Well, we got the motorhome out of hock
today and settled our bill with Tiffin Service Center. It actually
was less than what I expected for all the work they performed on the
unit this week. They had the unit for over 12 hours and had up to 4
technicans working on it at the same time. Great service and we got
out of there in 10 days. Since it is the Memorial Day weekend, we
decided to stay put until Tuesday since we had a planned stop along
the way to Charlotte and they aren't open this weekend.
We took a tour of the Tiffin Factory
today, but I will include it in the posting for Saturday.
The people at the campground are very
friendly and we have met a number of couples. Pat & Steve
along with two women campers that we just met today joined us in the
afternoon's escapade.
The more interesting events today other
than the tour were two trips into the countryside. The first was to
the Coon Dog Cemetery. That's right, a Coon Dog cemetery where only
coon dogs can be buried. At first I thought it was a joke, but it is
real. Here is a good writeup on the cemetery.
“
In
a small, grassy meadow, deep in the rich, thick wilderness of Freedom
Hills, Key Underwood sadly buried his faithful coondog, Troop. They
had hunted together for more than 15 years. They had been close
friends.
The burial spot was a popular hunting camp where coon
hunters from miles around gathered to plot their hunting strategies,
tell tall tales, chew tobacco and compare coon hounds. Those
comparisons usually began and ended with Troop...he was the best
around.
Underwood knew there was no place in the world Troop
loved more than that camp. It was only fitting, he decided, that
Troop spend eternity there. On that dreary Labor Day of 1937,
Underwood said good-bye to his legendary coonhound. He wrapped Troop
in a cotton pick sack, buried him three feet down, and marked the
grave with a rock from a nearby old chimney. On the rock, with a
hammer and a screwdriver he had chiseled out Troop's name and the
date. A special marker was erected in his memory.
Troop,
who was half redbone coonhound and half birdsong, was known through
out the region as the best. He was "cold nosed," meaning he
could follow cold coon tracks until they grew fresh, and he never
left the trail until he had treed the coon.
Out of one
hunter's devotion to his faithfull coonhound was born the "Key
Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard," which has became a
popular tourist attraction and is the only cemetery of its kind in
the world.
Other hunters started doing the same when their
favorite coon dogs died. Today more than 185 coon dogs from all
across the United States are buried in this spot in Northwest
Alabama.
"When I buried Troop, I had no intention of
establishing a coon dog cemetery," says Underwood. "I
merely wanted to do something special for a special coon dog."
When columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson interviewed Underwood
in 1985, he told her that a woman from California wrote him wanting
to know why he didn't allow other kinds of dogs to be buried at the
coon dog cemetery.
"You must not know much about coon
hunters and their dogs, if you think we would contaminate this burial
place with poodles and lap dogs," he responded.
Some
of the burial ground's headstones are crafted of wood, some of sheet
metal. Others are not unlike the stones found in a "normal"
cemetery.
But, of course, the names of the deceased are
different and so are the epitaphs.
For example, listed among
the dead are Patches, Preacher, Smoky, Bean Blossom Bomma and Night
Ranger. And etched along with these names are tributes such as, "A
joy to hunt with" and "He wasn't the best, but he was the
best I ever had."
Hunter's Famous Amos - a hound that
was named Ralston Purina's Dog of the Year in 1984, is buried here as
well as several World Champion coon dogs.
To qualify
for burial in this unique cemetery, where more than 185 coon dogs
have been laid to rest, it has been said that three requirements must
be met:
The
owner must claim their pet is an authentic coon dog.
A
witness must declare the deceased is a coon dog.
A
member of the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard, Inc. must
be allowed to view the coonhound and declare it as
such. “
Nearby is the Rattlesnake Cave Saloon and it's quite the place, also. They have camping there and tonight it was full of horse trailers and campers. There must have been 50-70 horses in corrals and the campground was full. We didn't come for the campground and caught the Saloon Taxi down the hill to the saloon.
The drive down the hill was very steep and everyone slid forward in their deluxe seats in the back of the pickup. We all had to provide proof of our age and have our hand stamped to prove we were of drinking age. The youngest person in our group was at least 65, so it was sort of funny to be carded.
The saloon is in a cave and is quite interesting. They are only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and don't start serving beer until 5pm. We arrived shortly after 5 and I was quite pleased to see they had Yuengling beer on tap. It was last September that I last saw it on tap. It was great. We had a nice meal and sat around chatting and listening to the music after dinner. After a while the other 4 were ready to leave, but Gerry and I stayed about an hour longer and listened to the music and watched the dancers. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves very much and we only left since it was getting too chilly to sit in the cave.
It's hard to see, but there was a small waterfall coming out of the cave in the area behind the pickup truck bed.
We returned to the motorhome and relaxed and watched a little tv before posting the blog tonight. If you are ever in this area, then take the detour to visit these two places.
That was our day, how was yours?
