Aliceville German POW Camp--February 2

We continue to see lines of power trucks heading north and flat beds loaded with telephone poles. In Memphis we talked to a family from Kentucky that had come to Memphis because they didn’t have any power at home. Word is that another bad storm is heading toward the same area. We go to sleep Sunday night with rain on the roof and awake Monday to gray skies. The rain has passed on, but we take our time getting up. It is noon by the time we break camp, heading for Aliceville, AL where we plan to visit the Aliceville Museum, which has a German POW exhibit. Little Aliceville was about 2,500 souls when the POW camp opened in 1943. Some 6,000 Germans, most from Rommel’s Afrika Corps, and 1,000 US guards inhabited the town until the end of the war. The land was then sold off, buildings were carted off, the Germans were sent home, and it settled back to being 2,500 strong again. The museum has the story of the camp, items created by the German prisoners, news stores etc. We spend almost 3 hours there, chatting with the head of the board of the museum and a volunteer. I should say, Norb spends almost 3 hours. I tire after 2 and go out to the RV to read.

We are a day ahead of schedule since we couldn’t stop at our campground in the Missouri bootheel, so we decide to stop short of Mobile. Checking our Good Sam book we find a Corps of Engineers park near Demopolis, AL. Ms Garmin refuses to acknowledge its existence, so we flounder around for a while before stumbling upon it. The couple staffing the gate turn out to be interesting; they bid on the job, which is a year-long stint. They bid on how much they will get paid! Low bidder gets the job. They are leaving at the end of February for a new park because they were underbid on this park for next year. They work 4 days on, 4 days off, 6 AM to 10 PM. We ask how people find out about the park and he says it’s mainly word-of-mouth. It is possible to reserve on line but you need to know the park name to do it. He gives us brochures that show the various Corps parks in parts of the country, but I am puzzled as to how I will file them since they are by area, not by state. They give us a site right on the Tombigbee River, so that we can watch the barges go by. The cold front has moved in and by dark, when we are walking the campground, it is down to 45 degrees.