Wednesday, October 19

We had a chilly start this morning. It turned cold and a bit windy with a possibility of rain. It didn't rain, but was cloudy and chilly.

 

The first 6 miles were void of buildings. No houses, barns or sheds. We are walking in the country. The first building that we did see was a gas station, Closed!

 

We came to a historical marker. The marker noted the a certain Mr. Elias M. Keils was a scalawag and a judge of the city court of Eufaula. Not sure about the definition of "scalawag", I consulted Dr.Google. Seems a scalawag was a white southerner who supported Union reconstruction laws. And added, "usually for selfish reasons"

 

Up ahead, we walked right under a pecan tree. I gathered up 4, while John got a pocket full. The pecans were a good snack.

 

Ruth and Carol were waiting at the Heritage Sod Farm. 12 miles and we found .01 cent. Stay tuned ...

Tuesday, October 18 (extra edition)

This is a special edition of the blog. Union Springs, Alabama has 47 homes and businesses on the National Register of Historic Places. I have never seen such a small town with so many historic buildings. Downtown is practically all historic building. This town would make a great movie set.

So, I am adding several photos to share with you.

Tuesday, October 18

Our starting point this morning was just outside of Union Springs so we got to sleep in. Didn't leave Greenway Sportsmen's Club until 7 am.

 

Not long after we started, we came to the Bullock County Correctional Institute. The dreaded county jail. Inmates wear white here.

 

Highway 82 east out of Union Springs is 4 lane, divided highway, but it didn't last long, about 4 miles. For the most part, we are walking a 2 lane road with very little or no shoulder. When a car or truck comes by, we simply step over on the wet grass.

 

After a bit we arrived at Three Notch, Alabama. Three Notch looks like it's down to one notch. We counted about 8 buildings, 3 of which looked occupied, the remaining building need help.

 

Walking on we came to the town of Midway, Alabama. Midway has seen better times, but it was booming compared to Three Notch. Just outside of Midway, Carol and Ruth were waiting.

 

Today we found an Alabama license plate. Stay tuned ...

Monday, October 17

Started walking about 7 am this morning. We were about 10 miles west of Union Springs and walking east. Nothing unusual to report, the walk was similar to the walks for the past several days. The weather is perfect, cool in the morning and gradually warming in the afternoon and sunny.

We walked into Union Springs and needed to get to the courthouse by 10:15 am. A group of local citizens were going to greet us. When we arrived about a dozen people had assembled. Those present were mayor, John McGowan, Matt O'Reilly, pastor of First United Methodist Church, Jan Green, co-owner of Greenway Sportsmens Park, Kim Graham and Johnny Adams from the Union Springs Herald and several other folks.

The mayor presented John and I, Ruth and Carol with a pin depicting a bird dog. Union Springs is the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the World. From the Union Springs website, I gleaned this information. "The field trials are from October until March.

The trials are a competition to display a dog's ability to successfully point out the hiding places of quail. While on horseback, dog handlers, judges, officials and a gallery of spectators follow the dogs that run along designated courses". After the ceremonies, John and I still had 2 more miles to walk.

Today we found a CD of the Oak Ridge Boys in excellent condition, a tube of Elmer's Washable School Glue and a Missouri license plate. Stay tuned ....

Sunday, October 16

Last night we decide to eat at the 82 Highway Cafe, owned by Mike and Jan Green, owners Greenway Sportsmans Club where we are staying. After a very nice meal, we got up to pay and to our surprise, the tab was on them. Thank you Mike and Jan, that was very nice of you.

 

Yesterday, after the walk and lunch, we were interviewed by Kim Graham and her brother, Johnny Adams. Kim is publisher and Johnny is editor of the Union Springs Herald. I also think they are the only reporters. This is a weekly newspaper and they said that they would mail us a copy of the article.

 

Also, yesterday we decided to walk 6 miles today before church this morning. As we were driving out, 2 deer crossed the highway just in front of us. We are walking today so that we can walk through Union Springs at 10:15 am tomorrow. That is when we have a meeting with the mayor and some other VIPs. Who knows what honors, fame and fortune await us.

