Expect High Gas Bills For Two Months
In the issue of natural gas rates, there's the good new and the bad news. The good news is that the wholesale rates dropped slightly at the closing of last month, and Piedmont utility officials have been able to keep rates lower than expected. The bad news is the weather has been colder than usual, there's more cold weather on the way, and rates are predicted to jump in January.
Earlier in the month, the rates had doubled over last year, but Lee Young, manager of the City Water, Sewer and Gas departments, said there had been no marked increase at the close of December. while bills were higher, Young said this was due to unusually cold weather, rather than higher rates. The lower rate that was in effect in November was used to compute December's utility bills.
Next month, however, a higher rate will probably be used. According to figures at city hall, the wholesale price of gas went down slightly in late December. A decatherm is the amount of gas necessary to generate 1,000 BTUs of gas, and a year ago a decatherm was selling for $7. At one point last month, the price skyrocketed to nearly $16 per decatherm, but had dropped to $12.28 by the end of the month.
While the price dropped, it still represents a 54-percent increase in the wholesale cost of the fuel. In addition, Young said forecasters had advised utility companies that a colder-than-normal January was expected. The higher rates and lower temperatures will combine for a one-two punch on higher utility bills.
At the last City Council meeting, officials agreed to begin buying natural gas from Tennergy, a Tennessee-based fuel supplier. According to the council, the company seeks out the lowers possible rates on gas, then re-sells it to its member cities. At the meeting, Young told the panel that the company should be able to save about $30,000 per year on natural gas costs. Those savings, however, will not come until February.

Cheaha Challenge Listed Among Top Ten 2006 Attractions
Piedmont may see an influx of visitors during the Cheaha Challenge in May if Gov. Bob Riley recommendations are taken to heart.
The Governor recently endorsed this yearıs top ten travel recommendations made by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel staff, that included the annual Sunny King Criterium and Cheaha Challenge bicycle event in Anniston and Piedmont as number nine.
The staff at the bureau selected the top ten from 1,300 events listed in the 2005 Alabama Calendar of Events and Riley encouraged Alabamians to attend as many festivals and special events during the year as possible to show their pride in the state and increase the stateıs annual $7.3 billion in travel revenues. According to recent press release, the travel industry accounts for some 157,000 jobs in Alabama or approximately 8.3 percent of all non-agricultural employment.
The Sunny King Criterium is scheduled in Anniston on May 6, and Cheaha Challenge will be in Piedmont on May 7. Event coordinators expect over 500 cyclists from 20 states to participate in the event, which also features sidewalk dining, an arts festival and live music for spectators.
The Cheaha Challenge is a recreational century ride organized by the Northeast Alabama Bicycle Club in Anniston and hosted by the City of Piedmont. First organized in 1992, the ride leads cyclists along the beautiful, rugged terrain of the Talladega Mountains in the Talladega National Forest, the true foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.Called the ³Toughest Ride in the South,² the event is known for its steep climbs and 55-plus mph descents and is not considered a race, although event coordinators do keep take of times. Chandler Weekes, of Greenville, SC, holds the course record for the tour with a time of 4:33:40. Riders are not required to ride the complete 102 mile route. Shorter routes are available with little or no significant climbing.
Alabama Speedweek in Birmingham and Talladega tops the suggested list, followed by the Red Snapper World Championship in Orange Beach and the Regions Champions Tour Event in Hoover.
Bellingrath Gardens Chrysanthemums Extravaganza in Mobile ranks fourth, followed by Rogersvilleıs Eagle Weekend and Huntsvilleıs Big Spring Jam. The Outdoor Alabama Expo is listed seventh, followed by the exhibition ³Mummy: The Inside Story² at the Gulf Coast Exploreum in Mobile. The Cheaha Challenge was ninth on the list and 10th is the Southern Wildlife Festival in Decatur.
2006 is being promoted as ³The Year of Outdoor Alabama.² The 2006 Calendar of Events has a special section devoted to the over 140 outdoor events and festivals taking place in Alabama during the year. A separate brochure titled ³100 Outdoor Adventures in Alabama² lists great outdoor activities all over the state.
