Departure

We left High Point around 10:30 on Sunday morning, May 11, 2008. It was a bittersweet moment. I knew that I was lucky to have this opportunity to travel across America, but I wouldn’t be able to experience it with the people disappearing in my rear view mirror. I love my family very much, and I’m already counting down the days until I see them again.

The weather was difficulty today. We got rained on almost immediately, which served as a good test for our waterproof gear (the gear passed, mostly). Luckily, we managed to miss most of the severe weather or tornado warnings that affected some areas not far away. We arrived in Spring Creek around 2:45 in the afternoon. We spent our first night on the road at the most familiar of places, “The Farm.”

The Flats of Spring Creek

In the Davis family, The Farm refers to several hundred acres of the original Davis homestead located off Highway 209 in Madison County, North Carolina. The highway (a narrow two-lane blacktop) crosses Betsy’s Mountain and emerges around a final sharp right turn to reveal over two miles of valley straightaway. This area is known as The Flats of Spring Creek, which is the home place for both my father and my mother. Both attended Spring Creek School from kindergarten through 12th grade and were part of a graduating class of 12 students. The school was made of stone and was closed in the 1980s, but it is currently being restored to become a Community Center. It already houses a restaurant (named Grits), a sheriff’s substation, and in the future will contain a library.

The Davis and Ferguson families (my father’s and mother’s sides, respectively) have been on Spring Creek since at least the mid-1850s, according to the earliest land deeds that have been located. Of course, both families were farmers, tobacco especially. I did not enjoy coming to Spring Creek as a child. It was so isolated that we only received one radio and one television station. I spent a lot time outside hitting rocks with tobacco sticks.

I have included photos of both original homsteads for the Davis and Ferguson families. The white house (Davis) was built around 1855, while the other house (the Ferguson house, with the silo) was built around 1900. My mother’s brother commissioned a mural for the side of the silo. You will see a picture of the silo in a recently published book called “The Literary Trails of Western North Carolina.”

My father completed a total restoration of the original Davis home in the late 1990s. He and my stepmother spend many weekends there. Also, my uncle (father’s brother) has retired and moved back to Spring Creek (although he won’t stop working). The newer red barns in the photos are his, and he continues to operate a working farm, which he has named Davis Cove Farms.

Spring Creek is a special place, and I’m thankful now that it is part of my life.

202 miles today. 202 total miles.