Nature Trail and Cooley's Corner Cafe

It's been a great weekend.   Yesterday, we all converged on my sister and her husband and had a family ho-down!   Hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue, baked beans, slaw, some of the best homemade molasses cookies...you get the idea.   It was a veritable smorgasbord of wonderful tasty treats.   My parents, all four of my brothers and sisters, the in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, grandchildren...it was great.

Today, Ole Boy and I took a ride to Natchez Trace to see if the humming birds had arrived.  I saw only one, but I saw dozens upon dozens of yellow butterflies on the jewel flower that attracts the hummers in September.  There were a few other butterflies, as well.

I saw the heron egret above on our way to the Trace on a little stretch of gravel road off of Gunwaleford Road.  

This is the Jewel Flower that the hummers visit
each year.   In just a couple of weeks, there will be
hundreds of humming birds on the Nature Trail.
I believe it must be the humming bird Crown Jewel.

 

 

Other butterflies/moths 

 

If you've never been to the Nature Trail on the Natchez Trace in Lauderdale County,  it's worth the drive out, especially in September, if you're a bird watcher.   The Nature Trail is the home of Rock Spring.   My mom would load all five of her children up in the summer time, and take us to the Trace for a day of picnicking and exploration.   

 

 

Some scenes from the trail....

 

  

  

 

 

The Water....

 

  

  

 This is where the hummers come to visit.

  

 

  

 This is Rock Spring.   It's grown up a lot since I was a kid. 

The Beavers....

I think the beavers have moved on....the dams remain, for now. 

Behind the dam, notice all the gnawed trees. 

There are many stumps where the beavers took down trees.

After walking the trail, we went in quest of some lunch, 

and came upon this little place:

 

 

 Cooley's is located at 8250 County Road 189 in Lauderdale County.

(256) 760-1762

 

The little country store was very old fashioned, just like the ones I remember from my childhood.   The restaurant is a tiny place, seats maybe 30, if you crowd it.   I only saw one server the whole time I was there, and I think she was doing the cooking, as well.   Ole Boy and I ordered catfish; he the whole, and I the fillet.  We had to wait a good while to get our food, but that may have been because of the one-server situation.   When the food did arrive, I got mine, but Ole Boy had to wait a few minutes more for his.   Mine wasn't pipping hot...but regardless, it was good food.

The best thing about this little country cafe wasn't the food, though the food was worth the wait...it wasn't the atmosphere, two small rooms, one smoking, one non-smoking, and it wasn't the location...it was the people.   I asked Ole Boy if he saw a restroom, the lady at the table behind us answered that, indeed, there was a restroom, located behind me to the right.   When I got up to visit the ladies room, I saw Miss Sissy, who works where I do, and her husband, celebrating 52 years of marriage.   

When I made it back to my table, Ole Boy asked me with whom I had been speaking, and I realized I didn't know Sissy's last name.   The lady at the table next to me (not the same lady who pointed me to the ladies room) told me Sissy's last name.   Restroom Lady and Ole Boy struck up a conversation and found out that they know a lot of the same people...and then realized that she was the sister-in-law to his first cousin.

Miss Sissy and her husband started to leave, and he came over to our table, introduced himself, and regaled us with stories of Ole Boy's cousins when they were children.  Miss Sissy had to come in three times to get hubby to leave so they could go on about the business of celebrating their anniversary.

I have to give the Cooley's experience a big thumbs up!

I leave you with this thought:

Sign hanging in the corner of Cooley's Corner Cafe.