Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. Luke 3:5a
On July 3, we traded this beautiful mountainous scenery
for this part of the country also created by God.
- - - the flat lands of Alabama. Yes, it was taken through the windshield while the car was in motion. Our first stop was at the place we married in Phenix City almost 34 years ago.
My husband's parents built this patio around the tree and obviously did an excellent job because it still looks as good as it did that day in September. (The yellow house does not belong to the yard of the patio & tree.) There were people at home when we pulled in the driveway. When they came out, we asked if we could take a picture and explained the reason. The guy looked at us like we were crazy, said, "Sure," and went back inside the house. The wife said, "Aawww. That's so sweet."
Two hours more down the road and we arrived at "The Peanut Capital of the World" which is what Dothan calls itself since (according to Wikipedia) "approximately one-fourth of the U.S. peanut crop is produced nearby, with much of it being processed in the city."
Have you all noticed how much my husband loves statues? Some people are tree-huggers. Not him. Give him a statue any day.
In 2002, a local downtown group sponsored "Peanuts Around Town". There are around 50 of these fiberglass peanuts decorated to either complement a business or to honor a person.
This is "Captain Cash" who was sponsored by a bank. The next statue was to honor a local man who sold peanuts to tourists and locals. He was very well-liked. If you get a minute, read this great article about him.
hmmmm -- - Bill forgot to hug this guy. This inscription is what Mr Trawick said to his customers.
Dothan has a lot to offer. The peanut people alone might be reason enough to visit here. You could see them all if you stopped at the Welcome Center and got a map - - but it is not the main reason we stopped. We went to visit Bill's brother again - - - and had a VERY NICE time with our family! We even got "adopted" for half a day on July 4th by our sister-in-law's siblings. They were celebrating July 4th with a delicious cookout that included everything you could hope for in this type meal - - - from the hamburgers and hot dogs all the way to homemade ice cream. The house and table were decorated with red, white, and blue. The mood was festive and fun all day. We really enjoyed meeting some new friends and being included in their extended family's fellowship.
The next update will have one more change of scenery. If you look at Dothan on the map, I bet you can guess approximately where we went on Monday.
4 comments:
Hi Lynda, Sounds like you had a great 4th of July vacation. That is a sweet story about "The Peanut Man." Any time I see boiled peanuts at a roadside stand, I remember my friend from Michigan who thought you were supposed to eat the boiled shell too!!! Hope you have a restful weekend.
Looks like a fun visit. Those are great peanut statues - so creative. Your hubby looks good hugging that big ole peanut. BTW - If you think Alabama is flat, come to Illinois - miles and miles without any elevation. LOL- Speed bumps are mountains to us.
I know where you went! :) The peanut statues look cute.
Chicago has cow statues - Dothan has peanuts! That one statue looks like the actor Wilford Brimley (I think that's his name.) Now he's hawking diabetes stuff on commercials.
That is sweet about the patio. :)
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