I was shocked when I made the left turn off Hedgecock and onto Teague Road. Shocked. The trees are gone and Caleb’s Creek is coming. I wonder if it will mean more patient and sympathetic drivers? More road for cyclists and drivers to share? More of the fall’s thorns and thistles subdued and made beautiful? All I could think of was John Prine and that song “Paradise.”

And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away

Then the coal company came with the world’s largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

I will miss those woods at the top of Teague, especially the beauty and scent of the honeysuckle, wysteria, and kudzu which, when blooming, would knock your socks off. I will miss those trees.

Had a great ride with the Ramblers though.