Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Today I walked 18 miles on an overcast and cool day. I left Tuscaloosa and walked through the towns of Fosters and Ralph, Alabama. It was 62 degrees and misty in the morning and 68 in the afternoon. The overcast skies made it perfect for walking – light sunburn risk. The gray skies didn’t make for good photos though.

I started the day at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. Stillman began in 1876 to train black Presbyterian Ministers. It has been in Tuscaloosa its entire lifetime. A beautiful campus, it has about 1,500 students. Here is a photo of the library. One thing that is almost universal about colleges is that at 7:30 AM (when I took the photo) the campus is almost deserted.  Same as LSU in 1980. Something else that is almost universal in colleges is the clocks are all wrong. Note the different time on the different faces of the clock. Same as LSU in 1980.

I continued walking on Route 11, and in ten miles I was out of town – way out of town. I like Tuscaloosa. It is a small city with three colleges. There is one of every national motel chain in town. There is one of every national store chain in town. There is one of every national restaurant chain in town. There is one of every national fast food chain in town. Shopping and dining are great, lots of variety. A suburbanites dream land.

Ten miles south on Route 11 and you are in a sparsely populated rural area. This is ten minutes from downtown and shopping and colleges and everything. It was a startling difference with no transition.

One nice thing was the first ten miles was all flat land. The last 15 miles entering Tuscaloosa were big hills – up and down and up and down. Flat land is much easier on the feet and the calves.

Fosters, Alabama Post Office

The first small town I walked through was Fosters. There is a Post Office (pictured here), a gas station, and an interstate exit on Route 11. The rest of the town is off on a side road.

The next small town was Ralph. I just love the name “Ralph, Alabama.” Ralph is not on Route 11, but on a side road named “The Ralph Loop.” I’m not making that up, there is this semi-circle road off the side of Route 11 called “The Ralph Loop.” I couldn’t resist. I never go off on the side roads to see towns, but I had to take “The Ralph Loop” (that should be the name of a book or a movie of something). I found a gas station, Bar-be-que place, fire station, and a U.S. Post Office – pictured here.

The shame is that neither Fosters nor Ralph have Wikipedia pages.

I ended the day just inside Greene County. I think every state has a Greene County.