Huntsville

We traveled from Memphis heading east to Huntsville, AL. Huntsville is near and dear to our hearts as Katrina and I met there 35 years ago while we both were working for a company called Intergraph. So, we took a little walk down memory lane after parking the coach at the Space and Rocket Center RV park.

First up: lunch at the Greenbrier. We went to find the “new” location but learnt that it had burned down about twenty years ago. Therefore we headed to the original one:

A bit of a dump, but a great place for BBQ with Alabama White Sauce! Fantastic hush puppies!

Second stop: We went to Intergraph to find the building that we had met at. Unbeknownst to us, Intergraph had been purchased by Hexagon back in 2010 and some of the buildings had been demolished to make way for the “new” Interstate spur, I-565. We were able to find this sign for a picture:

Third stop: We headed over to The Haystack, which was the apartment complex that we both lived in. Well, Haystack has been renamed and the place a bit run down, but we did find each of ours buildings

and we got this picture of Katrina in front of her old door:

Last stop: We went to the Sports Complex where Katrina used to be an aerobics instructor. No longer a sports place, it is now a Hindu Temple.

I guess that when you are away from a place for 34 years it really does change!

We got a chance to walk through the Space and Rocket Center. What an excellent adventure! After WWII, the scientists that the United States acquired from Germany were brought to Huntsville, AL to continue their work with rockets, but this time for the good guys! The major scientist (who worked on the V series for the Nazis), Werner Von Braun, was credited with the US space program and the US winning the Space Race against the USSR. Here are some of the achievements in pictures:

The good news is that we still have friends that live in Huntsville! Tamara was Katrina’s roommate and she married Bill Burkard after we had moved away. We have kept in contact with them for all these years! We went to see their house on the opposite side of Monte Santo (a mountain east of town). Very nice place where they raised their two girls. From there we headed over for dinner at Rosie’s where we met their daughter, Lexi and her new husband, Zack.

What a nice evening! So much fun catching up in person!

We headed back to the Busse Bus because we were planning on driving all the way to the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort the next day. That would be the longest drive that we ever attempted together.