Visiting Birmingham, Alabama

[Bob F.]

OK Gang, going to Birmingham (Barbour Motor Sports) Labor Day Weekend for the Grand National Mustang Show. Received my New Hampshire non-res CCL a few days ago (took 2.5 weeks, max!).
Hopefully will also be in Homewood that Thursday afternoon/evening. Tell me what I need to know!!!!!!!!!!!!

Restaurants, gunshops, where NOT to go, etc.

Thanks.
Bob

[roo_ster]

Not exactly what you asked, but here is my experience with Birmingham, Alabama.

18AUG2006, 0900
Well, if your 22 month old son falls in the McDonalds play area & splits open his chin, a nice gal will offer to lead you to the nearest emergency room (St Clair Health Center).

Once at the ER, your son will be treated quickly and all you meet will be squared away & courteous.  The Doc will use some really cool medical super glue to put his chin back together & you'll be back on the road in under an hour.  (driving from Atlanta to Dallas that day).

[Hutch]

Depending on how adventurous you feel, there's lots available.  In Hoover, there's The Gun Cellar, lots of guns and accessories. (surprise).  Mark's Outdoor Sports, just north of there in Vestavia, has lots of new guns, but caters to a much more upscale clientele than TGC.  You know, lots of sporting clays guns, deer scents, fishing tackle.

Check out Steel City Sports Shooting Assoc, (now Brock's Gap Training), at www.scssa.org .  A PHENONENAL facility.  Check the site for matches that weekend, the gate will be open to the public for competitor and observers.

Oh, never mind...

here:
CMP 22 Sporter - 3 Position Match 9/2/2006 1:00 PM 5:00 PM B Range  
USPSA/IPSC Match                     9/2/2006 9:00 AM 5:00 PM 6 Stages, 110-175 rounds minium A, B, & C Ranges

The best Chinese food in AL is the Mandarin House in Hoover.  There's the usual assortment of TGI O'Chili-bees places in the area.  Barbeque joints all have their own cults, you can't pick a bad one.  There's a Persian restaurant in Hoover as well, Ali Baba's, unimaginately enough.  Great, great food.

[Bob F.]

Thanks, guys! I'll print out the above. Keep 'em coming!>
Bob

[Bob F.]

We're going to try to get down for the "cruise-in" on Thursday night at Homewood. The magazines/phamplets hype the area pretty well. Feedback?

Any wrinkles re: CCW that I need to be aware of?

Thanks,
Bob

PS: JFRUSER: hope to avoid St.Clairs, but nice to know, just in case.

[Hutch]

So, how did it go in B'ham?

[Bob F.]

Hutch: Thanks for asking--GREAT!! Helleva car show! !088 Mustangs judged plus several just for display. Trophies for virtually every entry; super facility (Barber Motor Sports @ Leeds, GA.). Great bunch of vendors, Food was expensive at the show. But ate at a BBQ place right off the interstate (can't remember which one). near Greesprins Road and Oxmoor/ Oxwood rd? Then a great Itanian joint on Greensprings just south of Oxwood.
Homewood was real nice area. Liked the rolling hills of the Birmingham area, really nice if ya' don't mind city traffic. 5 o'clock rush here lasts from 4:59 to 5:20. LOL Yeah, we trophied!

Bob

[BaxterGriffin]

Bob F., sounds like you might have visited one of the Jim-N-Nick's BBQ locations off Greensprings at Oxmoor, then possibly Lavoy's Italian on Greensprings?  Very good choices in both!

A side note for Birminghamians or those visiting, sometime take a walk behind Lavoy's, adjacent to the back parking lot of the Paw-Paw Patch Restaurant next door...look closely through the little patch of woods that's still standing back there and you'll find a very old cemetery!  One or two of the headstones bear Civil War-era dates, and IIRC at least one them had a date as recent as the 1970s on it.  I didn't believe this was even back there when I first heard about it, but our church's youth group did a clean-up project back there...pretty wild!

[Bob F.]

Thought I posted last night must musta forgot to click on "post"; duh.

Baxter: right on both counts! Those were the restaurants and the food was great! When we went into Lavoy's I told SWMBO "this place is gonna be good!" Saw some food go by, but the mixed clientele was the real tipoff, and the demeanor of the staff. Also, several patrons were obviously regulars. Prices very reasonable, BTW. Jim-N-Nick's was great, too. Is that a chain? First one I'd seen.

Didn't see the cemetery, it was dark when we pulled into Lavoy's. Sounds cool.

Stay safe.
Bob