Helen Keller and the Rattlesnake Saloon

While everyone is busy getting repairs and home improvements completed in Red Bay, there are a couple of things to venture out and do for fun.

First up is Helen Keller's Birthplace-it's a short drive to Tuscumbia, Alabama on the way to Florence and Muscle Shoals.

Helen Keller was born a healthy girl but at the age of 19 months she contracted a high fever.  The doctor was summoned and he advised to let it work itself out.  When the fever finally broke, Helen could not hear nor see.  Her parents doted on her and she became a wild child of sorts.  At the age of 6 her parents took her to see Alexander Graham Bell for help and then decided she needed a teacher.  They hired Anne Sullivan and she came to live at the family home.

The cottage that Helen and Anne lived in early on

Anne Sullivan quickly determined that Helen needed to be away from the doting parents and came up with the idea she and Helen would live in the little cottage directly adjacent to the main house.  They drove Helen around in the buggy for a few hours so she would not know she was really at her home.

The water pump is still there where Helen learned the finger movements Anne was making on her hands and running the cool water were the same.  After that Helen quickly learned 30 words that day alone.  The world was open to Helen from then on.  She learned to write, read braille and even learned to use a typewriter.

The original water pump sits on the original spot

Her strong will and tenacity allowed her to become a Radcliffe College graduate.  She became one of history's remarkable women.  She and Anne Sullivan traveled the world together improving the conditions of the blind and deaf blind.

This is a replica of the bronze that sits in the US Capital.  Yep we saw that too!

Alabama's State Quarter is the only one with Braille

Helen and Anne Sullivan

Anne and Eleanor Roosevelt

Next up is the Rattlesnake Saloon.  This unique restaurant and bar is built into a limestone cave.  It is past the Coon Dog Cemetery out of town.  While one might think it has been there for a long while it has only been open for 5 years.  The food is basic burgers and we split one and an order of fries.  It was a bargain as our bill was minimal even with a pitcher of beer and apple fritters for dessert.  A fun place to get out of Red Bay.  We did not stop at the Coon Dog cemetery as the only thought that came to my mind was "Where the Red Fern Grows" about little Ann and Old Dan.  It is the saddest book ever written and I still remember it being required reading in Fifth grade.  

ou ride in the bed of a truck from the lot to the saloon

There were other things near Red Bay that we did not make it to such a Tupelo Mississippi,  the Natchez Trace trail and Natural Bridge.  Hopefully we won't be back to Red Bay, but you never know.