Both the 2006 Calendar of Events and the ³100 Outdoor Adventures in Alabama² brochure are available at Alabama Welcome Center, online at www.800alabama.com, or by calling 1-800-Alabama.

2005; A Year That Produced Progress And Many Changes
The previous 12 months have seen a number of changes in the community, and there have been some far-reaching developments. Here's a recap of the stories that made headlines in 2005.
JANUARY
In the first month of the year, crews began paving the streets in the downtown improvement project and the area had a slightly eerie feeling after sunset, as there were no street lights or traffic signal. Unexpected delays in receiving the federal funding for the project caused the city a financial crunch as they waited for reimbursement from the state Department of Transportation for expenses paid out of city funds to contractors on the project.
After months of delay and several requests by city officials, an appeal was made to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers who had his staff track down the root of the problem. By the end of the month, the city had received $84,000 in reimbursement checks from the state and City Clerk Bill Fann declared, ³Weıre not broke anymore.² Officials expected the new streets lights to be installed the first week of February.
Warmer temperatures at the end of January gave paving contractors the opportunity to apply asphalt on Dailey Street and residents no longer had to endure the bumpy ride caused by nearly 60 patches in the road.
The City Council was presented with a resolution to officially name the Civic Center for long-time supervisor Clyde Pike and passed the motion in mid-February.
FEBRUARY
Local police officers seized a Georgia man for trying to pass counterfeit bills at Gregersonıs in the Piedmont Plaza Shopping Center. The man tried to wire money but store employees recognized the bills as counterfeit and kept the man occupied until police officer Stephen Oaks arrived. The suspect was released into the custody of Secret Service agents who later seized computer equipment used to produce the bills at a home between Jacksonville and Anniston.
City officials and employees began to work out the kinks of merging the water, gas, sewer and electrical charges into a single bill. The centralized billing system was complicated by customers who did not receive all their services from the cityıs utility departments. Fann indicated the possibility of implementing an ³average billing² plan to ease the peak in natural gas bills in cold winter months and high electrical bills during sweltering summers.
No action was taken by the City Council on the idea and at yearıs end customers were still under the old roller-coaster system.
Local Disabled American Veterans members continued to work towards the building of a veteransı cemetery south of Piedmont. They ran into a snag, however, when state legislators balked at the cost to the state.
City crews installed plywood on the lower half of the Piedmont Elementary School gym and installing insulation on the inside of the building. At a meeting between city officials and the School Board, the board requested the city allocate $50,000 in its budget for the purchase of reading textbooks for the school system.
The Alabama Municipal Electric Authority granted the City $5,000 to aid in the purchase of awnings for downtown businesses.
MARCH
Mountain View sought the permission of the City to perform $200,000 worth of renovations at the old Southside Elementary School building, including the addition of bedrooms, classrooms and other facilities. Under the plan, the bed capacity was increased from 16 to 40, and two additional programs were planned. A part of the plan was to create educational facilities for the young students instead of sending them to local schools. The measure to accept the proposal passed on a 4-1 vote, with Councilwoman Mary Bramblett casting the dissenting vote. Mayor Charlie Fagan and Councilman John Lawrence were both absent from the meeting due to illness.
After the renovations were completed, the companyıs rent was to be increased from $2,650 to $3,500 per month.
Council members requested the assistance of the state Department of Transportation in cleaning up the trash, used furniture and other debris being dumped at the Hannah Home collection boxes on the Ala. 200 Bypass. They also authorized Fagan and Fann to begin negotiations with Jerry Masters for the purchase of the old PCS Insurance building next door to the present city administration building.
Contractors worked extended hours to complete the installation of the new lighting fixtures in the downtown area. The traffic light in the middle of town was still missing.
Another victorious basketball season ended as the Spring Garden Lady Panthers clinched their second consecutive AHSAA 1A basketball championship by defeating the Hazelwood Golden Bears 82-58. The boysı team lost in the semi-finals to the Autaugaville Eagles but finished the season ranked fourth in the state. It was the fist time since 1979 that the boys made it to the Final Four in Birmingham. Both teams were honored during the 11th annual ³Evening in the Garden² celebration.
