Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Yesterday (see note below) I walked 13 miles. I walked through Keener, Alabama. Keener is not even a wide spot in the road as the road stays a narrow two lanes wide. It is a dot on the map and even has a little green highway sign announcing its presence. I didn’t see any post office or anything like that. There are a few churches and two gas stations spread out over about six miles of road.

My good fortune with the weather ended today. I walked six miles first thing in the morning, but stopped when rain came. I can stand some rain, but The Weather Channel radar on my iPhone showed major storms coming. They came and dumped a half inch of rain in a couple of hours. I waited out the rain and hit the road again at 3 in the afternoon. I was able to do seven more miles before daylight faded. I don’t walk before or after daylight.

I am still in a narrow valley. The best I can tell it is called Little Wills Valley. I remain surprised by the amount of stone I see. Here are two photos of this. This first is probably an old pump shed for a well. It is built of small stones.

The next really impressed me. This is a white house sitting atop a large stone foundation. The current house is ten years old at the oldest. The foundation looks much older. Its size tells me that the original house was much larger than the one

A large stone foundation

that is there now.

The final photo from the Keener area is this old store. The sign reads “E. D. Amos, General Merchandise.” I don’t know how long it has been since this was open. It is a nice old building.

E. D. Amos General Merchandise

The forecast for next week is for cooler and drier air. I can go for that.

NOTE: I usually write these blog posts in the evening after the day’s walk is done. This post is unusual in that I wrote it Sunday morning September 27th after walking the day before. I was just too tired Saturday evening to do write. This is because I was on the road until 6PM due to the weather.