Blogs from Talladega, Alabama, United States, North America

The one about heat Since I had free wifi last night, I worked on the computer, got all my blog stuff set up, got my expenses spreadsheet ready to go and planned out my trip a little more. Before I knew it, it was midnight. I took Winston for a quick walk and the temperature had dropped significantly enough to turn off the A/C. I put on my fan and immediately fell asleep, no reading, no nothing. By the way, I have finished 2 books: Dead and Gone, Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) #9 and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I love the Sookie stories, light, fluffy, easy reading, and I do read these on my kindle rather than listen. I listened to Snow Flower; a real chick book, generally not my kind of reading, but ... read more

(Shocco Springs Conference Center) We’re serving Talladega, Alabama this month, at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center. (Talladega is about 120 miles west of Atlanta, and 40 miles east of Birmingham.) I mentioned that the trees were bare when we left Kentucky, but they were green with just a hint of color when we arrived here, and two weeks later the ground is covered with red and yellow leaves! I have a whole different perspective on autumn leaves now, because we don’t have to rake them, and we don’t have to look at bare trees for the next five months! So as they drift down, and pile up on the grass, it’s nothing but beautiful! We were to have six couples on this team, but one man was hurt on the last project and had to go ... read more

Lost in America March 2009 H. Wayne Cleghorn After deciding to drive from Reno, NV to Colorado on Highway 50, I booked my flight to Reno and return flight to Atlanta. Then I started a close examination of what lie on Highway 50 between eastern Nevada and central Utah. To my surprise, almost nothing. There are very few gas stations, and even fewer hotels. My options were to gas up at the last gas station in Nevada and hope I could make it to the first gas station in Utah. Visions of me walking away from a rental car with an empty gas tank kept dancing in my head. So, I made an executive decision. I would still fly to Reno, but instead of driving east, I would drive west. I decided to drive through nothern ... read more

(Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center) Happy Thanksgiving, tomorrow! The camp is closed Wednesday through Sunday, so we had a two day work week! When we first got to Talladega I said this is a surprisingly small town; I expected a city, because we’ve heard so much about Talladega Superspeedway~~a famous NASCAR track. The population is a little over 17,000 but the shopping area is small, with way too many empty store fronts, and the residential area is spread over a large area. Many of the residents work in Birmingham. Talladega doesn’t give the appearance of a thriving community. It does have a section of fast food/Walmart-type stores, although that’s small, too. One really fun part of it is the “square”. The downtown stores are built in a square, with the court house in the middle of ... read more

(Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center) We arrived at Shocco Springs Friday afternoon to find fall colors just in their peak! At Carson Springs they had lost their brilliance, but here they’re still bright. AND we don’t have to rake leaves!! We’re parked in spots with trees surrounding us, and we’re on level ground~~two things you don’t often find at camps! There are six couples, and for the very first time, we’re meeting up with couples we’ve worked with on other projects….Mo and Leona from our September project in Michigan; Earl and Nancy from last fall’s projects at Silver Spur and Victory Ranch; and then Marvin and Jackie, and Gary and Sharon from Carson Springs…it’s like a mini-reunion! We have new friends, Larry and Carol, too. And something else new to us: we’re meeting with two couples ... read more