MILEAGE RECAP – LEG 3 AND CUMULATIVE TOTAL

Leg 3 carried us from downtown Union Springs to just north of LaFayette.  Our ending point is about a mile up Highway 77 at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church (we think that is the name of the church).  The total mileage for 3^rd Leg was 64.4 giving a total mileage since Gulf Shores at 305.5 miles.  This places us at about half way up the state.  This leg has generated many more friends for us.  We met several interesting people and have many interesting stories and great memories established for us.  Thanks to all that have checked on us, offered support, came out to meet us, walked with us, and followed us on the blog.  Once again, we do not know when we will get to continue with the next Leg but David and I are excited and can’t wait to get to do it again!

BASE CAMP WAS AT CHEWACLA STATE PARK

Chewacla was a great base camp for us.  It was basically centrally located for this leg.  It is a great campground and I recommend it for a good getaway location.  It has been many years since I had been there and I was pleasantly surprised to see how great the park is now.  We also met some great folks here as well.  John Oldman was the camp host, Kenny and Shari Coons were camp volunteers that have duties at the campground as well.  We were camped in the Primitive Campground near the Watts Loop where these folks were camped.  Each of them was very helpful and we always enjoyed conversation in the evening as we got back to camp.  Mark Walden was camped next to us and kept us supplied with firewood.  Camping and Hiking is a great way to meet new folks, if you haven’t tried it, Get Packing!

PICTURE STORY OF THE TREES - FROM SATURDAY TO TUESDAY

 Saturday afternoon while the A-Day game was going on and before the closing of College Street for the festivities planned for Saturday evening.

 Sunday morning a view of the trees as we drove through town headed to our starting point.

 This picture of the crews taking down the trees was downloaded from facebook on Tuesday.

The view after trees removed. This photo was sent to me from Margaret Nicolosi, another new friend met during the walk.

PICTURES AND COMMENTS FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON - APRIL 21,2013

 We walked out of church and just beyond driveway we entered Chambers County.  Chambers is the tenth county we have walked in during our Walk up Alabama venture.

 We did not get very many chances to have our pictures made together on this trip, or so it seemed.  This picture was made by Margaret Nicolosi when we stopped and visited with she and Joe.  I made a picture of David with Joe and Margaret and that is one of the ones we are having technical difficulties with.  I hope to get that resolved and post several more pictures.

 The closed door and front step of the Boxcar Store with David barefoot, resting and eating.

I am sitting on my backpacking stool in front of the door, boots off, enjoying food from the pack and resting.  When Bethany saw this picture I understand she told Cathy "Mom, Dad and David look like they are homeless!"

 Finally as you can tell by the long shadow it is late in the day and we have made it to LaFayette!!  Yippee, food if anything is still open.

 These two ladies saying "Welcome to Subway!" was a welcomed sight for sure.  Probably the best Sub I have ever had!

 Just click on picture and read, I always take a picture of all historical markers we pass.

 Another marker and both of these were in front of the Chambers County Courthouse.

And I didn't know that the World Champion HeavyWeight fighter Joe Louis (Barrow) was from Chambers County until I went to the front of the courthouse to take the pictures of the Historical markers and saw this statue.

PICTURES AND COMMENTS FROM SUNDAY MORNING -- APRIL 21, 2013

 Sunday Morning driving through town getting to the starting point.  TP was all up and down College Street and the crews were cleaning it up but the trees were still holding the rolls!

 Dalton in Gold Hill with one of the old beautiful farm houses in background.

 David by the tracks in Gold Hill.

 David walking up the hill approaching Macedonia Baptist Church.

 The Sunday School Class we attended.

 The Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church.  Left to right: Dalton, Sister Shirley Cadenhead, Pastor Robert Cadenhead, and David.  Pastor Robert, you and your entire congregation made us feel welcomed and loved.  Thank you for the sweet spirit your congregation has and keep up the good work for the Lord!

 Dalton and Sister Shirley sharing contact information while the worship service was being called to order.

