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
More Toward Realism than Fantasy
I've always been drawn more toward realism than fantasy, because it seems to me that realism is endlessly interesting and finally indeterminable. Realism is a species of fantasy that's much more integrated and hard-core than fantasy itself, but if you are ready to come to grips with the inevitable slipperiness of most available facts, you come to recognize that realism is not a direct approach to the truth so much as it is the most concentrated form of fantasy.
Birds and Lions, Norman Mailer, the New Yorker, December 23 & 30, 2002