Following my internal compass as well as the "Shortest Route/No Highways" on my Garmin, I soon found myself bouncing along patched and rutted country roads toward the Alabama border. The dotted line displayed on my GPS matched the two orange spray paint marks on the long needle pine so I knew "dis mus be da place". The road surface changed to sandy clay so I stopped for a quick shot. No welcome sign on this road into Alabama. One more state revisited on my travels. The temperature was steady in the mid 60's and the sky remained blue and calm for early March. The predominant industry in this area of the south is timber and milling. Many privately owned forests are stocked with quick growing slash pine or long needle pine which grow fast and straight in the moist climate. Modest old homes line the rural routes, some with full lumber trucks parked out front waiting for the mills to open Monday morning. Rusted street signs reflect the local history such as "Boll Wevil Ln" and "Turnip Way" . A truck and trailer loaded with turnips races past in a passing zone on the way to market or a wholeseller. I can only imagine what the crisco based cooking must taste like in this region where catfish is king and the greens don't get much fresher. Arriving in Tuscaloosa, I had the sneaking suspicion that I'd been here before. Examining the downtown main street, it dawned on me that I was here 7 months ago on my westward leg of the journey. I knew this point would come when I'd recross my path to form a figure eight of this nation. My visit through was only a brief stop but the downtown cityscape as well as the tall bridge across the Black Warrior River were logged in my memory. The weather was forecast to grow warmer but bring with it scattered thunderstorms for the upcoming week. I found a nice free campsite on Blue Creek overlooking Holt Lake. Fresh water was available from a fissure in the rock and I was stocked up on soup, oatmeal and beans to make it through a few days of rain. As is usually the case when I post up somewhere for a few days, the weather turned out to be overwhelmingly pleasant. I spent my time building fires for cooking, hiking around the nearby park and watching large empty barges float up to the nearby lock. By midweek, I was ready for a change of scenery and replenished from thetime spent back in nature. The forecast was improving and a friend of Ken's north of Birmingham invited me to visit over the weekend. Onward toward Birmingham to see what it has to show!
3 Comments
Tracy & Don
3/13/2015 01:10:16 pm
What a great run of photos Mike !!
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Mike Saunders
3/14/2015 01:01:04 am
Thanks so much! I've got quite a bit more from my time here in Birmingham too. I will be stopping in VA for the month of May then pressing north for the summer again. The road is life.
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Tracy
3/14/2015 12:11:58 pm
I'll have to get some of your route down to TX..
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Mike SaundersIn May 2014 I quit my job to ride a Honda Ruckus over 69'000 mi and counting. Wild camping most nights and cooking most of my own meals, I keep the costs low and the landscape changing. Archives
April 2018
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