 

We did our 6 in exactly 2 hours. We just happened to stop at an intersection out in the country and there was a house nearby. A young woman came over to check on us. Her name was Kristy and she was a special ed teacher in Pensacola, Florida. She was there visiting her mother. She wanted to make sure we weren't stranded. We told her about the walk and I think she was impressed. She asked us if we had lost any weight and I told her if we could stay away from ice cream bars we might have a chance.

 

Ruth picked us up and on the way back, 2 deer crossed right in front of our car. I don't think they were the same deer as this morning.

 

Later this morning, we went to the First Baptist Church of Union Springs, Alabama. Ed Brandenburg is the pastor and members were very friendly.

 

I need to tell the story of "power bill". Ruth and Carol were talking to a lady when we were staying at Maxwell Air Force Base. She saw our dog, Jolie Blonde and said she had a "power bill chihuahua". Ruth and Carol said they had never heard of that breed of dog. The lady went on to explain that she had loaned a friend money to pay her power(electric) bill. When it was time for the lady to pay her back, she held out her hand with a Chihuahua on it. "I don't have any money to pay you back, but you can have this dog" the lady said. So, "Power Bill" dog was born.

 

This morning on our walk, we found .05 cents. Stay tuned ...

Ruth and Carol took us to the Tzip service station and John and I started our walk. Within 5 minutes, John found a penny on the ground. The first and last coin of the day.

 

We are walking in the piney woods with no shoulder. When a car or truck pass by, we step over in the grass and wait until it passes. Luckily, traffic is light.

 

After a few hours of walking, a man in a pick-up slowed down and asked if we were alright, wanted to know if we were broke down. We said we were OK and he drove off.

 

Up ahead was a logging operation. It was not in full swing as it was Saturday, but one logger was sorting logs, at least that's what I think he was doing.

 

A few more miles further, we saw a pile of logs in a heap along the side of the road. We decided it was a log truck that, for some reason, had lost its load. Glad we weren't walking here when that happened.

 

We passed through the town of Shopton, not much there. Carol and Ruth were waiting at the white Methodist church.

 

We found .01 cent. Stay tuned ...

Friday, October 14

We started the day at Hardee's, where we stopped walking yesterday. I didn't get one, but Hardee's features a bologna and egg biscuit, Yum-O. BBQ bologna is big in the south.

 

Off we went, facing morning rush hour traffic driving into Montgomery. We walked passed the suburbs and into the countryside. Soon we came upon Pappy Joe's BBQ. Pappy wasn't open so on we walked.

 

We came to some trees with Spanish moss hanging from them. First Spanish moss we have seen for the entire walk.

 

Next came American Sportfish Hatchery. Here they raise largemouth bass, bluegill and that super fighting fish that everyone wants to catch, the grass carp.

 

Carol and Ruth drove up just as we were finishing the 12th mile. We found .44 cents. Stay tuned ....

Thursday, October 13

What a day. Got and early start and we were off. We walked through Montgomery, Alabama today or to be more correct, we walked around Montgomery. Rain clouds threatened us early in the morning and then the sun came out. And then the clouds came back, with rain in them. Just as we reached the 12 mile mark and luckily a Hardee's restaurant, the sky open up and it rained hard. Ruth and Carol were driving in it to pick us up and they said they could barely see.

 

On the way back, we stopped off at the Habitat ReStore and met the manager, Bruce Taylor, and Director of Operation, ReStore, Jeff Thornell. Jeff works for all the ReStores in Alabama and his primary duties are to acquire merchandise from retail and wholesale suppliers. His family was in the retail furniture businesses and that connection must have paid off as the store was full of new furniture and appliances.