APRIL
When the Alabama Department of Environmental Management claimed Piedmontıs lagoon did not remove 85 percent of the pollutants from the sewage before releasing it, city officials went to Montgomery to explain why the local sewage treatment system is no threat to the environment, even though it did not meet a particular requirement. According to Fann, the water going into the lagoon is not sufficiently polluted and makes it impossible for the required percentage of pollutants to be removed. The engineers from Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood represented local and other interests in the meeting.
Clyde Pike was honored as Fagan unveiled a sign officially proclaiming the old ³Y² as the Clyde H. Pike Civic Center in an event packed weekend mid-April. Pike and his wife traveled from Huntsville for the event and were joined by a host of admirers at a reception following the unveiling.
Other weekend events included the opening of the youth sports season at the Piedmont Sports Complex, a city-wide yard sale and the 13th annual Cheaha Challenge. At the Sports Complex, former participants were on hand for a reunion and ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of Dixie Youth Baseball.
Fann presented the City Council with a sample ordinance for the downtown area. The sample set the area as the four-block downtown business district, bordered on the east and west by Church and Main streets, and Southern Boulevard and Seaboard Avenue on the south and north. It called for no trucks to be allowed on the new streets, deliveries to be made at the rear entrance of stores, the speed limit to be 20 mph, parking to limited to striped parking places and a one- or two-hour parking limit. The final ordinance was passed in November.
Fann announced that the cityıs annual audit was complete and ³really good.² He noted that the report was ³a much more comprehensive and detailed report that we have had. The city is solvent. Weıre in good shape.² The report on all funds showed the city was under budget and the general expenditures and utilities fund showed a surplus of $819,439.
Drs. Rey and Joy Gavino met with city officials to discuss the opening of a medical office in a city-owned building on Rome Avenue. The council approved Faganıs request to lease the office to the couple for six months, then renew the lease for an additional six months, with an option for a long-term agreement at the end of the first year.
The council also adopted a motion to purchase two police cars, received a copy of the new zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations, received a copy of a proposed TV cable franchise agreement and saw documents showing that engineers could save the city nearly $150,000 on improvements to the sewage treatment lagoon. They also approved the purchase of new Christmas decorations for the downtown area.
MAY
City officials and employees began testing the new computer hardware and software to be used in billing utility customers in a single statement. A new policy required all utility accounts for a single location be listed under one name. Once the new system was in operation, utility deposits were promised to be returned to customers over a period of months. Fagan explained that the deposit account being used for the deposits was being recorded by accountants each year as part of the city audit and contained approximately $312,000. The disposition of the fund would save accounting fees and would eventually be less expensive to the city. At years end, no refunds had been made.
The Alabama League of Municipalities designated the City of Piedmontıs insurance record as one of the best in the state.
The Homeless American Veterans organization contributed $15,000 to renovate the Veterans Memorial Park. Renovation plans included the repair of the eternal flame, the installation of two pavilions, the pond dredged, cleaned and widened, and a flood gate to be installed to govern the depth of the water in the pond. A retaining wall was to be built around the monument area, new walkways built to encircle the largest monument, and four flag poles installed to bear the logos of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Fann announced that extra work had the Electric, Street and Maintenance departments falling behind in their normal regular service schedules. The framing from the new elementary school gym was slated for completion and was to be one of the final steps in the construction. Playground equipment removed to allow for the construction had to be replaced by city crews who also began work on renovations at the medical office on Rome Avenue. Major repairs at the Bethune Community Center included installation of playground equipment, repairing the roof and replacing the tile floor in the centerıs game room.
The city sent a letter to Hannah Home requesting the removal of their donation boxes within the city limits because area residents had continued to use the locations as ³dumps.²
Kerr Concrete Company began work to prepare a five-acre site for a new facility in the Nances Creek Industrial Park. The facility promised to create a dozen jobs and have large concrete mixers that would supply four to five trucks delivering ready-mix concrete. The plant was expected to be completed by Christmas. While he was careful not to divulge the details, Fagan indicated negotiations were under way with another firm interested in the recently expanded park.
