Sweet Home Alabama

Hey folks. So week 3 of travel has led me to Alabama. I came here open minded but it was not so lovely. I would like to share my Sunday evening adventures with you, which in all seriousness, was one of the scariest nights of my life.

First of all, its an intern and myself making this journey. Our flight was delayed 2.5 hours and we didn't arrive in Birmingham until around 11 and we still have a 45 min drive ahead of us. We are not amused. On our way to our hotel, we merge onto a highway that immediately splits and we go the wrong way. So we take the first exit and decide to backtrack on the roads and get back on the right highway. The problem is we can't find a road that we're willing to turn on cause they all look shady. We go a few miles and decide to put our manly pride aside and ask directions. We pull into an Exxon gas station that looks ok. There's some people standing outside of it but we think nothing of it. I stop the car at a gas pump and the intern runs inside to ask directions. As soon as he reaches the door, a white guy and a black guy start yelling at each other. The intern notices the white guy is drunk and is holding a beer in one hand and a pistol in the other. I'm in the car and this is all happening behind me. I can't make out what is going on but I see the black guy pull something out of his trunk. It looks like a bat and I'm getting nervous. I was wrong, it was actually a rifle. The two men proceed to yell at each other and point their guns at each other. The intern is in the gas station with other customers and the employees ducking down on the floor. I still have the car in drive and contemplate driving off and leaving him there but, either courageously or out of sheer stupidity, I stay right where I am. The yelling and gun pointing continues for several minutes until a car of 4 black guys pulls up and they start yelling at the guy with the rifle. I am now right between their car and the rifle guy and think how I would rather not be in the crossfire. I remember them yelling "get down" and I take their advice and adjust the power seat settings on my Ford Taurus. Suddenly, the intern runs up and jumps in the car yelling "drive!" I floor it and expect some gun fire but thankfully there is none. We finally find the right highway and continue our journey.

If that wasn't enough excitement, we are now traveling on a pitch black road that has a dead animal at nearly every mile marker and was probably the inspiration for movies like Wrong Turn. We make it to our hotel around 1:30 and have a good nights sleep. The end.

The rest of the trip wasn't as bad but by no means good. The hotel was nice but that's it. It was hot as hell and our meals sucked.

Thank you Alabama for living up to my expectations and I hope to never return to this place. The lesson learned here is never stop for directions.