We awoke to a cool damp dawn on the forest floor. A quick breakfast of grits and whey and we were on our whey. It was 15 miles to the first town, Uniontown AL. We passed through towards Demopolis.
At the border of Demopolis stands a sign saying “City of the People, established 1817”. We made our way to the McDonald’s for coffee and electricity to charge ourselves and our phones.
After a long pit stop at Micky-D’s, which included an interesting conversation with a local family of catfish farmers that had spotted us on the road, we went on to find a place to camp. Our tent is pitched tonight behind a friendly gardening shop.
Demopolis is a very ornate town of around 7,000 people built on the Black Warrior River. Apparently the town is one of the oldest settlements in Alabama, originally founded by Bonapartists fleeing France after the fall of Napoleon. We were lucky enough to enjoy the 48th annual “Christmas on the River” boat parade. Their tag line being “the only parade where the floats actually float”. We will definitely have to return to this interesting town another time.
It occurs to me that Demopolis is the first white majority town we have seen since Luverne AL several days ago. The racial legacy of Alabama seems to persist. Every one of the lovely rural towns we have passed through since Luverne has been exclusively populated by black people. I only mention the racial clustering because it is incredibly noticeable and consistently true.
Route info for interested readers:
Dallas County Road 1 took us up through Uniontown and from there it was the big Highway 80 into Demopolis. Very roomy shoulders but loud traffic… Thank goodness for earplugs!
There and Back Again 