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Head to the Grocery Store to Celebrate Alabama's College Football Championship

In case you weren’t paying attention earlier in the week we wanted to fill you in on the status of this year’s BCS National Champion. When it comes to college football it looks like Alabama is the best in the land, as AJ McCarron—and his girlfriend—easily took down Notre Dame on Monday night.

Now that the analysis and highlights are over it’s time to celebrate and welcome the team back to town. Unlike the professional leagues it doesn’t look like there will be a victory parade, but there will be a chance to get up close and personal with the trophy.

The $30,000 Waterford Crystal AFCA National Championship Trophy is now going on a little bit of a tour, so fans down in Alabama can go and check it out in person. In past years tour stops have included visits to Walmart, but this year things are going a little higher end as the public appearances are taking place at the grocery store.

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Football Travel / Sports Travel / Alabama Travel / Musuem Travel / → All Tags

Celebrate Alabama's BCS Win by 'Roll Tide(ing)' to Their Official Museum

Everyone is going football crazy this month, and that’s with the Super Bowl still a few weeks away. Sure, the NFL playoffs are doing their thing for a couple more weekends, but this week’s big news was Alabama cruising over LSU in the BCS National Championship Game.

The college football season might be over, but that doesn’t mean that you need to end your season. Just head down to Alabama to celebrate the Crimson Tide’s past, as you roll into the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa.

Things will likely be busy this week as fans pay tribute to past teams and traditions as they continue to celebrate the school’s 2012 championship. The museum archives have stuff dating back to the 1890s, but of course they have plenty of stuff that’s a little more current as well. Exhibits include the Hall of Honor, The Tide Through Time, and Coach Bryant's Office. There’s plenty dedicated to former Coach "Bear" Bryant, including a Waterford crystal replica of his houndstooth hat—we guess you’ve just got to be an Alabama fan to appreciate that.

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Strange Scuba Spots / SCUBA / Scuba Dives / Snorkeling / Active Travel / Alabama Travel / Water Sports / → All Tags

'The Pelham Keys': An Unlikely Winter Dive Spot in Alabama

We understand that it’s hard to get the money together to head to the Caribbean to dive, but there’s always plenty of underwater options here in the good ol’ nifty fifty. If you’re looking for something a little more unique and affordable there’s always “The Pelham Keys” in Pelham, Alabama. It might be a strange scuba spot, but all that means is that the diving fun is just a little different.

The place is just around 20 minutes south of Birmingham, and it’s an over 26-acre limestone quarry that has now been filled in with over 850 million gallons of spring fed water. Expect clear waters as you swim through and explore some of the park’s undersea treasures. No coral reefs here, but there is a school bus, sailboat, and two different fire engines.

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College Football Travel / Sports Travel / Football Travel / Sports / → All Tags

Football Rivalry Travel: Heading To Forrest Gump's Alma Mater

Professional football has arrived and the World Series is pretty cool, but more importantly for some, college football is going strong. Here’s the scoop on just one of the country’s best rivalries to help your sports travel planning.

· Rivalry Match-Up: LSU at Alabama on November 7
Alabama’s coach used to be the big dog tiger over at LSU, but now he’s calling the plays for the Crimson Tide. Last year he was warmly welcomed with a chorus of boos and name-calling, and we’re pretty much expecting the same thing this year. These two teams have played against each other over seventy times so there’s lots of bad blood. Alabama leads the all time series, but before last year, LSU was cruising with a winning streak.

Stadium Info and tips on where to sleep and party, after the jump.

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Baggage / Lost Luggage / Shopping / Bizarre Travel / → All Tags

Where Unclaimed Baggage Goes to Die (And Live Again)

Ever lose your luggage on a flight and wonder what happens to bags that never get reunited with their woeful owners?

Well, a good deal of it ends up in Scottsboro, Alabama at a massive thrift store called the Unclaimed Baggage Center. UBC buys unclaimed luggage from airlines in bulk, to the tune of 7,000 new items a day (that's a lot of lost bags!) Then everything is sold to the public out of their Alabama warehouse, and we do mean everything. Clothes, cameras, iPods, exotic souvenirs, prescription eyeglasses, and of course the bags themselves.

They've also got a museum where they put aside the stuff found in lost bags that's just too good to sell—for example, a life-size version of the creepy Hoggle puppet from the movie Labyrinth and a slew of 3,000-year-old Egyptian artifacts. Seems like those could have been reunited with their rightful owners, but oh well, finders keepers.

Related Stories:
· Unclaimed Baggage Center [Official Site]
· US Air Eats Luggage For Breakfast [Jaunted]
· Shopping coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: J-Rad]

Spookiest-Small-Towns-Map / Halloween / Zombies / → All Tags

Spookiest Small Towns: Zombies on the March in Alabama

They kill for food, and they're coming for us: Zombie parades are the new pirate parties, and the ghouls lurch among the good folk of Gadsden, Alabama on Saturday, October 18.

The Gadsden Public Library takes on larger and better-made-up parades in San Francisco and Helsinki with the 4th Annual Zombie Parade, to be followed by a marathon of zombie movies from the family-friendly ("Fido") to the cutting-edge consumerist critique ("Dawn of the Dead"). Don't go into that mall!

Get your head together before Halloween by devising the perfect costume and amassing at 3:30 pm in the parking lot of the Pitman Theatre, which will spend all the proceeds from the zombieathon on restoration. Ah, small towns: Even their brain-eating is for a good cause.

Related Stories:
· Gadsden Zombie Parade 2008 [MySpace]
· ZombieCon: Now with Microblogging [Jaunted]

[Photo of a Lego zombie uprising: dunechaser]

Attractions / Alabama / Religion / Grotto / → All Tags

Almost as Good as the Playboy Grotto

If you happen to be passing through the Birgmingham area on your inevitable Alabama road trip and you're looking for amazing roadside attractions, be sure to stop at the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, AL.

Especially lovely in the summer, "Jerusalem in Miniature" is a bunch of holy shrines hand-crafted by Brother Joseph Zoettl, from the neighboring St. Bernard Abbey, who seemed to have a lot of time on his hands. Enjoy sites from the Bible, Roman landmarks and some things that don't make any sense at all, like scenes from fairy tales and a "lizard condo." Don't forget to pick up a mood ring in the gift shop on the way home. We're sure it's Vatican-approved.

Related Stories:
· Television Travel: MTV's Two-A-Days [Jaunted]
· Tara Reid is a Gerbil Pig [Jaunted]

Two-A-Days / Television Travel / Alabama Destinations / → All Tags

Television Travel: MTV's Two-A-Days

Admit it--you have been watching MTV's Two-A-Days. It is ok, so have we. Did you know the Hoover Bucs jack ass of a coach Rush Propst has a $94,000 salary? Yeah. But he delivers state championships, and that is what Hoover Alabama wants to see.

What to do?
So what exactly is there to do if you find yourself in Hoover Alabama? Well, the Riverchase Galleria, which sounds like a fine place to fly a DeLorean at 1:00 AM, boasts over 30 eating establishments in its food court, including Ruby Tuesday. Furthermore, the SEC baseball tournament is held in Hoover every May.  

Where to stay?
For $28.00 you can stay at the Hoover RV Park, which boasts 136 pull-through sites. We are guessing it is a tailgaters dream during the SEC tourney or right before a Hoover game.

C'mon, you know you want to check out Coach Propst and the gang live and in person one of these Friday nights, we know we do.

Related Stories:
· Hoover High School [maps.google.com]
· Two-A-Days [MTV.com]
· SPOILER ALERT:Official Site [Hooverbuc.com]