Friday (Day 3): Interstate 65 to Mobile, via the Old Courthouse, Monroeville

Having spent the night at the KOA (Kampgrounds of America|) site at Clanton, on I 65, north of Montgomery, we began the day by driving south on I 65, back down through Montgomery - which has a very fine park and art gallery, apparently, and was also the home of Scott (Great Gatsby) and Zelda Fitzgerald.  We'd intended to stop in Montgomery yesterday and explore a little, but getting lost in Columbus put paid to that!


The previous evening, in Clanton,  we had been warned of the possibility of 'severe weather' during the night, in the form of high winds (we'd experienced a fair bit of buffeting on the way there).  Fortunately this didn't happen and I slept better than I had since arriving in the USA.  We did have a downpour of very heavy rain at around 8.00 a.m.

We set off from Clanton at around 9.30 a.m., when the rain had stopped, heading for Mobile - about 220 miles south, down Interstate 65. We found the Bama Country radio station on 98.9 FM - country music with regular updates on the weather.  Severe thunderstorm warnings had been issued for parts of southern Alabama that morning (downgraded from a tornado warning).  Fortunately we missed the worst of the storm and just had some heavy rain and glowering skies.


We took a planned detour en route, to Monroeville.  Monroeville was the hometown of both Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird) and Truman Capote.  We arrived there in the early afternoon.  It is a small, friendly town but very quiet on a Friday afternoon - it seemed to be early closing.  


In Monroeville, we visited the Old Courthouse Museum, which has information on both authors.  The Courthouse was the setting for the courthouse scenes in the movie of the film.  Harper Lee spent much of her childhood there, watching her father  - a lawyer - present cases in the courtroom.