The local chapter of the Disabled American Veterans hosted a Memorial Day service at their ribbon cutting ceremony that officially opened the new DAV building on North Center Avenue.
JUNE
The city purchased an excavator, compact track loader and a wheel-loader backhoe, announced that Julyıs utility bills would be a single statement, revised the policy concerning utility deposits, and investigated the disappearance of ³city-related² funds.
Farmers and Merchants Bank celebrated 90 years of service to Piedmont and its residents. What was once a single bank with only three employees in Piedmont has grown into a multi-branch financial institution with more than 50 employees and four locations across Calhoun County.
Consolidated Publishing Company announced that Robert Jackson, an executive intern, had joined the staff of The Piedmont Journal-Independent on June 8. Jackson said he ³played witness to how hard this staff works to produce the best possible product in order to best serve the people of Piedmont² and ³Unlike a corporate-owned paper, those who run a locally-owned newspaper interact on a daily basis with their customersŠ² Two weeks later, The Piedmont Journal-Independent announced that Consolidated Publishing Company would again be the owners of the newspaper effective June 30. Lane Weatherbee, editor of the paper, was to retire on December 31, and Jackson was assigned the duty of merging the Piedmont operation with Consolidatedıs operations.
The Calhoun-Cleburne Drug Task Force requested additional money for Piedmontıs participation in the program. The cost went from $6,500 in 2004 to more than $24,000 in 2005. A cut in the agencyıs federal funds caused the agency to request the additional money.
Representatives for the Piedmont Area Siren System board and Piedmont Senior Group reported all shortages in the groupsı funds had been repaid.
Fagan told the City Council of a recent FAA ruling to shorten the runway at the new airport from 5,000 to 4,000 feet. Airport Authority officials were concerned that the shortened runway plans were inadequate for allowing the airport to contribute to that areaıs industrial and commercial growth. Cherokee County Commission Chairman Kirk Day said, ³Thatıs (FAA proposal² going to limit the type of aircraft that can land at the airport.² An FAA spokesperson promised additional funding when revenues became available. (To be continued next week.)

A Trip Down Memory Lane To The Year 1980
It was the year 3-M introduced Post-It Notes, Sony introduced the Walkman, Mt. Saint Helen erupted, someone shot J.R., and Ted Turnerıs CNN, the first all-news network, premiered.
Richard Pryor was badly burned while trying to freebase cocaine, the ad with Brooke Shields whispering, ³You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.² was banned and John Lennon was assassinated in New York City.
The World Health Organization considered small pox eradicated worldwide, the U.S. won a gold medal in hockey at Lake Placid and later boycotted the Summer Olympics in Moscow and Sadam Hussein launched war against Iran.
The year was 1980 and the pages of The Piedmont Journal continued to record the happenings of this community for the 73rd year.
Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Co. continued to employ a large number of Piedmont area residents. During the year some of them retired after many years of service. In March, Dorothy Carr retired after 39 years in the finishing department and Flavey Ivey ended his employment with more than 40 years in the spooling department. Three other employees joined the ranks of the retired in April after putting in a combined total of 117 years. David Lockridge had worked for the company for more than 34 years, Willie Mae Kiser retired after 45 years, and Leon T. ³Jack² Waits had nearly 39 years of employment with SCT at the time of his retirement.
Ed Wallace also retired, but it wasnıt from SCT. He spent 31 years and 11 months with the police department and served in every capacity from patrolman to assistant chief. His retirement plan called for more fishing and less work.
