Waking up every few hours, I was thankful 5:30 a.m. came on April 20.

On that day, our Leadership Atmore class embarked on a journey to Montgomery for a tour of the state’s capitol.

We arrived just prior to 9 a.m., where our first stop was the capitol building itself.

Our tour guide reminded me of a teacher. In fact, she said that her daughter is a current teacher in the state.

I’ve been on this tour before, but it had been years, so it was nice to have a refresher. I learned new things and was refreshed on things I had forgotten.

The most poignant part of the tour was standing under the rotunda with several different murals depicting the state’s history up until 1926. The tour guide made the comment that since then, the state has seen some rich history, including the Civil Rights Era, NASA’s landing on the moon, several musical artists from the state who made it big and other points in history.

What would that look like if the state were to change the murals up?

During the day, the legislature was in session that day, and was making a decision on an autism bill that would include health insurance coverage for those children who have autism. The house passed it unanimously, 100-0. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote.

We didn’t stay long once Rep. Alan Baker went back to the House chambers as we had an appointment at the Alabama Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is located inside a building that’s probably my favorite in Montgomery.

My favorite room in the building has to be the Supreme Court courtroom, where the judges hear cases.

Once the court tour was over, we toured the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

We went through the 300-year history of our state, which included its founding during an interactive museum tour.

I found it interesting that the archives gets most of its artifacts from those who send them to the department, and that it’s the oldest archives building in the nation.

On the way back to Atmore, I managed to find some sleep on the bus, which was welcome as it was a long, but great day with a bunch of good people.