Month: August 2005

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Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola Beach FL

Hotel Room at Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola Beach FL
Our room at the Pensacola Beach Hilton Garden Inn
Hotel Room at Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola Beach FL

Pool and Beach at Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola Beach FL
View of the kiddie pool and beach
Pool at Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola Beach FL
View of the main pool

Room: This was our second time to stay at the Pensacola Beach Hilton Garden Inn – our first time was just before Hurricane Ivan. The room was average size, with average furnishings – it wasn’t really either great or not-so-great. Also, the bathroom had a peculiar smell – something like a dentist’s office. When we got in, we couldn’t open the door to the balcony, and a very nice gentleman with maintenance came up within ten minutes to work on it – he said that since the hurricane (Ivan in particular), they had trouble with the salt water corroding the door fixture….so fifteen minutes later, with the help of WD40 and a drill, the door was working. Overall, though, we were happy with the room as it had a balcony with a great view of the beach.

Lobby: The lobby is pretty nice, with plenty of places to sit, and included a flat-screen television.

Service: Besides check-in & check-out, which was fast, our only other experience with service was maintenance which was great.

Food: The breakfast, which was included with our stay (because we’re Hilton Honors Gold) was really good.

Extra: On Hilton.com and some other reservation websites, this hotel’s rooms were running in the $150-$200 range. I noticed a deal they had with the Pensacola board of tourism for rooms at $99, which we reserved (and I guess since we are HHonors Gold, they bumped us up to a room with a balcony at no extra charge).

Our experience is this: We would definitely stay here again.

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Folk Gravestones at Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL

I have family buried at Black Oak Cemetery in Dekalb County, and I was there last week to take pictures and get good dates for my genealogy projects.

Besides the usual markers….marble, granite…were these wonderful hand-made markers. This first one below is for John L.A. Brown – he was born September 19, 1800 and died October 19, 1818 (Alabama wasn’t even a state until 1819). His marker as well as some of the others feature this tree motif. What else this particular one includes is heart shapes, and a hand pointing up.

I have a friend whose relative passed away (just a couple of years ago), and their family members dug the grave themselves, with shovels, not machinery – not because they couldn’t afford to hire someone else to do it, but because they wanted to – as a kind of service in itself. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t do that at a big city cemetery, but this was beside a small country church.

The family members who made these monuments below decorated the gravestones by hand either because they couldn’t afford a professional stone, there was noone nearby to do the job, or because they felt it was their duty. In whatever case, these stones in particular seem so much more *real*.

John L.A. Brown 9.12.1800 - 10.19.1818, Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
John L.A. Brown

To the Memory Of... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
To the Memory of…

Monument, Margaret ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Margaret

Joel T. Thacker Monument ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Joel T. Thacker

Son of Thacker ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Son of Thacker
Monument with Tree Design ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Tree design

Tree Motif ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Another…tree motif

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Laura Kelly Monument, Kosciusko MS

This pic of the Laura Kelly monument is from the Kosciusko City Cemetery in Kosciusko, MS.

Laura Kelly died in 1890, and her husband ordered a statue to be made in her likeness (incl. dressed in her wedding gown) from a sculptor in Italy. The Kelly’s home was under construction when she died, so Mr. Kelly instructed the builder to add a third story to the home so that he would be able to look out the window and see his wife’s monument.

Laura Kelly Monument, Kosciusko MS

Laura Kelly Monument

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Margaret’s Grocery, Just Outside Vicksburg MS

I was going through some of our old photos last week (scanning them in with my new fabulous Canon scanner) when I found these three pics that Av and I took back in 2000 of Margaret’s Grocery.

Last month, Av and I went by William C. Rice’s Cross Garden in Prattville AL (posted here), so to continue the series of roadside folkart religion…..

The store was actually built by Margaret’s husband, the Reverend H.D. Dennis. One of the more prominent signs states that, “All is Welcome Jews and Gentiles Here at Margaret’s Gro and Mkt and Bible Class”. Av and I didn’t stop in that day to meet Rev. Dennis, but we did take these (admittedly not-so-great) pics. Next time we’re in Vicksburg, we’ll take more pics – I also understand that the Rev. has added more pink squares since we last visited, and that they did a good deal of work after Sept. 11.

