Travel Advice: Montgomery, Alabama plus drive to and from

I may be taking Opie to a dog show to be held in a couple of weeks at the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery.

First question is which route is preferable from South Florida, heading west on 10 and cutting north around Tallahassee or staying on 75 into Georgia and cutting west around Tifton? I am leaning towards the FL route there but the GA route home since I likely will have to stop for the night somewhere and I have better dog friendly choices on 75.

I was late making hotel reservations so am at at the Hampton Inn in Prattville. I briefly looked at downtown but costs and nowhere to walk Ope sent me back to Prattville. If I decide to try an Airbnb, any neighborhoods I should either consider or avoid? Easy drive to the Coliseum, safety and nearby restaurants/grocery are my criteria.

I won’t know if I have time to sightsee until the judging program comes out and then each show day when I know if I also need to stay around for group competition. But if I have time, where should I go (with or without Ope) and are there any great walking trails that I can do with a dog? It’s always nice to give him a mental break from showing when we are doing multiple days.

If anyone wants to meet the Dope, see me run around a ring in a skirt suit, nylons and ugly shoes, or watch some other breeds, let me know. And yes, Best in Show is pretty accurate.

 

@Amy I would take whichever route Google Maps says has less traffic at the time, but the South Georgia route feels like more of a slog to me. You’re off the interstate longer with more dinky little speed trap towns.

The Gump is not much of a tourist spot, and right around Garrett Coliseum looks more like a small town industrial area. There are a couple of fast food places nearby, but otherwise pretty empty. The good news is that downtown is a short drive away. There’s a small cluster of restaurants and bars across from the baseball stadium called The Alley, and that probably has your biggest selection of interesting restaurants. I’ve not eaten at Central, but it gets the best reviews and is probably the most upscale. Prattville will have a full compliment of chain places at your exit, including a Birmingham-based chain called Jim N Nicks Barbecue. We natives probably take it for granted and fetishize mom & pop joints instead, but Jim N Nicks has good to very good food in a bright, clean full service sit down atmosphere.

Other food ideas: Chris’ Hot Dogs downtown is a counter service institution dating back to World War I. Martin’s in the Cloverdale area has elite fried chicken and Southern plate lunches. Or try doing a search for Korean restaurants nearby and see what pops up. Thanks to the Hyundai factory south of town, there’s now a decent expat community.

If you want to do a rental in Montgomery itself, I strongly recommend the Cloverdale neighborhood. There are other nice patches of the city, but sometimes that can be a block by block thing. Cloverdale (and Old Cloverdale next to it) is south of I-65 and in and around Huntington College. After that the next best options are all the way out in Eastchase and Pike Road, and if you are that far away you might as well just stay in Prattville.

The state archives department downtown maintains an excellent museum on state history. I’ve not been to the Legacy Museum or lynching memorial, but I understand they are incredibly touching. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival isn’t running anything by The Bard right now but is still doing shows. The Montgomery Biscuits are a minor league baseball team in a really neat stadium, and Sundays are Bark in the Park.

 

Guess how much I can bench.

 

Second on Jim and Nick's. It's competent BBQ, but they have a very good hand with BBQ chicken in particular. Their little cheese biscuits are to die for.

 

Highly recommend seeing a Biscuits game if you have the time. It's a great little stadium.

 

The Rosa Parks "bus stop" - also enjoyed standing on the steps of the capitol looking down Dexter. The spot where Jefferson Davis was sworn in when they moved the capitol of the Confederacy is a just a block away from where they organized the bus boycott.

 

A) Drive to Montgomery, stay one night.
2) Continue on to New Orleans, stay two weeks.

iii) Post photos from New Orleans, thanks.