What is up in 2026

After last year’s road trip, we decided that we would hit the road again this year by traveling the historic Route 66 highway, the “Mother Road.”  This year marks its 100^th anniversary and we wanted to be a part of it.  Route 66’s starting point is in Chicago, so we have planned a route there with a few new experiences along the way before our historic Route 66 adventure. 

April 13, 2026

We hit the highway Monday, April 13 in the morning and headed out of town with adventure on our minds and in our souls.  Ok, we were just excited.

Our first stop was at Stone Mountain, GA for two nights. We heard that the Confederate Memorial Carving there was bigger than Mount Rushmore, so of course we had to check it out since we had never been there before (I didn’t even know it existed)

Honestly, it was not as impressive as Mount Rushmore but the history of how it came to be was a real eye opener.  Historically significant to Native American tribes for millennia, it later became a major rock quarry (1845-1978) before being transformed into a massive Confederate monument that was heavily influenced by the KKK’s 1915 resurgence and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  This was a very controversial initiative for the times and still is today for so many reasons I won’t go into it. 

More about the carving, the original sculptor was Gutzon Borglum (who would carve Mount Rushmore), but he was fired in 1925 due to some disagreements. Sculptor Augustus Lukeman took on the project until 1928 when they ran into funding issues.  Then the state of Georgia purchased the mountain in 1958 and restarted the project with Walker Hancock finishing the carving in 1972.

We did enjoy the history of the granite quarry at Stone Mountain, it was very interesting.  Stone Mountain formed deep underground during the creation of the Appalachian Mountains over 300 million years ago (an entire 100 million years before the age of dinosaurs).  The body of magma cooled and hardened into granite about six miles below the surface.

We stood near the slopes at the mountain where quarrymen once worked drilling, blasting, and cutting stone.  The quarries at Stone Mountain were operated from 1840 until 1978.  The stone was used for buildings of post offices to courthouses and more across the country as well as for paving and well known monuments. 

The RV park we stayed at was nestled in the 3200 acres of natural beauty in Stone Mountain Park, great location for our first night.

April 15-16

Can’t keep a good road worrier down, we packed up and head for Huntsville, AL to visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, also the location of the famous Space Camp.  This was defiantly worth the trip to Huntsville.  We spent 6 hours at the center soaking in all the knowledge it had to offer including a planetarium show.  Would highly recommend it to all.

Our 2-night stay in Huntsville was at the Redstone Arsenal Army Base Fam Camp.  Redstone is the birthplace of the Americas Rocket program.  Established during WWII as a chemical manufacturing facility, in the immediate post war era the arsenal was used for research and development by former Nazi German rocket scientists who were brought to the US.   The arsenal hosts over 75 agencies including many that are part of the Department of Defense such as United States Space Command, NASA’s largest field center, department of Justice and FBI Investigations.  The arsenal also has a government and contractor workforce of over 36,000 personnel daily.  Today Redstone Arsenal covers approx. 38,000 acres.