Your buddy nailed my location. Im just on the western outskirts of Hartselle +/-10,000 people. 10 mi S of Decatur, 15 mi E of Moulton. Grew up here, went to Auburn graduated in 1980. In 85' got a job w Dept of Agriculture, FmHA, now called USDA Rural Development, doing Farm and Rural Housing credit, and spent the next 12 yrs or so in the Anniston/Talledega area, east of Bham. The move to Dothan was necessitated by budget cutbacks and to keep my pay grade.
I moved to Dothan in 1997. Left in early 2008. Fortunately got a transfer back to a Huntsville office as I was an only child and both my parents went downhill almost simultaneously. There're both gone now but I decided the old home town wasnt too bad a place to retire. In 2013 Obama offered us a pretty sweet deal on early retirements and I jumped at the chance.
For the first 3-4 years I was in Dothan PC was still mostly funky old 50s-60s style 1-2 story small mom and pop motels along the strip, but by 08' if you ride down the beach front road you could no longer see the beach for the high rises. Destin had more high rises early on, but got even worse by the time I left.