After nearly five years of standing vacant, the building formerly occupied by the International Playtex Corporation began operations as an expansion of Lawtex Industries. Bobby Dickey was named manager of the companyıs Fifth Avenue plant while Joe Formby was made plant manager of the former Playtex facility. Other appointments included Herni Lorberbaum as assistant plant manager of the 278 plant, Hollis Martin as building and grounds supervisor and Dennis Jackson as inventory control manager. A company spokesperson said, ³At the present time, the (new) plant will make quilted comforters, and eventually, snug sacks.²
Conway Diet District Manager, Dotttie James, appointed Mrs. Carol Sanford as lecturer and seminar leader for the Conway Diet Institute in Piedmont in April of that year.
Ashlee Anne Christopher was named Tiny Miss Sweetheart in the Miss Sweetheart Beauty Pageant in February and Jennifer Sparks won the title of Little Miss Sweetheart. Wanda Kines was crowned Junior Miss Sweetheart and the title of Miss Sweetheart went to Becky Thacker.
While some the local girls were competing in beauty pageants, the boys were busy competing the in the Biddy Basketball League. The first-place team consisted of John Gary Ledbetter, Daniel Houston, Kevin McCord, Eldon Gowens, John Holder, Darryl Swain, Joey Bedwell, Kevin Bedwell, Travis Bedwell, Stacey Brown and Freddie Norton. Their coach was Bobby Glover.
The All-Star team members were Anthony Baker, Barry Graham, Scotty Grimes, Ivan Teague, Eldon Gowens, Kevin McCord, Travis Bedwell, John Gary Ledbetter, Alan Floyd, Kenny Haney and Dewayne Goss.
Officers of the Piedmont High VICA Club won awards in District 6 VICA competition and proudly displayed them in a photo in the March 27 edition of the paper. Members included Laura Kingery, Eddie Eubanks, Deanna Ford, Arlene Ooten, Victor Bragg, Tommie Sue Armstrong and Cindy Weedman.
The PHS Blue Knights entered their first national competition under the direction of Don Wheeler and traveled to Bradenton, Fla. in April to compete in the DeSoto National Band Contest. In addition to the band members, 87 parents made the 600-mile trip where the color guard won second place and the majorettes walked off with third.
The Alpha Pi Chapter of the National Honor Society held its annual ceremony in March and inducted Myra Floyd, Toni Glover, Vickie Hurst, Lydia Johnston, David Long, Jean Love, Bryan Pollard, Joey Spivey, Dana Stewart, Kelly Stewart, Lynn Whorton, John Gunter and Lesa Lang.
Three Piedmontites were among the 826 students to receive degrees from Auburn University during the winter quarter commencement services. Receiving bachelorıs degrees were Kenneth Gerald Kirkpatrick Jr., Roger Garvin Law and Zachary Alexander Merrill. Merrill, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Claude Merrill Jr., earned his degree in vocational industrial arts education and graduated with honors.
Piedmont High School Class of 1980 had 77 students receive diplomas in May and JSU bestowed bachelorıs degrees to Steven Alden Davis, Sabrina Joyce Peel, Edward Brian Prater, Vickie Fisher Prater, Ricky Joe Warren, Robert Michael Williams and Rhonda Elaine Kiser. Masters degrees were awarded by JSU to Rodney Victor Allred, Barbara Hicks Bennett, Judith Love Graham and Johnny Eugene Haggard.
Piedmont Nursing Home received donations by a couple of groups during the year. The Piedmont Quarterback Club donated the proceeds of a yard sale to the nursing home for the purchase of a washer and dryer and the PHS chapter of the Future Homemakers of American presented a check for $150 to administrator Ernest Williams after a bake sale. FHA members representing the group were Sharon Wright, Penny Johnson, Tammy Goss, and Kayron McAllister.
Dr. Sam Crawford was named 1980 Man of the Year at a Chamber of Commerce Banquet in April where the guest speaker was James E. Folsom Jr. Folsom was the Alabama Public Service Commissioner at the time and gave a speech on the commissionıs changing role in dealing with ³todayıs² energy problem. Clyde Pike was presented with the T.G. Parker Award for humanitarian service and James W. Bennett received the Outstanding Service Award for his community service.