Dalton on the steps of Macedonia Baptist Church

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY – APRIL 21, 2103

Saturday night brought visitors to the campsite.  Randy Aldridge and his son Jackson joined us and camped with us.  We enjoyed the benefit of a campfire and the fellowship of friends around the fire.  Also, Jackson had brought a dutch oven and cooked pretzels on the campfire for us.  Great job Jackson!  They were delicious and it was a secret recipe so we can’t duplicate the cooking.  We all had a great time!  Sunday morning we had breakfast together before David and I set out for the full day walk.  Breakfast was at Waffle House so it can be duplicated!!

SUNDAY WALK

Pictures made on Sunday will be in a separate post.

Sunday morning we started our walk from the Cowboy Church on Hiway 280 at 9:10.  It was like we were programmed to start at 9:10.  All 3 mornings that was our start time, certainly not planned with the way we had to shuttle each day to get to the starting point.  Sunday’s shuttle was the absolute best.  We drove David’s car to the start point and started walking.  Larry and Nancy Witt had been so supportive and helpful to us and David had pre-arranged for them to pick us up at whatever distance we could make.  A Big Thank You to Larry and Nancy!! 

The starting point at the Cowboy Church on 280 is where Highway 147 crosses going north. 

David had scouted out the route north of Auburn on Thursday morning and had some notes on locations and mileages.  As we started walking we were estimating mileages and times  guessing that we would be going by a church while in session.  Also, we could then make a station/store/deli a little after 1:00 and have lunch there.  Well the only thing that worked was getting to church. 

We walked through the community of Gold Hill and the entire morning had been a beautiful walk.  Beautiful farms and homes galore, the day was bright, crisp and comfortable for walking and around a curve and there was the church in view at the top of the hill.  We got to the church and the sign said Sunday School at 10:00 and Worship Service at 11:00.  It was Macedonia Baptist Church and the time was between 10:30 -10:35.  We decided to go into the sanctuary to see what we could learn about the SS classes.  The adult Sunday school class was meeting in the sanctuary so we took off our packs and sat down and enjoyed the last few minutes of a lesson well taught from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 about the coming of the Lord and to be ready.  After the lesson we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and to share a little of what we were doing.   We actually stayed thru the music worship time before departing and heading on our way.  Just a few steps from the church we crossed into Chambers County.  That placed us in the 10^th county thus far in walking up the state.   

Highway 147 continued to be one of the prettiest walk areas thus far with the forests, the farms, and old houses with much history around them.  We were about a mile from highway 431 where lunch break was to be and I spotted an older plantation style home and was admiring the home.  Walking by and approaching the house closer there was the lady of the house in the front yard working with some flowers.  We of course spoke as always but this time started a conversation.  Her husband was toward the back of the house and he came around and joined us.  After chatting for a minute it was time to take off packs and look around.  A gracious couple and shared some history of the farm, the house was built in 1880’s to 90’s.  The couple was Joe and Margaret Nicolosi and their farm name was Rawhide Hollow named after their pet dog “Rawhide” from days gone by.  One of Joe’s interest is beekeeping and the production of honey.  And we have a small bottle of honey to prove it, Thanks Joe and Margaret for sharing time during our walk with us.  We put the packs on and told them where we were stopping to eat and David made the comment “I sure hope they are open” and Joe stated “Well, sometimes they are and sometimes they are not.”  That comment from a local made me start thinking this place is going to be closed and the next place to eat is 10 miles from here and at 3 miles per hour lunch would be supper!

Well, sure enough in another mile we happened up on Hiway 431 and the Boxcar Store.  It was closed.

