Check off your fun Alabama travels with the Ultimate Alabama Bucket List

MADISON – For one Madison native, searching for locally owned spots across the state turned into authoring a book and managing a Facebook group to connect local people to local places.

“I’ve always loved to travel, and whenever I go visit a place, I don’t just want to see what they’re most known for,” said the Author of the “Ultimate Alabama Bucket List,” Courtney Richardson. “I always liked seeing the little things that you kind of know, only if you live there, like the best local restaurants and the best local shops, local hiking trails and not just the franchise stuff.”

After searching for a list online where she could find local activities and businesses across Alabama, Richardson decided to create a list herself.

“I went online, and I was trying to find some kind of book or guide that listed these things, but everything online just pretty much lists the highlights,” Richardson said. “If you Google “What’s there to do in Huntsville,” it’s going to tell you the Botanical Garden and Space and Rocket Center, but it doesn’t tell you about all the fun little parks to go to, the fun walking trails and the little fun scavenger hunts to do, and that’s what I wanted. So pretty much, I looked for something, couldn’t find it and then decided to just make it myself.”

Richardson said that she used her time during 2020 to accumulate a list of places for people to visit across Alabama and watched her work grow through hard work and research.

“When 2020 hit, I was like, if I’m going to put this together, I need to do it now,” she said. “I just started listing every city in town, in Alabama, and then every place I’ve been to that I knew I had enjoyed and didn’t know if other people knew about. I started getting recommendations from family members, friends and I added cool stuff I saw online that I wanted to do, and it kind of just grew from there.”

After creating the Ultimate Alabama Bucket List, Richardson said that she was inspired to turn her work into a book by a friend.

“It wasn’t anything overnight,” she said. “It took years and years to put together, and then I just had it in list form. It was actually one of my friends who said, ‘Courtney, this is really cool! You should make this into a book.’ I was like, ‘okay,’ so I made it into a book form, and then to promote the book, I started the Facebook page, and that’s kind of how it grew.”

Richardson said, as a Madison resident, she enjoys highlighting local restaurants, trails and other activities.

“I live in Madison, and I’ve lived here since 2018,” she said. “It’s my backyard and my town here, where I go out and discover places. And because it’s local, it’s the easiest place for me to pop over and see a place, take pictures and write about it.”

For many, taking long and expensive trips is not feasible. Richardson said that she enjoys sharing affordable places for families to visit when they have a free day or afternoon.

“I’m living here off my income with my son,” she said. “I love to travel, but I don’t have the budget for these high-end travel vacations that people like to see. So, I found ways to do fun stuff, like a lot of art museums and local places is don’t charge admission, they have great kids areas where you can go to an art museum and there’s a whole kids section set up for them, drawing, coloring and there are these little outside areas.”

Richardson said that she has also written bucket list guides for Florida and Tennessee, and she said that she hopes that her guides inspire readers to explore their communities.

“I think it’s good to know what’s in your backyard before you go explore other places, because there are a lot of places that are probably just an hour away from you that you don’t know about, that could become your new favorite place to go to,” she said.

Throughout her time running the Ultimate Alabama Bucket List Facebook page and sharing her book, Richardson said that she has enjoyed watching people find new local places they enjoy.

“Watching other people enjoy it and get excited about it makes me really happy,” she said. “I love seeing people be like, ‘We spent all night checking stuff off we’ve already done,’ and ‘I can’t wait to check off more’ and ‘we found this, and it looks cool.’ Just hearing people get excited about just living life, traveling and seeing this world just makes me feel happy.”

To purchase the book, visit www.lulu. com/shop/courtney-richardson/the-ultimate- alabama-bucket-list/paperback/.