Gotta Go Back in Ti-i-ime!

The other day, Katie was casually flipping through the paper when she froze.  It seems she had just read the news that there was going to be a Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Reunion as part of a film festival - in Florence, AL of all places.  I didn't even stop to read the details - I immediately headed to the computer to buy tickets.

Back to the Future is Katie's all time favorite movie, and the prospects of a reunion, complete with writer and cast members, in our backyard, was too good to be true.  We bought tickets, booked a hotel, and made plans to leave work early that day.

We arrived in time to visit the DeLorean.  A couple has recreated the car down to tiny details to use it as a tool to raise money for Parkinson's Disease research. 

We made a donation and Katie hopped into the time machine.  Oops, I think she's getting close to 88 miles per hour...

After that it was time for the panel discussion with the writer and actors.

On the far left is Bob Gale, the writer and co-producer of Back to the Future (with partner Robert Zemeckis).  Next to him is the moderator, and then Claudia Wells (Jennifer, Marty's girlfriend) and James Tolkan (Principal Strickland).  They spent 90 minutes answering questions and reminiscing about their time filming BTTF.  Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly, Marty's mom) also participated via pre-recorded video - she was scheduled to appear but got called to film a pilot at the last minute.

The next morning we tracked Bob Gale down at a comic book movie adaptation panel discussion and Katie asked for his autograph afterwards.  He gladly signed her copy of the DVD set, thanking her for buying it and helping pay for his house!

"To Katie:  Best wishes for the FUTURE!  Bob Gale, 3-6-10"

It was lots of fun to take a BTTF-themed trip.  There are still a lot of fans out there!  Clearly one of the classic movies of all time.  

Before heading home we took a detour to Tuscumbia, AL to see Helen Keller's birthplace.  I'd love to blog about how amazing the tour was and how much we learned, but in reality we got a "tour" from a crazy old woman who assumed everyone already knew the whole story of Helen Keller (why would we be at the museum, then?!), so she just would point to random pictures and say "wasn't she pretty"?  Very bizarre.  

We actually had to go home and read Wikipedia to learn about her story.  She was amazing!  Among other things, she was a radical Socialist, helped found the ACLU, introduced the Akita dog breed to the US, and was friends with Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain - none of which we learned on the tour!  

We then headed back to Birmingham because we had tickets to see the Indigo Girls that night.  So it was a quick trip to Florence, but a nice excuse to go see a part of the state we'd never been to before.