On the way home from Gulf Shores, we stopped and spent the weekend at my sister-in-law’s home near Huntsville. Her family moved there over 25 years ago and have settled in to stay. The Huntsville area of Alabama is the fastest growing part of the state and is often considered the Silicon Valley of the south.
During WWII, the Army established the Redstone Arsenal. After the war, a lot of military operations and research continued and that has attracted numerous technology companies to locate in the area. NASA’s Space Flight Center, the US Army Aviation and Missile Command Center, and recently the FBI’s operational support headquarters have all moved to the Arsenal. That means there are lots of transplants from all over the US living there. The food and beverage scene is dynamic and everywhere you look, there is new home construction.
Below are a few photos from a 2017 trip when we toured the Huntsville Space and Rocket center which is not on the base and opened to the public.
This visit, my sister-in-law, knowing how much I love historic sites, carved out a little time to visit nearby Mooresville. It is one of the oldest towns in Alabama, dating back to 1818 before Alabama was even a state. It was named for early settlers, Robert and William Moore. Andrew Johnson, who later became the 17th president after Lincoln’s assassination, lived in Mooresville as an apprentice tailor when he was a young man. The Union Army occupied Mooresville several times during the Civil War and future president Garfield, who was then a Union general camped in the area and delivered a sermon at the Mooresville Church of Christ. The town is very picturesque and was used in the filming of the 1995 movie, “Tom and Huck.”
The town is also home to the oldest continuously operating Post Office.
Thanks for the informative article and the wonderful pictures. I travel vicariously, although I once took a bus through the gulf coast going from Texas to Florida in 1978. I can say I've been there but I believe I was asleep on the bus. :)
In my latest newsletter I write about my life experience and the way writing poetry has helped me to cope with my illness. Here is part of my new poem:
I embrace the challenges that come my way,
I find courage to overcome them each day,
I perceive the strength that I will be okay,
I seek out God's will to trust and obey.
Allow me to live a meaningful life,
Guide me through my trials and strife,
Give me faith so that my doubts decrease,
Fill my life with love and peace.