From Madison to Mobile, Pike Road Family Visits Every Alabama County

In 2018, Pike Road resident Matthew Roberts had the idea to set a goal for his family to visit every county in Alabama. Six years and hundreds of miles later, the Roberts can say they’ve seen all of Alabama and have the photos to prove it.

Roberts said he first thought about the project while visiting his grandmother in Wetumpka. With their children in tow, they decided to stop at the Elmore County Courthouse. That quick decision to take a quick photo would ultimately fuel the family’s goal of visiting all 67 counties in Alabama.

“They were little kids, so I took a picture of them in front of the courthouse,” Roberts said of her children Addison and Marshall, now 13 and 10 years old. “I thought it would be a good idea to visit everyone at that time. period and that’s why we set out to do it for the next six years.”

Among their favorite stops were Madison County, thanks to all the entertainment Huntsville has to offer, as well as Baldwin County because, well, who doesn’t love a good excuse for a trip to the beach? The Roberts said some trips were planned with the goal of visiting several counties at once, but for the most part, many of their visits were spontaneous, which they said helped make them more memorable.

“One of the most fun trips was on a Friday afternoon in March,” Jessica Roberts said. “We were both at work and at 3 p.m. Matt and I said, ‘Hey, it’s supposed to snow four inches in Florence tonight. Let’s go to this county. So, with no plans, we packed our bags, rented an Airbnb, and stayed in Florence for the weekend. And we were able to eliminate a lot of those counties and see some snow. So a lot of it was just spontaneous. “We had a plan to finish them all, but not on a strict schedule.”

The Roberts left Montgomery County for last, resulting in the opportunity to show photos of their project to Governor Kay Ivey at the Alabama State Capitol. This worked out well because their next project is to visit every state capital in the United States, and they hope to start with a visit to North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia over the Christmas holidays.

Until then, though, Addison and Marshall Roberts said they got a lot out of the project, including a better understanding of Alabama’s size and a day without school, which is always a plus.

“I feel like I really understood how big Alabama is when you look at it on a map,” Addison said. “Compared to states like Texas and Alaska, it seems relatively small. But after driving through all the counties, you can really realize how big it is.”

“And what I got was a day out of school when we met the governor,” Marshall added.