4.17.07: Heading to Cuba, AL
Weather: Sunny, clear, mid-high 70s
Mileage: 18.9 miles round trip to Cuba Check out our route…
After yesterday’s City Council meeting, we were told to to get in touch with Josh Tillery at the Price & Tillery Furniture Store, so that we might be able to speak at the next Rotary Club meeting. As we rode there (only a few blocks) we waved to everyone in their cars, on the street, on their front porches. Folks smile because they just don’t know what we are. We feel like a two-person parade.
Josh Tillery gave us great advice on which roads to were good to ride on and which ones to avoid. Josh used to be a tri-athlete and rode his bike all over the county. He told us some good routes to follow; state highways and the smaller roads are equally dangerous. The highways have shoulders but cars and logging trucks go real fast; the smaller roads are in questionable condition and have no shoulders. Still, there are lots of interesting little towns to visit that are all within 20-30 miles of York.
We decided to head out to Lake Louise, a recreation area a few miles outside of town off of Route 11. We tried to ride on some of the back roads as much as possible; but when we had to ride on the highway, cars and trucks gave us a wide berth. The road encircling the lake was gorgeous; verdant growth perfumed with honeysuckle. We saw one guy getting ready to fish; otherwise the expanse was empty of people. The road alternated from pavement to orange dirt without warning.
We had looped back around to Route 11 and saw that it was only 5 miles to Cuba, a town close to the Mississippi border, and headed that way. We passed through lumber farms, vast clear-cut acreage, new pine forest arranged in dense too-perfect rows, and truck yards with hungry truck beds waiting to be filled. 
We rode off of the state route onto Sheepskin Road; saw horse farms, small homes with new gardens drawn into the clay soil, and many territorial dogs.
The Ward House: Antebellum plantation (built 1830s)
Cuba is about half the size of York; its humble streets, populated with old white houses, hugged the railroad tracks. We found downtown: vacant save for one store, Lulu’s, which sold antiques and hand-made crafts. It was closed. Nearby there was a blue-awninged post office in a 1970s building; next door to that was a large storefront of the same vintage, empty.
We stopped at a small market connected to a gas station on Highway 11 to fuel up on water. We spent some time talking to some folks hanging out there. They had many stories to share!
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