Helena, Alabama

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 56 degrees, high 85 degrees, clear skies

After taking care of an errand for Terri in Tuscaloosa, Carolyn and I decided to take a road trip. It has been awhile since we have gotten out and done any exploring to speak of. We headed through Tuscaloosa on US 82 east, passing through rolling countryside to the east of town. The first little town we came to was Brent, which is where my father was born in 1917. At Brent, we turned north on Alabama 5, which led us to the little town of West Blocton, which is where my mother was born in 1923. At the time she was born, that area was booming, with several coal mines running. Her father was a farmer and a supervisor for one of the mines. When my mother was eight years old, her father passed away, leaving his family with a farm but no money in the Great Depression. She eventually moved to Florida and married my father, and they lived there for many years.

Carolyn has done a lot of genealogical research on both sides of my family, and found much information about my mother's side. My father's side, however, is another story. It appears that his family set up and ran saw mills. When the timber was used up in an area, they would move on to the next place. That tended to make it difficult to track where they lived, or eventually passed away and were buried. The little bit she has found makes you want to dig deeper and deeper to find where the Simmons side of the family came from. My father said that our ancestors are from Ireland, but we have nothing to base that on. We probably have a lot of relatives in this area, but we don't know any of them.

West Blocton looks like it has been forgotten by time. The downtown area is nothing but old, falling down buildings, with only one building being used as a laundry. Kudzu is overtaking many of the older houses. It was probably a bustling place years ago. Now, it looks like it is waiting to collapse.

After leaving West Blocton, we drove on up Alabama 5, turning east on a county road that led us through one of the prettiest little valleys that we have seen in a long time. It was almost alpine in appearance, and if we didn't know better, we would have thought we were in the mountains of North Carolina.

Eventually, we ended up in Helena, which we had never heard of before. This area is really growing, and was listed on Money magazine's list of 100 best places to live in 2007. It looks like the town is a bedroom community for Birmingham. While driving through town, we noticed that they have a Backyard Burgers restaurant. Since it was lunch time, and Backyard Burgers is our favorite fast food burger, we stopped and had lunch. Ummm, good!

After lunch, we continued looking around some more, then headed home. After getting home, we did the meditation thing. About 1800 hours, Terri called and invited us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. The food was good, and we enjoyed being with her and Thomas. After getting back home, I did some clean up on the truck, then we settled in for the night. All in all, a pretty good day.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Helena, Alabama: Alabama’s Fastest Growing Town

Not all who wander are lost.