Chapter 24 Hickman, KY, Reelfoot lake, Earthquakes, Nightriders

I am now in Hickman, KY which is a small community but big enough to support a library which I need to write these entries.  Murphy has to wait outside while I do this but he has a ability to attract admirers who come looking for me inside to get permission to pet him.  Soon the librarians learn my story and shortly later the local newspaper editor comes to interview me.   I know...it's tough being a celebrity.
Unfortunately, I never get to see my picture in the paper because I am on to the next county before it hits the streets.  That evening, I am planning to crawl off and sleep behind the town water tower (next to the library) but once again serendipity intervenes.  The the owner of the pizza place where I had dinner invites me to stay in the church down the road.  I am thinking I am sleeping on a wooden pew in some musty sanctuary washing up in the janitors closet.  That sounds pretty good compared to the usual diet of mosquitoes and stickiness.

There was room at this inn.

 Instead I am escorted to the brand new West Hickman Baptist Church.  It has a separate fellowship wing that is like a travelers dream.  I sleep in the central "living room" with overstuffed couches and reading lamps that pull out into beds.  A door leads to a large commercially equipped kitchen with a stocked refrigerator.  "Help yourself to whatever you can find in there". I do.  Then there is the full men's and women's facilities with showers. " There are towels in there and bedding in that closet".  No mint on the pillow but otherwise I am very grateful. Thanks for your Christian hospitality!  If Mary and Joseph had stumbled on this congregation the nativity would have turned out a little different.
Over the next few days I am sheltered by two more churches at night both Methodist who welcome me in unhesitantly to pitch a tent or use their facilities.

Tennessee snow

The next day I crossed into Tennessee the Volunteer State.  It is flat and about 10 miles in a major change occurs.  I have been staring at corn and soybeans for the last thousand miles.  Suddenly I look up and there is this strange field filled with green plants studded with white puffs.  I have never seen cotton grown before but this is where it comes from.  It is a novelty for me.  I stopped and picked a boll.  It  has about 2 dozen seeds that need to be removed by teasing them out from the fibers. I takes me 15 minutes to remove half of them before I give up.  Eli Whitney was a genius. I can't imagine the toil once required to pick and clean this crop by slaves.

Sunset on Reelfoot lake. The trees are bald cypress trees and the area is known for bald eagle watching.

The next stop for me is Reelfoot lake, one of the largest natural lakes in Tennessee.  Reelfoot was formed by a severe earthquake in 1811 that caused the Mississippi to temporarily reverse course according to the boat captains of the day and it flooded into a nearby land that had collapsed forming a lake.  Tremors were felt as far away as Montreal, Quebec.  Reelfoot is a beautiful area with bald cypress trees around  the edges that give it a very spooky feel.  I learned it had a violent human history as well.  Apparently after it formed the ownership of the surrounding land was murky and somehow a wealthy syndicate got control of it in the early 1900's.  They tried to force out and deny access to the local inhabitants.  Some formed an underground guerilla force called the "nightriders" who in turn terrorized and killed some of the syndicate representatives.  It got pretty ugly.  Eventually, the governor got control of the situation, hunted down the perpetrators and was able to acquire the land for the public use. Reelfoot is also in the middle of the New Madrid earthquake fault zone.  Another quake could happen any day.  It seems strange that the middle of  the country has the potential for severe quakes but it does.  I asked a local guy eating next to me at breakfast if there are still tremors and he said  "Yeah, last week we had one that was 3.4. The walls in this restaurant where you are sitting right now were vibrating".