Beautiful fall color last week while on a work trip to Cheaha State Park. This road leads to the Nubbin Creek Trailhead. If you visit the link, you’ll also visit a new website built for a five county region in East Alabama.
tourism
New Website for Southwest Alabama
My brother-in-law, Billy Milstead, retired several years ago. Since then, he’s developed a real passion for all things Southwest Alabama. He’s got a real interest in documenting all the historic places in the area–of which there are many, many, many. He worked on the Alabama’s Front Porches project for a year, traveling the roads and taking photos as a AmeriCorps Vista volunteer. After he finished that project, he wanted to do more. I’ve now built him a website (Rural Southwest Alabama) to hold all these photos, maps and descriptions in a way that lets people from the outside world explore what the rural Black Belt has to offer.
East Alabama: Eight County Region
This website is still very much a work in progress, but it is moving along, so thought I’d share it here first. It started out for five counties in East Alabama, but has expanded to eight. The project is to inventory, highlight and promote the resources in the region that make it special. Here’s a snapshot:
Perry County Chamber Website
Wrapped up a website for the Perry County Chamber of Commerce several months ago and just tweaked it a little more to add some additional movement to the front page. They have a huge selection of audio files of Perry County natives telling stories about many of the historic structures found in Perry County. I’ve included the audio files along with maps and gps coordinates to each site. Makes me want to head to Perry County! (For those who don’t know, Perry County is in Southwest Alabama just a bit over an hour from Birmingham. The largest city–and home to some excellent antique shopping–is Marion, Alabama.)
East Alabama Project
Great trip to East Alabama a couple of weeks ago. Part of a project I’m working on with the University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development. We’re developing a tourism plan for a five county region in East Alabama. This was taken near Sylacauga at the Kymulga Mill and covered bridge. Wish I could have made it back for the Grits Festival! Only in the South!
Recent Trip to Fairhope, Alabama
I have been working on a statewide birding project for the past couple of months and we happened to schedule a meeting at the Five Rivers Resource Center on February 18. Lucky for us, it turned out to be the nicest weekend in months! Ann and I went down Thursday and stayed until Sunday. The meeting was a success, and we had a great time! Stayed at the Grand Hotel outside Fairhope and enjoyed several meals in Fairhope, along with a meal along the Causeway.
Here’s an early morning shot from the pier at the Grand Hotel. The fog was beautiful!
