Scarce Grease, AL

About 2 miles away from the border of Tennessee is a little town called Scarce Grease, Alabama.Paul had always wanted to see what was there, so today, we did.

So what's in Scarce Grease, AL you ask?

Not too much, its pretty "scarce." But the countryside is gorgeous! You are constantly going over and by all kinds of beautiful little creeks and rivers (and eventually in one! but I'm getting ahead of myself) Along the way we saw this great little woodworking mill - actually powered by the red water wheel to the left of the mill building. How cool it that?! (See the Falls Mill in the My links for a grain mill that's nearby)



Scarce Grease doesn't even have a sign - its a crossroads, and at the crossroads the only road that goes anywhere is Smith Hollow road. You can see it on the topo map below. The pink line is the TN state Border.



So Smith Hallow Road was pretty interesting. Its a single paved lane with just barely enough room to pull over to let the oncoming cars pass (we did have two). Its really rural farm land with, cows, donkeys, little farm houses, very pretty.... We're driving along and can still see the little stream on our left as we approach a rise. We see the stream curve around in front of us as the car crests the rise and suddenly - there's no road - just river bed, and of course, water. Paul stops the car and we kind of look at each other... and then I hop out as Paul starts backing up to turn around. So I walk down to the edge of the water and just a short distance away - the pavement started up again around the corner. It was a road all right, and it hadn't washed out, it just joined the creek for a bit. We didn't have to turn around after all. I guess there's a first time for everything. Today's definitely the first time I've forded a creek in a Toyota Camry.

Here's Paul waving to me when we forded the creek on the way back. See the water on the left?



Here I'm standing on the other side watching him drive back up. This is also the same view that we saw that made us stop in our tracks and consider turning around. Wouldn't it you?



We did drive on up to Lester and even over the border into TN. So what was in Lester you ask? A post office and a community storm shelter. Just the necessities.