It's Saturday, and I am sitting in an AirBnB in Southern Oregon, just a couple hundred miles from home. We have our kids with us, and a couple dear friends. Tomorrow morning we will repack the car for the last time and head home to our own house, our own bed, and the relatively cool temperatures of the Oregon Coast. When we get home we will have been gone just a few days short of 8 weeks - longer than the original estimate of 6 weeks - and driven in excess of 8,000 miles. We have had many adventures, and there will eventually be more reports on the trip - after I've had some time to assimilate the last few weeks and sleep in my own bed!
It's good to be back in Oregon!
I promised you a Vulcan post, so today I will try to share our visit to Vulcan Park with you. On Tuesday the 18th we rolled into Birmingham, Alabama and stopped for the night. Although we were only a few hours from our ultimate destination in South Alabama we had planned this stop so I could finally get a look at the famous statue of Vulcan. Additionally, stopping early in the evening meant we wouldn't arrive at the family home late at night and exhausted.
Vulcan has been on my "bucket list" for a long time. You see, several years ago I read the Southern Sisters mystery series by the late, great Anne George. Her main characters live in Birmingham, and there is a lot of discussion of the statue.
So Birmingham was our goal when we left Arkansas and crossed the Mississippi River.
The obligatory "Welcome To Alabama" sign. We saw a lot of these kind of signs on this trip!
On Wednesday morning we checked out of our hotel, grabbed some breakfast, and set the navigation for Vulcan Park.
The entry walkway, with a sign on the right that reads "Picnic Tables" at the top of a short stairway that leads to a terrace with public picnic tables. Beautiful and shaded, the picnic area looks like a good place to spend your lunch hour.
The first thing that struck me about the park was just how beautiful it was. The trees were green and shady, the lawns well-tended, and the shrubs were carefully-trimmed. I just kept staring at all the gorgeous pieces that made up this amazing park.
As you pass along the walkway you get your first view of Vulcan, his pedestal, and the tower that houses the elevator that provides access to the observation platform.
Entering from the parking lot you find a wide walkway that curves past the rise at the top of the hill. As you follow the path you are greeted with a view of Vulcan standing atop a stone pedestal, next to a tower that houses the elevator which provides access to the observation platform that surrounds the pedestal.
At the end of the walkway you find this view of the city of Birmingham from the foot of Vulcan's pedestal. There appear to be several small terraces scattered along the hillside below the main plaza.
Follow the path on around the hilltop and you come to a large plaza at the foot of the statue with a view across the city to your right, the Visitor's Center directly ahead, and Vulcan to your left. It's hard to know where to look first!
The Visitor's Center is a lovely structure with spectacular views of the city. This shot was taken from the lobby of the building.
We didn't have a lot of time this visit, so we didn't take the time for the museum or the elevator, but we did make a visit to the gift shop (of course!) and promised ourselves that on our next visit we would do both.
There are several signs explaining various parts of the exhibits in the park. I thought this was one of the most interesting, showing Vulcan's head in 1937, waiting to be installed in his new home atop Red Mountain.
Brief history lesson: The statue was built in 1094 as Birmingham's entry to the 1904 World's Fair (The Louisiana Purchase Exhibition) in St. Louis. Cast in 29 separate pieces and connected internally with flanges, the statue weighs about 100,000 pounds, with his hammer, anvil, block, and spearpoint adding another 20,000 pounds His head alone, the heaviest single piece, weighs 11,000 pounds. After the Fair the statue came back to his "temporary" home at the Alabama State Fairgrounds where he stayed for the next 30 years.
Eventually he moved to his new home in Vulcan Park in 1936, thanks to the WPA. The statue, his pedestal, the tower, and the park have undergone repairs and maintenance over the years; the latest was in 2004 for his 100th birthday, when the park and the pedestal were restored to their original 1938 appearance.
I could go on about the statue and the park, but these pictures really speak for themselves. Enjoy the photos, and I will see you next week, from the safety and comfort of my very own office!
The plaza between the statue and the Visitor's Center includes this map of the local area which is made from local stone. Note the stone pillars at the front of the Visitor's Center, they will show up again later.
Looking up from the plaza to the top of the pedestal where Vulcan stands silhouetted against the sky.
Remember those pillars? This is taken from between a set of the pillars, framing the view of Vulcan and his pedestal from the front of the Visitor's Center.
This is the famous set of iron buns that moon the Homewood neighborhood. Over the years this bare backside has ignited controversy, but the citizens of Birmingham have chosen to leave Vulcan in all his unclothed glory.