Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Today I left the Birmingham area and walked through McCalla and Woodstock, Alabama. The day was cool – 60 in the morning and 75 in the evening with clouds in the morning and sun in the afternoon. I walked 16 miles and drove three miles.

At the southern end of Birmingham, Route 11 runs concurrent with Interstate 59. You can’t walk on the interstate. There is an old road called (what else) the Old Tuscaloosa Highway that runs parallel to I-59 for eight miles. I walked along that road. There comes a point when there is no road parallel to I-59, so I drove those three miles on the interstate. Once, Route 11 exits, I walked eight more miles.

I couldn’t find McCalla (two c’s two l’s two a’s) on the map, but I walked by its Post Office. I put a photo of that Post Office on the Wikipedia page for McCalla. This was along the Old Tuscaloosa Highway. Also along that highway was this place – The Green Lantern. The sign on the front says it opened sometime in the 1920s. I couldn’t find any information on it anywhere, but it looks interesting from the outside.

The Green Lantern

At the end of the Old Tuscaloosa Highway was the town of Bucksville. At least I think it was Bucksville. The map said Bucksville, but all the signs on all the businesses and churches said Tannehill. Could someone from Alabama explain this to me?

After three miles on I-59, Route 11 exited again and the road was a four-lane divided highway for four miles. That was nice in that the shoulder was wider. The bad part is that traffic goes fast, makes a lot of noise, and a lot of wind.

Along that stretch of road I saw this fire station. It is the Green Pond Fire Department #2. Somewhere out there is the Green Pond Fire Department #1. I couldn’t find Green Pond on any maps.

Next on the road is the town of Woodstock. I put a photo of the businesses of Woodstock on its Wikipedia page. Woodstock looks pretty big because it is on the four-lane road. It has a few banks, a few gas stations, a few churches, and a medical center.

An Amtrak passenger train blew by me going south in the early afternoon. That is only the second train I have seen in Alabama, and the first passenger train.

Now to the horns. Drivers in Alabama honk their horns. The drivers in Tennessee and Virginia had their own peculiarities (I wasn’t in Georgia long enough to notice anything there). Here in Alabama it is the horn. I could be walking one edge of a four-lane divided highway and a car passes on the far edge of the highway – it doesn’t matter, the driver will honk their horn at me. Now I have checked all the variables in this situation. There wasn’t anyone or anything else in the area to honk at. The driver honked at me.

I hear honking horns a dozen times a day. I can accept that someone would honk at me when they are a hundred yards up the road and approaching me so that I don’t wander out in front of them, but they honk when they are even with me. I don’t get it. Maybe I am just too tired to understand.

I walked in three counties today. I think that is some sort of record.