The Southeast United States

If you're from outside the Southeastern United States, you probably envision the area of one of cotton fields, country music, deep-fried food, and hospitality. That picture may be accurate to some degree, but the South is much more than that.

These days, the South is helping set the national agenda on several fronts. Numerous international automobile manufacturers - Mercedes Benz, Honda, and Hyundai in Alabama, Nissan in Mississippi, and BMW in South Carolina (just to name a few)-have chosen the South for their latest production facilities. The beaches and golf resorts in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama are among the most popular in the country. Heck, three of the last five Presidents of the United States - George W. Bush (Texas), Bill Clinton (Arkansas), and Jimmy Carter (Georgia) - have hailed from the Deep South.

The cities of the South have been among the fastest-growing in the country over the last half-century. In the 1960s, Houston and New Orleans emerged as major players on the U.S. cultural and business landscape. In the 1970s, it was Atlanta and Tampa. In the 1980s, it was Orlando and Charlotte. In the 1990s, it was Nashville and Jacksonville. The next explosion of population and business progress might well occur in the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham area.

Tuscaloosa is at the center of it all. The city is less than 205 miles from every major city in Alabama. The banking centers and international airport in Birmingham, beaches and seafood restaurants of Mobile, State House in Montgomery, Space Center in Huntsville are all within an afternoon's drive.

Tuscaloosa is also less than five hours away by car from many of the region's major cultural centers. Sports fans will find major league teams in Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans, all of which are just a short jaunt down the interstate. If you're a music lover, you can make a quick weekend trip to visit the birthplaces of the blues (the Mississippi Delta), jazz (New Orleans), country (Nashville), or Elvis (Memphis).

Many of the country's biggest businesses are headquartered in the Deep South. Texas boasts Fortune 500 regulars Exxon Mobil, Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, JC Penny, Reliant Energy, and Dell, while Atlanta is home to Coca-Cola, UPS, Home Depot, Southern Company, and Delta Airlines. Other major corporations that call the South home are Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.), Bank of America (Charlotte, N.C.), FedEx (Memphis), Dillard's (Little Rock), AutoZone (Memphis), and Vulcan Materials (Birmingham).