I forgot until I was driving to the store that today is Trail of Tears. It is an annual motorcycle ride that raises awareness and education for the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Native Americans from this area. The ride started several years ago with less than 30 riders. Now, they have tens of thousands of riders. Our former neighbor was one of the original organizers. He recruited our family to serve on the committee because my father was a local businessman plus we were raised right along the original Trail of Tears. The third and fourth year, my sister and I rode as escorts and helped to sell T-shirts and pins. The third year, they were hoping for 3,000 to 4,000, but it started raining about 1/4 of the way. My sister was invited to ride on a motorcycle for the last leg of the ride. We got to Waterloo, Alabama before the motorcycles and stood and watched them drive in. They were two abreast for over 2 miles. It was amazing. It took forever to get all those motorcycles into the small town of Waterloo. I worked the next year and that was it. One year, I was listening to the radio and they were giving traffic reports for Huntsville. They were warning people to stay off the roads until the motorcycles got through. The radio said that they were 2 abreast for over 40 miles. It has grown even more since. Last year it took them about three hours to get through Scottsboro. This year there are two routes: one through the original route and a route going through south Tennessee. It is amazing to watch the motorcycles, especially if you are driving along with them.

Yesterday, Queenie left work about 4:15. She has been driving to work everyday for the past week and a half because her husband has been out of town. Yesterday he showed up at 4:50 looking for her. His hair looked like it had not been washed all week and he was dirty. He walks up to the Vice Chairman of the bank and starts talking to him like they are old buddies. He even made a sarcastic remark about the VC squinting as he was trying to read. We couldn't figure out why he didn't call her on his cell before he blew in. What a loser!

It's all about football today. Alabama plays Arkansas and Auburn plays LSU. WAR EAGLE!!