Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Loopers Tour Huntsville
Friday, October 20, 2006: Bright and early this morning 53 Loopers joined us on a bus tour of Huntsville. With much help from the Huntsville Convention and Visitors Bureau, we had a full itinerary mapped out. But what is it with this weather? Sunny Alabama has turned rainy and cold. But happily the fall foliage is beautiful! The ambitious agenda included the Alabama Space & Rocket Center, the Huntsville Botanical Gardens with lunch catered by Clementine’s, the Huntsville Art Museum, a quick tour of Twickenham, ending with a bar-be-que at Ditto Landing (thanks to Christy Martin). In a nutshell, a day that could have been a washout due to weather, was a huge success!The turning point had to have been the serendipitous offer by one of the Garden docents, Leo Larkin, to provide after-lunch entertainment. She realized that everyone would have frozen solid if we had spent the allotted time walking the Gardens. Leo called her husband Bob, and pretty soon the crowd was enthralled with the unique sound of Bob Larkin, a world-class violinist making beautiful music with Leo, an international award-winning harmonica player. Who would have guessed that the crowd would continue standing and clapping until three encores had been played and countless CDs were purchased. They call themselves the Classical-Country Connection, and let me tell you, they warmed our hearts on a cold, dreary day! This was just a prelude to the beauty of the Gardens, which everyone loved. The rest of the afternoon came off beautifully, and we relished the warm hospitality offered by the Huntsville Visitor Center staff and the folks at Ditto. The day was so successful, in fact, that Bob received a call the next day asking for the name of a realtor. As it turns out, several Loopers want to move to Alabama!
