A Visit to Places Named Higdon

Background

In April of 2002, my friend Gordon Booth and I were planning to ride our Honda Goldwing motorcycles from Asheville, North Carolina to visit the new 29 Dreams Motorcycle Resort (now known as Broken Eagle Recreation) in Vandiver, Alabama, not far from Birmingham. Actually, Gordon was doing most of the planning, including the trip routing. He noticed there was a town named Higdon in northeast Alabama. My last name is Higdon, and a visit to a namesake town just too good to pass up, so we planned our route to take us through Higdon, Alabama.

I wondered whether there were other places whose name matched my own last name. A quick search on MapQuest for places named Higdon turned up five matches. In addition to Alabama, there were spots named Higdon in Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Georgia. None of these other four were shown on my travel atlas, so I printed the MapQuest maps and located their approximate positions in the atlas.

Gordon and I visited the 29 Dreams Resort around the middle of April. Parts of the resort were still under construction, but it is open for business. There's a nice main lodge, a bathhouse with individual bath suites, air-conditioned cabins (similar to KOA Kamping Kabins), a tent camping area, and laundry facilities. There's more on their web site.

Unfortunately we didn't get to stay overnight at 29 Dreams. We camped in Alabama at Lake Guntersville State Park on the way there and at Georgia's Vogel State Park on the ride home.

We rode through Higdon, Alabama. I forgot to pack my camera, so there's no photographic record of our visit, but we did stop at the grocery store and chat a few minutes.

After returning home I considered the following:

1. My last name is Higdon.
2. There are five places named Higdon.
3. I hadn't visited four of them.
4. The farthest is only a little over 600 miles from home.
5. They are all located close to, but not in, Tennessee.
6. They are conveniently arranged so they can all be visited in a single trip.
7. I knew little or nothing about any of them.
8. I'm always looking for an excuse to ride my Goldwing.

I talked it over with my wife, Melody. She said, somewhat reluctantly, that I could go, but I'll owe her a big favor. On Friday morning, May 17, 2002, I left Asheville, North Carolina my quest to visit all the places named Higdon. My trip took me on a counterclockwise loop around Tennessee through Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

I didn't intend do any serious research on this trip. I wanted to at least meet someone named Higdon at each location to say hello and gather a few facts, and I was lucky enough to do just that. I'm relying on memory and the very few notes I took. If anyone reading this notices I have any of the facts wrong, please let me know.

Out of respect for privacy, I've omitted just about all the personal information from this account.

If you notice any errors, please email Wil Higdon.