Monday, March 08, 2010

Vacation, Day 7, 10/27/2009, Part 3

Boosted colors at Picnik.

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Somewhere along I-20 we stopped for fuel. I took this photo mainly because I couldn't figure out what the heck it was. Does anyone know? I'm guessing some sort of air conditioning that goes to the truck's cab through those giant yellow tubes.

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I should have stepped out of the truck and asked these two men, right?

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A surprising sight. It's on I 459, a bypass at Birmingham. I found this on the Internet: " ... in Liberty Park ... the Birmingham Area Boy Scout headquarters as its neighbor, the statue shines, literally. Its torch, powered by Alabama gas, has only gone out twice in its history." I couldn't tell if the flame was lit, but after reading this, I'm assuming it was.

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Caught the windshield wiper as we drove by TNT Fireworks Supercenter. Southerners do enjoy their fireworks!

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I like this view of I-20, about 25-30 miles or so from Talladega Superspeedway.

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Whoopee! Almost there!

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Off the interstate, headed for the campground, I noticed this ice dispensing station. Look at that man, loading his cooler at a chute, sort of like going to that ice/snack room so essential to a hotel stay. Ice proves to be even more essential when you're at a campground with gigantic coolers full of food to be cooked, grilled, and/or fried. It won't all fit in those small refrigerators in campers.

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Another campground essential, free beads! Oops, I meant to say firewood.

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And finally, the most essential element to a campground, portable toilets! I do not jest. If you happen to be tent camping or some such, without your own toilet, then you will go into one of these--I guarantee it.

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Milton's been in the office at our campground, checking on this and that, I'm sure. Now he's talking with some of the guys, about this and that, I'm sure. Oh, by the way, another campground essential is barely visible on the right side of the photo--the golf cart. Each camping rig, be it a truck and trailer like us or a motor home, is led to the camping site by one of these men on a golf cart or a four-wheeler. One more by the way, take note of the orange tractor in the background. Depending upon the weather, it can become a campground essential, too.

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From the truck window, Milton looks at the ground--it rained on us off and on all the way east, and it's easy to tell that it's been raining in Talladega, too. Milton and Kay always have two camping sites reserved, one that they will use, one that friends end up paying for and using. The one that friends use is higher on the slight slope in that section of the campground, and no friends were due this race, plus it might rain some more during the night, so we parked on that one. More on that in the next vacation post.

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