In 2018, Pike Road resident Matthew Roberts got 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 pictures to prove it.
Roberts said he first thought of the project while visiting his grandmother in Wetumpka. With his children in tow, they decided to stop at the Elmore County courthouse. That snap decision for a quick photo op would ultimately spark the family’s goal of visiting all 67 Alabama counties.
“They were little kids, so I took their picture in front of that courthouse,” said Roberts of his children Addison and Marshall, who are now 13 and 10. “I thought it would be a good idea to visit all of them at that point and so we set out to do that over the next six years.”
The Roberts family, of Pike Road, Ala., set out to visit every county in Alabama. Among their stops were the statues of country supergroup Alabama in Fort Payne. (Photo courtesy of The Roberts family)Roberts family
Among their favorite stops was 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 beach trip? The Roberts said some trips were planned with the goal of knocking out 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 a Friday afternoon in March,” said Jessica Roberts. “We were both at work and at 3 p.m. Matt and I said, ‘Hey, it is supposed to snow four inches in Florence tonight. Let‘s go hit up this county.’ So with no plans, we just packed up and rented an Airbnb and stayed in Florence for the weekend. And we were able to knock out a lot of those counties and see some snow. So a lot of it was just spur of the moment. We had a plan to get them all done, but not really on a strict timeline.”
The Roberts family, of Pike Road, Ala., set out on a goal to visit every county in Alabama. Among their stops was the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega County. (Photo courtesy of The Roberts family)Roberts family
The Roberts saved Montgomery County for last, which resulted in the chance to show the photos of their project to Gov. Kay Ivey at the Alabama State Capitol. This worked out well because their next project is to visit every state capitol in the United States, which they hope to kick off with a visit to North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia over Christmas break.
Until then though, Addison and Marshall Roberts said they got a lot out of the project, including a better grasp of Alabama’s size and a day out of school, which is always a plus.
“I feel like I got a great understanding of how big Alabama is when you see it on a map,” said Addison. “Compared to states like Texas and Alaska, it looks relatively small. But after driving to all the counties you can really get how big it is.”
“And what I got out of it was a day out of school when we met the governor,” added Marshall.
The Roberts family, of Pike Road, Ala., set out on a goal to visit every county in Alabama. Among their stops was Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in Dallas County. (Photo courtesy of The Roberts family)The Roberts family
