Good music is essential for any road trip. This Alabama winner provides some of the best from Hank Williams whose "Crazy Heart" lives on.
My friend Andy in Edinburgh, Scotland was clueless to the concept of a road trip. Not the idea of getting in a car and driving from point A to point B, but rather the sheer joy of hearing the call of adventure from an endless ribbon of blacktop.
In all fairness, as he sagely acknowledged – when one lives on a small island long distance driving is inconceivable.
Luckily for those of us who live in or visit North America, watery boundaries are far apart, and the fun to be found within the continent endless.
So fill up your tank and load in supplies. Supplies you ask? Yes, plenty of junk food – Twinkies, Twizzlers and considering our destination an RC cola and a MoonPie…cuz boys and girls - we are ‘Bama bound!
Good tunes, the third and often most important component of a successful road trip, is a guarantee here.
Welcome to Alabama’s Hank Williams Trail.
“Hey Good Lookin”, “Jambalaya” and “I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry” are just a few of the classics the iconic Williams wrote and recorded over 50 years ago.
From Birmingham southward, the trail is 180 miles long. In Georgiana his boyhood home is a museum with the GA-ANA Theater nearby. Kowaliga’s Lake Martin features the cabin where “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was written.
Montgomery provides the most Hank for your gas tank with a larger museum displaying Williams’ famous Nudie suits and the powder blue Cadillac in which he died. A bronze statue overlooks the site of his funeral, and his final resting place is in Oakwood Cemetery.
You can even eat like Hank. Stop at the legendary Chris’ Hot Dogs on Dexter Avenue.
When the “Honky Tonk Blues” entice the “Ramblin’ Man” in you - hit the trail.
“You Win Again”.
For more information: www.hankwilliamstrail.com