 

After lunch, we drove downtown to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King served as pastor from 1954 to 1960. It was a meeting at this church that launched a boycott of the Montgomery public bus line. The boycott lasted one year and ended when city officials agreed to lift laws the discriminated against blacks. Some consider the Montgomery bus boycott as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

We then went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center that honors 40 individuals who died between 1954 and 1968 fighting for equal rights.

 

Then we were off to find Dreamland restaurant and some southern BBQ. Here's what happened. We found the street Dreamland was on. Carol rolled down the window and asked a man where Dreamland was. He pointed right across the street. Just then, a car pulled out of a parking spot not 2 car lengths away. We pulled in and we were feeding the parking meter, a lady yelled, "You don't have to put money in that after 4 pm". She started across the street and said she was going to work. It turns out that she worked at Dreamland. As we all walked in, LaCheryl, grabbed 4 menus and seated us immediately.

What service and the BBQ was great. If you get a hankerin for BBQ in Montgomery, AL, Dreamland is highly recommended.

 

Today we found .13 and a half cents. Stay tuned ...

Wednesday, October 12

We didn't need to drive very far this morning to reach the starting point, so we got to sleep late, we left at 7 am.

 

Morning rush traffic kept us off the highway and on the wet grass. Grass walking is much more difficult than walking on pavement. Grass walking is not for sissies.

 

We came to the "Welcome to Prattville" sign, took some photos and headed up a very steep hill. Down the other side and after about 5 miles, came to the intersection of Highways 82 and 31. Highway 82 joins Interstate 65 and since we can't walk on an interstate, we will walk around Montgomery via highway 31 and join up with 82 down the road.

 

Up ahead was the Alabama River with flashing lights on the side of the bridge we wanted to cross on. A crew was making repairs and had one lane closed. We didn't know if they would let us cross or not. John said we would tell them we were with the ABSD, Alabama Bridge Safety Department and we needed to get to the other side. Realizing they wouldn't buy that, John simply said, "Do you think we can get to the other side". One of the crew jumped up and said, "Sure, follow me". We had an escort for a short distance and then a whole lane to ourselves across the bridge. With our orange shirts on, we looked very official.

 

Carol and Ruth were waiting for us at the Relax Inn. It looks like a place where they rent rooms by the hour.

 

Back at Kountry Air, Gigi was fixing us a delicious meal of Chile Relleno or is it Chiles Rellenos ? Help Aaran! Gigi and Don are special people and we hope to keep in touch with them. Thank you for your hospitality.

 

We are moving to Maxwell Air Force Base, but more about that later.

 

Carol found a dime in our car and we told her to make it official, money found on the walk, that she had to drop it on the ground. She did and we found .10 cents today. Stay tuned ...

Tuesday, October 11

Ruth took us out to mile marker 122 this morning and we were off. Before too long, we came to Swift Creek. There being no shoulder on the bridge, John and I waited until there was no traffic was coming in either direction, then we ran for our lives. OK, it probably wasn't that dramatic, but we didn't spend much time looking at the scenery, we needed to get across quickly.

 

On we walked until we arrived at the Chef 2 Go Cafe, featuring sausage and biscuits for .99 cents. Two very nice ladies greeted us as we walked in, ordered our biscuits and watched as one lady was trying to learn how to run the cash register and the other was trying to teach her how. The sausage and biscuits were good - very good.

 

We walked on until we came to our home away from home, Kountry Air RV Park. Assembled out front, were Carol and Ruth, Gigi and Don, the owners, Gigi's mother and Crystal a resident of the park. Also, Jolie Blonde and an unidentified dog. They held up our Coast to Coast banner for all to see and we stopped for a break and a photo opportunity. John and I haven't seen a celebration like this since 4 people did "the wave" for us back in Springerville, AZ.

 

We had to break up this celebration as we still had 5 more miles to go. A short distance from the park, we spooked 3 deer as they were grazing along the road. We passed the A & J Bent and Dent Grocery Store, but more about that later.

 

Carol and Ruth were waiting at mile marker 135. We did 13 miles today and all we had to show for it was a spoon. Stay tuned ...