Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
30
May 16

The Natchez Trace

We rode our bikes in three states today. We started in western Tennessee and cut the corner off of Alabama and pedaled into eastern Mississippi and then back into Alabama on the Natchez Trace. (Grab a map, this makes sense.) The Trace marks the old forest trail which ran about 440 miles Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. It was used by Native Americans, early European explorers, American settlers and traders from all over until well into the 19th century. Today, the path is marked by a closed access road that generally follows the original Trace. It is a great place for scene rides. Perhaps one day I’ll get in the entire route.

But, today, we got in a little over 50 miles of it. I took photographs.

Here we are after having worked through a few miles of Tennessee:

If you’ve ever wondered, Tennessee gets its southern border, and consequently much of the northern borders of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi from the 1663 land grant from King Charles II and North Carolina giving up their lands west of the mountains in 1735. All of the state borders around here were surveyed and established by John Coffee, a lifelong friend of Andrew Jackson’s, who was also a general in the War of 1812. He also negotiated some of the native American resettlements. (Bet we view those differently these days.) He has counties in Alabama and Tennessee and at least four towns across the south named after him. He lived around here and was considered a founder of the city. There’s a chance some of my ancestors knew him. A Walmart stands next to his family cemetery.

The weather was perfect:

The scenery was lovely:

We crossed the Tennessee:

The roads were quiet. So quiet that, twice cars from the other direction stopped in the middle of the road to talk to us. One lady asked us to move a turtle she’d seen in the road just a bit ahead and another guy asked for directions.

The Yankee, making her way into Alabama from Tennessee:

And here she is going from Alabama into Mississippi:

As for the cat, she’s settling in nicely.

She’ll go back in the car tomorrow. So will we.

cycling / video / weekend — Comments Off
28
May 16

A quick video from a quick ride

adventures / Friday / photo — Comments Off
27
May 16

Leg one is done

We’re at my folks. We’ll be here for a few days. Here are some pictures from the afternoon’s four-hour drive.

Allie, The Black Cat, likes Whataburger:

No surprise there.

Mexico was enchanted by the giant ship in the bottle, which was the huge crab’s plan. The country was never the same again:

Because the rule is that when you drive within 20 miles of a Trader Joe’s you take a side trip to Trader Joe’s. I don’t know why that’s the rule, but that’s the rule.

We had dinner tonight at a Mongolian stir-themed place called Genghis Grill:

I fit right in.

adventures / Auburn / Friday / memories / photo — Comments Off
27
May 16

Goodbye, Auburn

You sleep and eat in safety in it, but a house is, really just the place where you put your memories for awhile.

This was a pretty good house, then. Except for the part about being on a haunted burial ground.

But there’s another house waiting, elsewhere.

Goodbye, Auburn.

It’s been real.

Auburn / history / markers — Comments Off
27
May 16

Last of Lee County’s markers

When I graduated from high school I had this poster under my ceremonial costume. It said something like “Thanks Mom! On to Auburn.” I’d been working at that for a while. The grades were no problem, but the money was tight. Two days after graduation I got my scholarship offer and off I went. And so I attended school there for five years. And then I left, because there was no work there in town. I would have stayed. But I went into the world instead and started making my way through it.

In graduate school I met my future wife and on a date the next fall I took her to Auburn and she liked it. And then when she finished graduate school she got a job offer at Auburn. There was no suitable half way spot, and Auburn is a nice place to live and so we moved there. And we stayed for six years. Until today, when we finished loading up the car and brushing away tears and drove off into the midday sun.

In between good things happened and great things happened and sad things happened. Life happened.

One of the many smaller things that I did was to start riding bikes. And from there I started seeking out all of these historic markers all over the county. Today the Lee County project is officially completed. This is the last such site and, before we signed the papers selling our house today, this was the last thing I did. I visited Pine Hill Cemetery.

And this is fitting. A small part of what I am now is because of Auburn. And a small part of what I am now is because of my appreciation for history. My mother asked me once why I liked history so much. I thought of two answers. I finally got lucky and had a history teacher who taught the material as more than names and dates. That stuck with me. But, when I was in undergrad at Auburn I found Pine Hill. It was an old cemetery that the city had almost forgotten about — which is a total Auburn thing to do, ignoring its own history — but they’d undertaken a big project about the time that I showed up to revitalize the place.

As well they should. I love this place. I’m not the sort of person that hangs out in cemeteries, but this place is special. There are about 100 Civil War soldiers there. The man my high school was named after is buried there. The names on the buildings and roads in Auburn are almost all buried right here, in Pine Hill. And somehow, one day, that stuck with me too. It wasn’t names and dates, but people’s lives. History isn’t an abstraction if you walk through the doors of a place named in honor of the person resting right here.

So, as I said, fitting that I would be here last. I saved it for just that reason. You can see my pictures from Pine Hill Cemetery right here. If you want to see all of Lee County, Alabama’s historical markers click here.