So as you will see from the pictures we took a pack off break and had lunch out of the backpacks, rested, stretched and went on our way up 431 headed to Lafayette.  About a mile up 431 a guy was cutting grass and stopped his mower and talked with us offering to get us some water or anything we might need.  We tried to get him to walk with us a little ways but he opted to stay.  He said he was going to check on us on Monday and I need to find out if the Nicolosi’s know him so I can get word to him we canceled Monday’s walk. (Sidenote: David’s son, Jason, got sick Sunday with a virus and since we were that close by thank goodness. David could take care of him and we stopped Leg 3 on Sunday night.)  We made it on in to Lafayette without incident and Subway was the choice and the first stop!  A great Sub sandwich for energy to push us on til dark.  I met a nice couple at the Subway and discussed driving routes from Wadley back to Montgomery for the drive back home.  At this time we didn’t know we were canceling  the Monday walk.  I did not get their names.  Big mistake twice.  Didn’t get Bob’s full name when he was offering to help and didn’t get this couples name. 

At any rate, after we had the nourishment from Subway we may our way on into and thru Lafayette and when we turned onto highway  77 David called the Witts and they were on their way to pick us up,  we made it a little over a mile further up Hiway 77 and stopped at an entrance to a church.  The Witts picked us up and carried us back to David’s car and this became the final day of Leg 3.

SATURDAY - APRIL 20, 2013 - MORE PICTURES

 Jonathan West at Avondale Bar & Tap Room.

 The Tuttle's that we met in Avondale.

David's friend and co-worker when at Auburn.  Julie Nolen, her daughter and a friend.

SATURDAY – APRIL 20, 2013 – DOWNTOWN AUBURN

It turned out good for us to walk through downtown Auburn while the A-Day game was being played and the final day of rolling the trees.  And the rest of the story is it was not planned.  Our biggest concern was walking through downtown with close to 200,000 people present and us with backpacks on.  We didn’t have any problems at all.  Our day of walking started at 9:10 a.m. from the State Forestry office where we ended the rainy day walk on Friday.  Pictures were made there before we started walking.  As we were walking the major discussion was safety with all the traffic coming into town from I-85 onto Hiway 29 (College Street) and there is a picture made after crossing the interstate and walking toward town.  As it turned out we crossed over to the sidewalk and it was no problem keeping the pace.  The worst walking took place later in the day as we were walking out of Auburn on Highway 147 going toward Highway 280.  It was two lane and a large amount of traffic both ways.  A rough 4 miles to walk with no shoulder on the road forcing us to be back and forth off road to rough terrain and back for smooth road.  This type walking generated some blister issues for David.

Pictures along the way that you will see is Welcome to Auburn, me in front of Commons where my daughter Bethany lived during her freshman year.  Then the pictures from around the trees and Toomers Corner.

Right beside Toomers Corner is Avondale Bar and Tap Room, and David’s friend Jonathan West that walked in the rain with us on Friday tends bar there.  Since he was on duty we stopped in for a visit and a pack-off break.  Of course that was a Kodak moment so there is a picture of us.  While in Avondale we met some new friends and visited with them during our break.  We met Seth and Malti Tuttle from Atlanta back in Auburn for the weekend (Malti’s home town.)  They were sharing with us some adventure trips they have coming up and David and I are hoping to get reports from them as well.  A super nice couple and they were gracious enough to have a picture made with us.

We decided at this point to enjoy the fanfare on the street a little more and had lunch at Five Guys.  At this point the A-Day game was being played with approximately 83,000 people in the stadium and at least that many on College Street.  David had already stopped in J&M Bookstore to visit some friends and then during lunch he saw more friends as well.  Pictures from here are included as well.  While having lunch a young lady (Julie Nolen) walked up that David had worked with at the University.  Pictured in here somewhere is David with Julie and friends.

After lunch we proceeded on walking out College Street onto Highway 147.    We saw more friends of David’s from his years living in Auburn.  Also this route carried us in front of  “The Empire”, David’s home in his early years at Auburn.  A picture of David with the new owners of the empire is also included.  The new owners are repairing and renovating, David was appreciative of the restoration but I don’t think he wants to move back to it!!

We finally made it to our destination the end of the days walk logging 15 miles.  Our stopping point was the Cowboy Church on Hiway 280.