Tuscaloosa: Where the Weather Feels Like a Secret and the Stories Don't Make Sense

it's weird how some places just stick with you. tuscaloosa isn't exactly on the tourist radar, but that's exactly why it's worth talking about. i landed here after a gig in birmingham, and honestly, i wasn't expecting much. but then the weather hit me-cool, breezy, like the sky was whispering something only locals understand. i just checked and it's 11°c there right now, hope you like that kind of thing.

i stayed near the university, which i guess makes sense if you're into college-town chaos. the vibe is... loud. but in a good way. someone told me that the best coffee in town is at *neptune's cafe, and they weren't wrong. strong enough to wake the dead, cheap enough to make you question why you ever paid $6 for a latte.

"don't go to the river at night unless you want to see things that aren't there," a drunk guy told me at a bar. i didn't go. but i thought about it.

if you get bored, birmingham and montgomery are just a short drive away. i didn't go, but i heard birmingham's got a killer food scene. someone else said montgomery is haunted. take that as you will.

i spent an afternoon wandering around the alabama museum of natural history. not gonna lie, i expected it to be lame. but the fossil collection? wild. and the building itself feels like it's holding onto a hundred years of secrets.

food-wise, i ate at the waysider, a dive diner that looks like it hasn't changed since the '70s. the biscuits? life-changing. the coffee? see above. someone warned me that druid city brewing co* gets rowdy on game days, so maybe avoid that unless you're into that kind of energy.

i didn't plan to stay long, but tuscaloosa has this way of making you linger. maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the people, maybe it's just the way the light hits the trees at golden hour. whatever it is, i left with more stories than i came with, and that's the whole point, isn't it?