Andrew’s Valley Rail Bikes

 Fifty years ago, when I was still an active Methodist minister, I lived in the small town of Andrews, North Carolina as I was assigned to the church there.  At that time the Southern Railway trains came through town each day.

The train stopped coming in the 1990’s and the tracks were sold to the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.  They run historic tours out of Bryson City, some thirty miles east of Andrews but their tours do not come this far.  So, in 2024 the Andrews Valley Rail Bike Tours started using this track.

We came to Andrews and spent the night in an Air B&B made from an old red caboose.  A nice adventure in itself.  Next morning we went a few hundred yards to the railway station for all our instructions.

Trish and I took this trip back when they first opened and always wanted to do it again.  On our first trip there were six or eight cars but this time we were on a sold out trip with sixteen pedal cars and three powered cars.  Business has boomed with a new station and, of course, gift shop.

We got on our way in the front seats of our four person rail bike.  We had two other passengers in the seats behind us who also were to pedal.  I was called the “driver” as it was my job to work the brakes and the electric booster when needed.  Soon we were on our way.

Once started we were spaced way out from other cars. Here is one of the carts to show what they looked like.

We traveled nearly five miles with some fair uphill grade until we came to a 300 yard plus tunnel. The tunnel was crafted in 1894 totally by hand as the layered shale was too dangerous to use dynamite. We explored the tunnel, with the flag above the opening,  while we had a picnic break and they turned all the cars around.

We crossed five trestles on the trip, including this one that comes  right out of the tunnel. This was an engineering feat in 1894 as the tunnel itself is on a six degree grade.

After pedaling uphill to get here, the trip back was mostly gentle coasting.  

This is a great adventure and we recommend it to anyone, especially in October when the leaves are in color.

Athens Storytelling Festival

 This past weekend was the twentieth Athens, Alabama, Storytelling Festival.  I was joined by Adam Booth, Josh Goforth, and Bil Lepp for the Festival with Carol Cain added for school days.

Alabama Legislators who cover Athens supply funding each year for the past twenty years to bring students to hear stories on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  We have a full tent on Tuesday morning. Then those children return to school while we have another full tent in the afternoon. We continue to do this for the three days and have seen nearly six thousand students, grades three through nine, by Thursday afternoon. 

The weekend Festival starts on Thursday evening with a dinner for sponsors followed by one story by each featured teller.  This year, as a special feature, Carol Cain presented a 45 minute version of her acclaimed Rosie the Riveter program.  Carol has been doing this for more than thirty years and is, herself, an honorary Rosie!

We go forward with two full days of storytelling Friday and Saturday.  What great fun.  

This year when we checked in to the Hampton Inn, the young lady at the desk got a big smile and said,  “You and one of those storytellers, aren’t you? My favorite memory from my school days was when we would get to go to the storytelling festival!”  She then told us a short version of a story she heard me tell more than fifteen years ago.  This stuff does last!

Dayton, Tennessee

 Josh Goforth, Bil Lepp, and I have just finished the Stories Under the Oaks Storytelling Festival in Dayton, Tennessee.  This is a brand new Festival in its inaugural year and everything was great through and through.  The idea came from Kelley Kroeker, one of my workshop attendees.  She proposed the idea to the Public Library and they, along with the city of Dayton put together a marvelous event.

We started Friday morning with school students and home school families.  It was a splendid, appreciative, and extremely attentive audience.

Friday evening was to open in the same big tent we were in that morning, but, stiff afternoon winds began to pull stakes loose and there was danger of collapse.  No worries, the Festival Commitee simple moved everything right next door to an outdoor park stage venue and the evening went forward without a hitch!

The tent rental company arrived after dark and repaired the tent setup so we could start right in there on Saturday morning.

You can see that the tent is right on the back grounds of the historic Rhea County Courthouse where the famous Scopes Trial happened in July of 1925.  Earlier that year the Tennessee legislature has passed a bill making it illegal to teach evolution in schools.  The ACLU sought to oppose the bill on First Amendment grounds and secured John Thomas Scopes as a volunteer to help provoke the trial.

While substituting in a biology class, Scopes supposedly taught a lesson (straight from the state textbook) on Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest.  He was arrested and brought to trial.  While both prosecution and defense were handled by Rhea County attorneys, “supporting” attorneys were brought in by both sides.

The prosecution brought in William Jennings Bryan who had run for President three times and was besides a well known orator on many topics.  He was a religious fundamentalist.

The defense acquired Clarence Darrow, a religious agnostic.  These two men were probably the most famous attorneys in the United States at the time.  The trial was the first trial in the US to be broadcast on radio and drew National attention.

The trial quickly turned into a debating match between Bryan and Darrow with the local attorneys almost staying in the background.  After five days, Scopes was found guilty (he never denied his teaching) and the Judge fined him one hundred dollars.   The fine was never paid and in 1927 the verdict was overturned in grounds that the Judge himself had set the penalty illegally.  The statute, though largely ignored, remained on the books in Tennessee until 1968.

It was great fun telling stories right in the shadow of the Courthouse where these events took place. Two movies, each entitled Inherit The Wind, were made preserving the whole story of the trial.

Bil, Josh, and I had a fine time working together and hope this Festival will really take off as it should.

NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL

 We are at last home and rested after the week of the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Trish and I arrive a week early as I am the Teller in Residence the week leading up to the Festival.  This way we also get to see all of the tents going up for the coming weekend.  My habit is to go and stand on each stage where I am to be scheduled during the festival just to see how it feels and also to sit in several different seats to see how the stage looks from the audience point of view.  This helps me to be fully comfortable with the space before walking up on the stages the first time…very important to me!

Starting on the Monday before the Festival weekend, I begin performances in the Storytelling Center Theatre as part of my Teller in Residence programming.  Since a lot of people start coming in to Jonesborough early, we add to these performances until we are up to three a day.

By Wednesday evening I do a performance in the Library Tent as a lead into the weekend.  We have well over a thousand people there and it is still two days before the Festival officially starts. On Thursday I do two more shows in the Theatre and that evening Josh Goforth and Michael Reno Harrell fill the Library Tent with a wonderful evening of music and stories.

On Friday the Festival officially begins!

There are five big tents, the larger ones holding about two thousand people each.  What great fun we have!

I addition to telling stories, I get to play bass with the wonderful Jonesborough Novelty Band!  We play for the opening of the Beer Garden on Thursday afternoon, at the Dining Tent on Friday evening, and again for the Yarnspinner Party on Saturday evening.  We have a lot of fun!

Besides a tiny shower of rain, the weather was very enjoyable.

This was my forty-sixth year to be on stage at the Festival and Trish and I already look forward to 2027.