Birthday Boy

We had a pretty good trip up to Joe Wheeler State Park. We went up for my birthday. The park is quite this time of year. I counted seven cars in the parking lot for the lodge. We got a room on the end near the hiking trails. Last night we kicked back and Jilda read while I practiced on the guitar.
The room had a jacuzzi tub and so I filled it up with extremely hot water and let the jets work the kinks out of my back....very relaxing.
This morning I brewed the coffee just after daybreak and sat on the front deck facing the water with my new mini disk recorder. The morning was overcast and dark and a light mist filled the air. I managed to captured the sounds of Canadian Geese that winter on the Tennessee River, and a type of white bird that looked like Egrets. A few of the geese went for an early morning swim, but the Egrets circled around in search of bream and minnows for breakfast.
I started out to the car to get my hat because I was having a bad-hair day and caught two small deer trying to pick the door locks of the Volvo. I could imagine that conversation "It's my time to drive," one would complain "get back fawnface," the other one would snarl, "I've never driven a Volvo before!!!!"
After breakfast, we headed out on one of the short hiking trails. We opted for the short one because it had begun to rain. I grabbed a plastic bag for the camera and we set off on about a two mile hike. Jilda looked as if she'd gone swimming when we returned.
On the way back to Empire, the rain picked up as we took the long way home. We were looking for things of interest in that part of the country. We found signs pointing to several places we wanted to see, but the weather was nasty and we decided to come back when the sun was warm. We filed these places on our list future adventures.
Here's what we put on our list:
The birthplace of W.C. Handy the "father of the Blues" was born in Florence. The arts council there has an annual Blues and BBQ festival in his honor.
Helen Keller, the remarkable woman who overcame being both blind and deaf and went on to do extraordinary things in her lifetime.
In Muscle Shoals we want to visit Fame Studios, the recording studio that made famous the Muscle Shoals Sound. The list of artists who recorded a Fame is legendary. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones wrote "Wild Horses" while lying on the floor in the studio.
Finally, we want to visit the home place of Jesse Owens of Oakville, Alabama. Jesse, a black man, won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin Germany and shocked Adolf Hitler and his cronies who believed so dearly in white supremacy. I can guarentee that old Jesse spoiled Adolf's weekend.
I've decided to make these and other attractions the subject of future blog entries. Stay tuned.
All and all it was a good birthday today. I'm 56 today....I know, when you look at my profile photo it looks like my head has worn out two bodies but I feel great! I'm excited about life and the promise it holds in store.This old tree is the only thing I came across today that was older than me.