From Madison to Mobile, the Pike Road family visits every county in Alabama

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

Roberts said he first thought about the project while visiting his grandmother in Wetumpka. With his children in tow, they decided to stop at the Elmore County Courthouse. That quick decision to take a quick photo would ultimately lead to 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 that courthouse,” Roberts says of his children Addison and Marshall, now 13 and 10. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to visit them all. point and that’s why we plan to do that over the next six years.”

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

“One of the best trips was a Friday afternoon in March,” said Jessica Roberts. “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 attack this province.’ So with no plans, we just packed up, rented an Airbnb and stayed in Florence for a weekend. And we were able to knock out a lot of those counties and see some snow. So a lot of it was just a whim. We had a plan to get them all done, but not really on a strict timeline.

The Roberts saved 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 as their next project is to visit every state capitol in the United States, which they hope to start during the Christmas holidays with visits to North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

But until then, Addison and Marshall Roberts said they got a lot out of the project, including a better understanding of the size of Alabama and a day out of school, which is always a plus.

“I feel like I have a good understanding of how big Alabama is when you see it on a map,” Addison said. “Compared to states like Texas and Alaska, it seems relatively small. But only after you visit all the provinces do you really understand how big it is.”

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