My daughter and I made a little road trip this weekend. She had to take her FE (engineering exam). She had a calculator malfunction at her school and had to reschedule. We had a choice of Memphis, Nashville, or Decatur, AL. We chose Decatur.

I've been to Huntsville many times, but never Decatur. Wiki says it's population is about 55,000. We drove in Friday night so she could study a little and be ready for the start of the test at 7:30 Saturday morning. I dropped my daughter off at 7:15 for her five hour and 20 minute exam. That's when my adventure began. I explored the town inside and out. I found the ULA manufacturing plant right off the bat in its 1.6 million cubic ft. glory with the huge image of an Atlas V on the front wall of the building.

The town is really nice. I live in a small town of less than 5,000 and I'm ~35 miles from a town of 65,000 (Jackson, TN). Decatur was roomy and spacious like my small town but had everything (and more) than Jackson. Industry, technology, TN River access, history, and easy/quick access to Huntsville and its space center were just a few things I saw. Traffic was a breeze, even on a Saturday evening where you couldn't fit a gnat's whisker between cars in Jackson. I listened in on the Decatur police and fire frequencies while there. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of criminal activity for a weekend. If I ever had to move to a "big" city, I think Decatur would be on my extremely short list.

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At the risk of mentioning some things you may already know... Decatur is also the home of famous Big Bob Gibsons BBQ where the Alabama White Sauce reputedly originated... just a bit west of Decatur is the Quad Cities of Florence (my hometown), Sheffield, Tuscumbia & Muscle Shoals... lots of history there if you have time to make the trek... Muscle Shoals is the "Hit Recording Capital of the World" - tons of hit songs have come from the studios there & you can tour FAME & Muscle Shoals Sound studios (if you're a music fan I highly recommend!). Tuscumbia is the home of Helen Keller and the home Ivy Green is a tourist spot (not sure what they are doing right now during covid) and even Florence had become a small, sorta hip place to be finally, with a real cute downtown area and some nice restaurants.

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Andy Jackson
Aerospace Speciality Products
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My wife is from Lawrenceburg, TN and has family in Florence. We've been there several times but never spent time there to explore. I have driven by the old recording studio south of the river, though.

We came south to Iuka and hit 72 so we skirted south of Muscle Shoals and Tuscombia on the way to Decatur.

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Calling that MESS WHITE SAUCE Barbecue is FLAT OUT BLASPHEMY.
"Big Bob Gibson" must have bumped his HEAD HARD to come up with that nonsense.

Just SLIGHTLY less IDIOTIC than supposed "white chicken chili"
Chili must he RED TOMATO BASED and MUST HAVE RED MEAT.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

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I'm lucky to have been around when this wasn't a commercially mass produced BBQ sauce. It's good now, but it was great when I was a kid. The restaraunt in the article isn't there anymore, but was only about 1/4 mile from where I live.

The BBQ pit "behind the tavern" was actually on the right side near the back. When we killed hogs we always took a few shoulders to them. It was the best BBQ I've ever tasted. Like an addict, I've chased that high/flavor ever since, but have never equaled it. Maybe it was because I fed those hogs, maybe it was what I fed them, maybe it was because we pulled the meat ourselves. It didn't even need sauce to be awesome.

http://www.humphreybbqsauce.com/about.htm




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Decatur, GA.
I spent a day there looking for the diner that REM ate at.
I did not find it.
It is also home of the Indigo Boys.
I did get to meet them.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Decatur Alabama. Just down the road and across the river from Huntsville, AL.

I've been to Marietta/Atlanta/Decatur. Didn't care for it.

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My home town is Brewton, Al. It's ~ 60 miles from Pensacola Florida; home of the Naval
Air Museum and the Blue Angels. The beach is great also.

Tb, I'll have to check Decatur out some day.

Bob
p.s. Sky's Pizza in Pensacola is very good.

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One thing I'm curious of is the lack of traffic. We were there Friday evening and it wasn't bad at all. I expected the roads to be empty early Saturday, but it still was very easy to get around after lunch. I don't know what it looked like before "the rona".

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When the virus broke out, I started singing "My, My, My Carona" By The Knack

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If it flies, I can crash it!