in the wrong time & the crowd was thirsty enough, I could have been horrifically killed for simply not being white, trial or no trial.
I definitely needed some time to recover mentally after that flashback & the flashback mutation.
When I finally went over to the Rosa Parks Museum, I was happy to learn about details during the boycott I don't think I ever knew. There were people who left the bus before her arrest, which I didn't know about previously. I wonder what their thoughts were when they found out the next day or some time later that Rosa Parks had been arrested. It was interesting to see how everyone boycotting the bus services got around the bus system, how they organized things, & the detail about the rides & how the supplemental cars avoided becoming taxis, which would have been illegal.
The Legacy Museum expanded on the racial injustices, providing info & facts as early as the colonial times & as recent as the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional accounts from all levels are given, including but not limited to the incarcerated, the loose opinions of those actively supporting the injustices, & various court timelines showing how various parts of the racial legal fights were concluded. When I got to the part about racial injustices in the 2010s, I actually had a flashback to an incident where I was frisked because someone thought I had a gun in a federal park where guns were not allowed. I am not giving year or location to where this happened to me as it's taken me a long time to even talk about it, & I don't know if I will ever disclose this information to the blog, but know that it happened to me.
After trying to go to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park 1-4 minutes too late, I rested for another 15 minutes to catch all my thoughts & clear my mind so I can resume my trip.
I did a quick search for CrossFit Places in the area, & I decided on the spot to go to 2 Legit 2 Quit Fitness.
The coaching was good, the instruction was good, & this was a hard workout. I think I managed the workout pretty well. I did as many strict pullups as I could, then used the band to do as many of the remaining pullups I could. Once I hit the first minute, I switched to ring rows just so I could move on to the second movement (dumbbell bench presses) & then hit the calories. My result was 7-7-5-6-5, 30 calories total, so that wasn't too bad a result. I was impressed that I saw someone crack triple digits on this workout.
Eating local food isn't always a good thing. I insisted on eating Mexican food & went to some place that had karaoke night. You could hear the bad singing in the parking lot as the voice was escaping the building. The singing took up all the hearing space in the room that the waitress mistook my request for Jarritos for a shot of something. Oh & the burrito I had was terrible - even Chipotle & Qdoba have better burritos. (My dislike for Chipotle & Qdoba is known by my friends, so for me to rate these places above this place (which shall remain unnamed) tells you all you need to know.
I woke up the next day & drove over to the tournament. I dressed up as Dr. Hint Toad (a mix of Dr. Toad from Dr. Mario World the mobile virus fighting game that ran from 2018-2021? & Hint Toad from Captain Toad Treasure Tracker), but wearing my St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Tie in support of my annual fundraiser. By the way, if you would like to donate to my fundraiser, please use the link for my annual hope fundraiser.
I played better here in Alabama than I did in Massachusetts, but I finished with an even record (1 win, 1 loss, 2 draws). I may showcase the win on my instagram profile, but there's not really much to talk about as my opponent simply hung a piece for nothing. I found out I did have an advantage or a chance of advantage for at least 3 of the 4 games, so I might still remember how to play well.
I will show instead my draw from my fourth round.
Tournament was run pretty well, no issues other than my opponent's phone going off in the 3rd round. Luckily, that was after he blundered, so nothing was going to save his game.
This officially ends the trip for State No. 39 - Alabama, but if you wish to read about the details of my return home, go on.
Now, after the tournament, I began my drive to Atlanta (GA). The reason I chose to fly out of Atlanta was my original flight had me coming back to the Garden State at the 5pm time frame. However, once I found out that Charles Martinet, the voice of Super Mario from 1995 to the early 2020s, was at Collect-A-Con New Jersey, I figured I may never have a chance to meet him so close again. I changed my return flight before I left on the trip to Alabama so that I could arrive back in NJ before lunchtime & try to get his autograph before the convention closed at 5pm that Sunday.
Gotta tell you, that trip was another close shave, as I had to wake up in my hotel at 2:30am. Due to some difficulties (How big is Hartsfield-Jackson Airport??, & why the heck are the workers not giving clear directions to non-Delta airlines??), they were already boarding Group 5 when I finally got to the gate.
No difficulties the rest of the way - I got to EWR when scheduled & made it to the convention at about 12:30pm. If you want to see a few pictures from the convention, see this instagram post: KEC's Quick Visit to Collect-A-Con NJ
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