Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

I stopped walking about 3PM every day. Every day, that is, except for two. Once near Attalla, Alabama there was a midday storm. I waited for the storm to pass and then walked in the humid, cloudy aftermath from 3 to 6 PM. The second day I walked after 3PM is the subject of this story.

This episode centers about the little town of Boligee, Alabama and a mid-morning rain storm. I had walked south out of Eutaw on an overcast morning. Around 10AM the heavy rains came. I sat in the Boligee Diner and waited for the rain to stop. I grabbed a really good hamburger to go at noon and started walking.

The sky cleared; the sun shone brightly. It was a warm afternoon.

This was in early October – the Fall of the year. The sun stays fairly low in the sky during the Fall. Even if it doesn’t set until after 6PM, but at 3PM it is sinking low. My Tilley Hat works great, but it doesn’t cover my face. The low sun peaks under the wide brim just enough to uncomfortable.

Another thing happens between 3 and 5 PM – the road and heat. The road had soaked heat most of the day. Now it was time to give back the heat.

Sun, heat, afternoon – all this combined to produce more heat and light coming up from the road than coming down from the sky. The wide brim of my Tilley Hat now served to trap the from-the-road heat and light on my face. I could have taken off the hat, but that would have let the sun in the sky burn my head.

I left Boligee at noon and walked until 5PM. I stopped on the south side of Epes. The good part was that the landscape between these towns (some eight miles) was flat as water. It was also straight. The walking was relatively easy.

After getting off the road, I ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant outside of Livingston, Alabama. The food wasn’t good. I, however, was hungry and ate it quickly – too quickly. A little dehydrated from the double dose of sun and heat, I downed three or four glasses of iced tea – too quickly. The night was the only one in which I felt sick. Too much sun and heat and too much food and drink consumed too quickly.

The weather cooperated enough so that I didn’t have any more 3 to 5 PM walks in the sun. And I learned how not to eat dinner.