As school ended a number of wedding engagements were announced. Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Pope announced the engagement of their daughter, Phyllis, to Kenneth Alan Hunt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Hunt. Mr. and Mrs. William L. Holmes prepared for the marriage of their son, Rodney Errol, to Miss Maytha Jean Formby, daughter of Mrs. Guy Formby and the late Mr. Guy Formby. Alicia Faye Hurst made plans to wed Byron Russell Gilley in July.
Melanie Denise McCoy became the bride of Jerry Ray Masters in June at the Piedmont Church of God and had Kenna Warren as the flower girl and Wesley McCoy serve as ring bearer.
Mrs. Margaret Spears was the mother of the bride on Sept. 5 when her daughter, Sharon Yvonne, became Mrs. James Michael Anderson. Dailey Street Baptist Church was the scene where the young Petty Officer 3rd Class became a married man.
Marriage was nothing new for many of the couples living in Piedmont area. Mr. and Mrs. Ramon Ledbetter had been married for 50 years and were honored with a reception at Pisgah Baptist Church in February.
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Stone celebrated their 50th year together as husband and wife with a supper at Bethel United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall in April.
The three children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Holbrook helped them celebrate 60 years of marriage in July.
Mr. and Mrs. Odis Minton observed their golden anniversary with a gathering that included their 11 children, 18 grandchildren and great-grandchild. The couple married Nov. 8, 1930 in the Methodist parsonage in Spring Garden and Rev. Self performed the nuptials.
Local voters went to the polls in 1980 to select a mayor and five people for City Council positions. Nineteen residents qualified for a position and including Lymon Woolf, Edna Baker, James W. Bennett, Curtis F. Amberson, Doug Penland, Jack Holder, John H. Richardson, Wayne Bartlett, Hubert Masters, and Frank Pope. Competing for mayor seat were Edgar G. Bates, Ronald Chandler, Roy H. Cronan, James R. Garner and incumbent Mayor Thomas E. ³Ed² Parker.
State Representative Gerald Willisı family made the news a couple of times during the year. In June, their 13-year-old daughter, Kimberly, was injured when a person threw a rock through the window of a vehicle and fractured her jaw in three places. She was a passenger in a van driven by her uncle, Larry McFry, at the time and the only person injured. The incident took place on US 278 bypass just east of the intersection of Hwy. 9.
Later in the year the Willis name was mentioned on a more refreshing note. The family welcomed an estimated 5,000 people to view their new home during an open house. The home was built as a replica of the home built by former President Andrew Jackson and called the Alabama Hermitage.
The annual Country Sunshine Festival was a big hit in July and included events such as a bed race, car smash and watermelon eating contests. The streets of downtown Piedmont were closed off for the event and it was declared the biggest one ever. Among the more than 90 contestants competing for the titles of Tiny Miss Sunshine, Junior Miss Sunshine, Little Miss Sunshine and Miss Sunshine were Virginia Holbrook, Candice Coogler, Regina Trammell, Christi Arnett, Maury Bennett, Valerie Bass, Penny Johnson, Melanie Grogan, Pamela McCord, Becky Norton and Kelley Headrick.
Also in July, residents began to ³Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree² to signify Americansı concern and best wishes for the safety of the 52 American hostages in Iran. Marguerite Woolf and Rose Prater were two residents who visited the local florists for the yellow ribbon and bows.
Throughout the year the capsule listings in the paper reminded area residents to register for tennis tournaments hosted by the Piedmont Recreation Center, arts and crafts classes offered at Southside Elementary School, and a boxing club for children 4-14. The library offered a puppet show for pre-school children each Thursday at 11 a.m.
The bulldog became a familiar sight on the sidelines at the football games after the Piedmont Quarterback Club purchased the costume and donated it to the high school.
After three years of work, local school officials were notified in September that a $630,000 Farmers Home Administration grant had been approved for a school construction project. The estimated total cost of the project was given as $1,442,808.
A crowd of more than 300 gathered to witness John H. Richardson, Edna Baker, Lymon Woolf, Frank Pope and Curtis Amberson take office in October. James Garner was sworn in as mayor. The majority of the spectators were reported to attend the meeting in order to express an opinion on retaining Alva B. Hare as police chief. Despite objections by some, he was not rehired and Larry Fanning took over as chief in December.
