Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fort Rucker, AL


Today we drove Barbara around to see of few of the local sights. Anyone who has spent any time at all at Ft Rucker knows the story of the Boll Weevil monument in Enterprise, AL.

After the boll weevil destroyed the area's cotton in the years between 1910 and 1915, locals began diversified farming. In gratitude for the resulting prosperity, the city erected a monument to the boll weevil in 1919. Strange to have a monument to a crop destroying insect, but there it stands. In the early sixties an unscrupulous flight school class stole the weevil from the monument and created quite the political mess between the base and the community (alcohol might have been involved). The folks take their bug seriously! It was returned, but there are carryover insecurities. We noticed that there is a video surveillance camera directed at the monument. 

Sorry for the poor picture. Too much traffic to get closer. Had to get picture while walking on the 'green' to not get cars in picture. Click on the picture to enlarge. Bug is the dark object held aloft by the statue.
















We drove through parts of the attractively wooded military installation and gave Barbara a look at a few of the heliports that are home to the hundreds of helicopters used for training here. We then headed back to our quiet campsite and strolled through the woods so Barbara could collect pinecones for Christmas decorations.

It was a nice relaxing day with occasional light rain showers. Real peaceful! Tomorrow we are on the road home to what I imagine will be a real full, if not overflowing, pool. This weekend they received a lot of rain at home.

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