So New Orleans never happened. After driving south for an hour or so from Nashville, we rerouted to Georgia (through Alabama). So it goes.

First stop was Birmingham, Alabama. Our initial impression was that everything was really nice, but all buildings were boarded up. It was like a scene out of a zombie movie or something. The town must have received a ton of money at some point for construction, but nothing was ever maintained. There was extreme poverty everywhere, and the main pastime seemed to be loitering on street corners. We didn’t really know where to go, so we cruised the streets for almost an hour before being directed to the upscale “Five Points” neighbourhood, which includes the University of Alabama and the University Hospital. The high point of cruising the ghettos was definitely seeing an ad for former G-Unit member Young Buck at a ramshackle strip club across the street from a junkyard. For some reason, all the touristy “culture” in Birmingham (the Art and Civil Rights museums) is closed on Mondays, but we still had a good time eating at a local grillhouse and touring the city. It really is a city of many insanely well-heeled churches surrounded by destitution. It’s pretty obvious where the money flows in the South.

We finished Monday by driving to the outskirts of Atlanta and going shopping at Walmart. I’ve never been in the American version of this behemoth before (just the Guelph version), and it is quite a sight to behold. The store is full of anything and everything, and it is all so ridiculously cheap. They even have electric courtesy carts for fat people, naturally Adam rode one the whole time we were shopping there.
Georgia Aquarium first thing tomorrow morning.