In November, U.S. Senator John Warren accompanied Jeremiah Denton on a visit to Piedmont and talked with reporters and supporters at a luncheon before visiting a local industry. Warner received a great deal of publicity as the husband of movie star Elizabeth Taylor.
As the year ended, residents mourned the loss of Samuel Granger Latter, 59, who died following a lengthy illness.

Strictly Personal
Holiday Travel Provides Chance To Learn Lessons...
Christmas was unusual for me this year. There were some personal aspects to the holiday, but it was the first Christmas I had not spent at home. I traveled to another state and learned some things about our neighbors.
I went to High Point, N.C., where my son, Greg, is the production director for The High Point Enterprise, the daily paper for that city. My daughter, Missie, and my two schnauzers, Major and Beau, loaded up early on the Friday before Christmas and set out on the 430- mile trek.
We left at 7 a.m. My thinking was that we would hit Atlanta about 9:30-10 a.m. (EST) and avoid the rush-hour traffic.
That was, however, faulty thinking. There is no such thing as going through Atlanta without traffic. We were fortunate, though, in that traffic was definitely lighter than usual. We made it from I-20 to I-285 and finally to I-85 without a delay or any problems. It had to be the easiest time I have had getting through that particular route.
We were traveling north on I-85 and moved smoothly into South Carolina. The rest areas were conveniently spaced for both the Schnauzers and us and the trip went smoothly...until we reached North Carolina.
That was the scene of the first thing I learned. I found that, in North Carolina, no one has a single Christmas gift on the morning of Dec. 23. The trees may be trimmed. The yards may be decorated, and even the stockings may be hung by the chimney with care, but there couldn't be a gift in the house.
On crossing the North Carolina state line, the traffic was light and moving nicely...until we got near Charlotte. I saw brake lights in front of me and I immediately began to slow down.
At that point, we were approaching an exit, and there were two through lanes and two exit lanes on each side of the interstate. We soon came to a stop, as did the traffic in the other seven lanes. After creeping along for several minutes, and observing the results of a couple of wrecks, we determined that the eight-lane parking lot had been caused by Christmas shoppers. There were large shopping malls on each side of the interstate, and apparently all North Carolinians were trying to get to one of the malls to do their shopping.
You may think I spoke hastily when I accused all the residents of that state of doing their shopping on that day, when the interstate traffic only stopped once. I would agree, but it happened twice more, once just north of Charlotte, and again near Greensboro.
The High Point exit is number 111, so these three incidents happened in less than 100 miles.
High Point is a pretty town, and is a little larger than Gadsden. The main industry in the area is furniture manufacturing. The west side of the downtown area is lined with beautiful furniture display buildings, and the city even features a Radisson Hotel.
We really enjoyed our visit with Greg and his daughter, Chelsea, but it was necessary that I get back to Piedmont to finish last week's paper. Again, our plan was to travel when there would be the least amount of traffic on the highway. We left at 8 a.m. (CST) Christmas Day and things were fine. The rain had stopped, but that all changed when we hit the interstate. The rain returned, accompanied by fog.
The traffic wasn't bad, but it was heavier than I had anticipated. We struggled through the weather, and by the time we hit the South Carolina line, the weather broke. From there to Piedmont we only had intermittent, light showers, though the wind was gusting heavily.
As we neared Atlanta, I learned my second lesson of the trip. No one in the Atlanta area believes in the song, "There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays." All the area's four million folks were on the interstates surrounding the city. I-85 and I-285 had their share of the traffic. Oddly, the number of cars thinned dramatically once we hit I-20. During this congestion, there was only one wreck, and there were no injuries.
We made it to Piedmont without incident. It was hard to tell if the dogs, my daughter or I were happier to be home. If I make the trip next year, I will definitely try to avoid Dec. 23 in North Carolina and Christmas afternoon in Atlanta. I have learned my lessons, and will try not to make the same mistakes.