Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - Tuscaloosa AL
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The Bobby Joe James on the Tombigbee River, Dec 14, 2007
There's not much to report today except that, having had enough of the interstates for a while, I worked my way south from Shelbyvile TN by taking US 231 south through Huntsville AL and then AL 69 south through rolling southern yellow pine forest into Tuscaloosa.
Hanging out in bookstores
I miss my favorite Barnes & Noble in Pittfield MA and this may be my last chance to hang out in bookstores for a while. Unless I can find one in Demopolis I'll be out of range of a bookstore. So tomorrow I'll spend some time at the Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million bookstores here in Tuscaloosa before I head on to Demopolis.
Night Camp
Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Tuscaloosa AL
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa AL
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #715, 1501 Skyland Blvd E, Tuscaloosa, AL 35405 - (205) 750-0823
This Wal-Mart is one of my favorite parking lots for overnight dry camping. There is good, level parking and access to lots of shopping and services useful to the traveler.
- Good level parking, reasonably quiet
- Books-a-Million & Michaels Craft store across the road
- U-Haul propane nearby, Lowe's and Home Depot 1 mile
- Major shopping centers nearby
- Verizon cell phone service is excellent
- Verizon EVDO Broadband service is excellent
- Find other Wal-Marts in the area
- Check the weather here
The Heliograph in the Apache Wars
"The mountains and the sun...were made his allies, the eyes of his command, and the carriers of swift messages. By a system of heliograph signals, communications were sent with almost incredible swiftness; in one instance a message traveled seven hundred miles in four hours. The messages, flashed by mirrors from peak to peak of the mountains, disheartened the Indians as they crept stealthily or rode swiftly through the valleys, assuring them that all their arts and craft had not availed to conceal their trails, that troops were pursuing them and others awaiting them. The telescopes of the Signal Corps, who garrisoned the rudely built but impregnable works on the mountains, permitted no movement by day, no cloud of dust even in the valleys below to escape attention. Little wonder that the Indians thought that the powers of the unseen world were confederated against them."