Hair Band

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 48 degrees, high 74 degrees, mostly cloudy

When I went for my morning walk, the temperature was about 52 degrees. Bracing, but it felt good. It was a great morning for a walk. No sweating, no bugs, just nice weather. It reminds me of the trip we took out west in 2004. We left Texas in late March, and wore jackets almost every day until we got back in Texas in early August. Amazing.

Today was fairly slow. After my walk, we stayed around the RV until lunch, which we ate at home. Then we went out to Terri's and worked on getting some of her stuff that is no longer needed ready for sale. Terri went to Atlanta with some of her friends to see one of the old hair bands from the 1980s, Duran Duran. When we lived near Lakeland, Florida back in 1983, I took them to see the same band. No, I didn't stay inside for the concert, but they were allowed to see the concert, and I picked them up afterward. It will be interesting to see how Terri thinks the band has aged. Personally, that kind of music is not my cup of tea. When we were living near Glen Rose, Texas, Lori took her kids to see U2 in Dallas. Again, not my kind of music. Give me a good country music concert or a blue grass festival, or even better, The Eagles. Now, that's music.

While at Terri's, I noticed that the shop had some water, mud, and sand that had run into the building during the last rain event. When I looked for where the rain had come from, I noticed that a piece of siding had not been installed properly near the bottom, which allowed unwanted water and mud inside. I found some screws and tightened up the loose metal. Hopefully, that will fix that little problem. It's always something.

More history of the area we are in: Tuscaloosa suffered quite a lot of damage during the Civil War. The University was burned for the most part, as was much of the town and the bridges. As part of an effort to rebuild the city and civic pride, Tuscaloosa took the nickname of "The Druid City". The name is tied to the city's large number of water oaks. These great trees were revered by the ancient order of the Druid. The Druids were a priest class of the Celtics. They served the tribes and clans as judges, prophets, soothsayers, wise men and as keepers of the collective memory. They were the intellectuals in a warrior society. The word 'druid' is thought to derive from the Greek drus (oak) and the Indo-European wid (wisdom), "which produces the apparent absurdity of 'oak-knower'. In any case, druids are typically associated with oak trees. Some say they held assemblies in sacred groves, that they prized the mistletoe growing on the oaks, or that they worshipped the trees themselves.

Just another interesting bit of worthless (?) information.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The Druid City

Not all who wander are lost.