Margaret's Grocery, 2001, Just Outside Vicksburg MS

Margaret’s Grocery

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Covered Bridges of Blount County

Blount County has the most covered bridges still standing of any other county in Alabama – three. The same family, the Tidwells, built all of the Blount County bridges. I took these pics on black and white film about five years ago.

The Easley Bridge was built in 1927:

Easley Covered Bridge Entry, Blount County AL

Easley Bridge

Leading to Easley Covered Bridge, Blount County AL

Easley Bridge

The Horton Mill Bridge was built in 1935 and is the highest covered bridge built over water in the US. It was also the first Southern covered bridge to be listed with the National Register of Historic Places:

View Inside Horton Mill Covered Bridge, Blount County AL

Inside Horton Mill Bridge

Horton Mill Covered Bridge Span, Blount County AL

Horton Mill Bridge

Horton Mill Covered Bridge Entry, Blount County AL

Horton Mill Bridge

Horton Mill Covered Bridge Entry 2, Blount County AL

Horton Mill Bridge

Swann Bridge was built in 1933 and is the longest covered bridge surviving in Alabama:

Swann Covered Bridge Entrance, Blount County AL

Swann Bridge

Swann Covered Bridge Span, Blount County AL

Swann Bridge

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Days of Putt-Putt

While we were in East Lake last week, we saw the remnants of an old mini-golf place, right in the ‘front yard’ of the Elk’s Lodge there. It is ‘Arnold Palmer Putting Courses’ and is in a serious state of disrepair – but you can just tell that it must have really been quite nice, as far as mini-golf goes, in its day.

Av and I both **love** mini-golf! Nanny used to take me and one of my friends to the Putt-Putt in Gadsden (Rainbow City) all the time – in fact, we were in a ‘weather pic’ on the front page of the Gadsden Times one day putt-putting!

Av used to go play mini-golf a lot growing up too, and he even had one of his birthday parties at a Putt-Putt! Okay, back in the late ’70s….that was cool.

I am even a little jealous. 🙂

The Putt-Putt website lists only two of their courses in Alabama – the one in Rainbow City that I always went to, and another in Anniston on McClellan Blvd. There aren’t any in Mississippi, there are three in Georgia, two in Florida, six in Tennessee, and one each in Louisiana and Arkansas! There used to be tons more than that.

In Cullman, I would sometimes go with friends to the one at Sportsman’s Lake (I think that is officially Sportsman Lake) and every now and then the one at Smith Lake. Of course, along the coast, there are a bunch of non-branded mini-golf places that are really fun too – they usually include some sort of waterfall and at least one dinosaur. It’s best to go late at night when it’s too late for little kids and is a little cooler out in the Summer….

Av is much better than I am, but it’s still a lot of fun. Here are pics from the ‘Arnold Palmer Putting Courses’:

Sign, Arnold Palmer Putting Courses in East Lake (Birmingham-area)

Arnold Palmer Putting Course in East Lake

Arnold Palmer Putting Courses in East Lake (Birmingham-area)

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Leatha’s Bar-B-Que Inn, Hattiesburg, MS

Av and I have heard about Leatha’s forever…and we finally got there! The barbecue was great – fabulous, even (although the sauce is much, much too sweet). But the potato salad was real MawMaw-type potato salad. And the pecan pie…..there are not words for that pecan pie!! I’ll be fiddling-around with my own recipe next time just to try to make it somewhere close to Leatha’s pecan pie.

Absolutely amazing. Can’t wait to go back!

Barbecue Sandwich at Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn, Hattiesburg MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Barbecue sandwich

Potato Salad and Cole Slaw at Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn, Hattiesburg MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
that potato salad was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Pecan Pie at Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn, Hattiesburg MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
No, I couldn’t wait to take the picture. hehehe! This was the best pecan pie I’ve ever had!

Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn, Hattiesburg MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Leatha’s

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