Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

No rain today, that was nice. Heavy fog in the morning at 68 degrees and gray overcast skies at 80 degrees in the afternoon. I thought it would be cooler here by now. It is supposed to be in the mid-80s tomorrow. You get damp when walking in the fog.

I walked 19.5 miles today (according to the iPhone GPS). That is a bit farther than I wanted, but I found a milestone to hit and walked all the way to it – probably a bad choice.

I was surprised today by the scarcity of homes on Route 11. For most of this walk, we would almost never be farther than a quarter mile from a home. Today, I went a couple of miles between homes of any kind. The terrain was up and down and there were lots of pine trees everywhere.

A Church in Barnett, Mississippi

We didn’t pass through any towns today. Route 11 comes within a couple miles of Heidelberg. That is spelled with an “e” not a “u” in the -burg or -berg part. Can someone tell me what the “e” means?

I did walk through Barnett, Mississippi. It was a green sign on the side of the road, and that was it.

Barnett did have this church building (left) next to its sign. There were no signs at the building indicating which church it was, and if you look closely you can see that there is a padlock on the front door. There is a cemetery out back. I saw a memorial plaque on the front of the building that read “1935.” I don’t know if that is the age of the building or merely the age of the plaque. What is unusual is that most rural church buildings of this size and style are made of wood. This one is of brick. A handsome building.

A Purple House

Next along the road was this purple house (to the right, as if I had to tell you which photo was of a p u r p l e house ;). I guess the owner likes the color. I hope the owner likes the color. I would go for a shade of brown myself.

Where did the find these rocks?

Next was this stone lamp post. Folks, I haven’t seen many rocks in the fields around here. I haven’t seen natural rock in days. Where did they find all the rocks to build this post? There were three such posts here.

Then there was the Stafford Springs Restaurant. The sign to the right is a B I G sign. This used to be a restaurant and motel. I couldn’t tell how long it has been closed. My guess is 20 years, but not much longer than that.

The Stafford Springs Restaurant

Finally, to the title of this post, this photo shows a turn off to nowhere. I saw a couple of dozen of these. Back in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I would see stairways to nowhere. Those were concrete stops leading up from Route 11 to a patch of trees and brush. At one time a home sat on that patch.

Look closely at the photo. You can see the darker asphalt leaving the light gray road-way. To the right in the center of the photo is an old, old concrete pipe. This was once a driveway leading to a home, barn, or pasture. It only leads to trees and brush now.

Turn Off to Nowhere

Time passes by each of us. Concrete outlives us. Sometimes it is concrete steps to nowhere; sometimes it is concrete pipes under driveways to nowhere.