Birmingham
We ran into more construction issues on the way to Birmingham, Alabama. The infamous "malfunction junction" where we had spent many hours in traffic was under reconstruction which meant detouring onto side streets. But we made our way past Red Mountain where we used to live and the Vulcan statue and found our way to Cowfish for dinner.
Cowfish is one of our favorite restaurants when we visit Universal Studios in Orlando, so we had to make it to the Birmingham location. We met one of Janie's former colleagues and her daughter for dinner. The area where Cowfish was located was a massive shopping plaza that didn't exist when we lived in Birmingham.
After an enjoyable dinner, we headed off towards our hotel. We made a quick stop at Riverchase Galleria, our old favorite shopping mall and also made a quick drive by Chase Corporate Center, where J. R. used to work, before heading to our hotel in Bessemer. Once again there was a closed interchange and we had to loop around another exit to get to the hotel.
Roll Tide
We woke early and had breakfast at the hotel before making the short drive to Tuscaloosa. Janie dislikes the University of Alabama from her time working in Dothan, AL so she wasn't happy to see Becca considering the school. She was less pleased when we got there and she saw how pretty the campus was and how much Becca seemed to like it.
There was a quick information session and then we climbed aboard a bus where a tour leader took us on a tour of one of the residence halls and some classroom buildings. She was also really good and every time she made a point about something good about Alabama, she said "so Roll Tide to that", which annoyed Janie and gave the rest of us something to say the rest of the trip. We sat near a Georgia Tech College of Computing professor who was showing his daughter around Bama.
Dreamland and Driving to the Shore
More construction in downtown Tuscaloosa sent us on several circuitious routes on our way to the famed Dreamland BBQ. We found ourselves disappointed in Dreamland after years of hearing people rave about it. It was just okay and our BBQ in Indiana was better.
After lunch it was time to make a long drive on Alabama back roads to Gulf Shores.