On the road again

Tomorrow morning, I'm off on my second press-related trip, the first since 2005's glorious Nevis vacation. Where, you might ask?

Fort Payne.

I've lived in this state my entire life, and I've yet to make it to Fort Payne. It's in the northeastern corner of the state, a bit south of Lookout Mountain, and roughly an hour and a half away. I've been past it - we dropped Jen in Mentone for summer camp, and I've been to Chattanooga a few times - but I've not had an occasion to visit the former Sock Capital of the World.

This all changes tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, there will be sock factories. And the Alabama (the group, not the state) museum. And possibly the old depot museum. Maybe even DeSoto State Park, if I'm lucky and can convince someone to take me. I'm relying on the kindness of strangers for directions, as my map, at this point, is an overlaid string of cropped screenshots from Google Maps, which is only going to get me so far.

Tomorrow is the cap to a mixed week. Monday was fairly uneventful, Tuesday night held Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (the musical, and the Birmingham News' critic was dead wrong when he panned it, Wednesday was University of Edinburgh graduation - in absentia, that is - last night was spent with the first half of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and today was divided between giving a last-minute phone interview on Birmingham politics and doing some last-minute planning for my spur-of-the-moment road trip. (I also finished The Road, which is quite good. I can see why it won the Pulitzer and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.) This weekend promises to be fairly calm, which will be lovely, as next weekend begins the BCC concert series.

Series? Oh, yes.
Dec 8: Practice
Dec 9: "Christmas at the Alys Stephens Center", church choir practice
Dec 10: Practice
Dec 11: Practice
Dec 13: Practice
Dec 14: Practice
Dec 15: Messiah
Dec 17: Church Christmas program, both services

I love the singing, but sometimes I dread December. Everyone tries to cram something into the same three weeks.