Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
d
uwa
yne's
shri
ne to
the c
owbo
y day
s of
yore.
exhort me to keep running. I have been overwhelmed by the kind-
ness of strangers.
I interrupted my run for a brief stop at Bridges Boot Outlet &
Western store, just inside the Alabama border. The proprietor, a politi-
cian and member of the Alabama House of Representatives with the
very southern name of DuWayne Bridges, sent word that he wanted to
donate $100 to the cause. And that's not all DuWayne did. He's one of
those typical larger-than-life southern gents with a booming voice and
a heart as big as the state, and he wouldn't let me leave until he'd given
me a pair of the most magnificent alligator-hide boots from his range
of alligator, lizard-skin and even ostrich-hide cowboy boots, a cowboy
shirt and jeans.
The store has to be seen to be believed. It's a cowboy's dream.
As well as more than 3000 pairs of boots, there are saddles, spurs,
rifles, ropes, wagon wheels, a mechanical bison that sings 'Home on
the Range' and posters of Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and other
old cowboy heroes. There's an 'ol' timey outhouse from Alabama',
as DuWayne described it, and when he opened the door for me a
