Crossing into Alabama, I pulled onto the Martin Luther King Parkway just as the Drive-By Truckers came onto my earphones. Fitting. This decommissioned gas station was formerly a pawn shop but had become a latin american grocery store. It seemed incredible to me, that in the fifty years since some of the most pitched battles of the Civil Rights movement were fought, how much had changed and how much will continue to change. I believe the future will be brighter than the past. It's great to be alive.