A Walk Across Rowan - Dog Days of Summer

Pam Hamby grooms Jaziman, a Maltese terrier, at Doggie Doo's and Cats Too pet grooming salon off US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A concrete lion statuary marks a driveway along US 29 near Webb Road. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A historical marker that mentions President George Washington visit along US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Mark Wineka carries a camera as he traverses Rowan County down US 29 . Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Bethany Scott weighs Pumpkin at the Lazy 5 Ranch Veterinary Services located along South Main Street in Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

The former employee parking lot of the Fieldcrest Cannon Swink Plant along US 29 between Salisbury and China Grove appears more as a grassy field then a paved parking lot. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

One of the few pastures that border US 29 as it passes through Rowan County south of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Michael Brubaker waits in his truck before he makes a delivery of storage buildings. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Tom Wolpert holds Eight at the Lazy 5 Ranch Veterinary Services located along South Main Street in Salisbury. Eight , a stray kitten, has become the shop cat at "a Step in Time", Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A pair of cleated shoes hang from a wire above the corner of South Main street and American Dr in Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Marsha Evans, cleans the front doors at Home Lighting and Supply along US 29 in Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A Small garden spot near the Piedmont Correctional minimal Unit along US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

John Keen works at Johnny's Muffler and Automotive along US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Michael Brubaker drives up Main Street in Salisbury looking for his chiropractor before he makes a delivery of storage buildings. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Two Harley Davidson motorcycles that are for sale sit under a canopy along US 29 in Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A bulldog hood ornamate adornes a Ford pick-up truck along US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Salisbury Post Columnist Mark Wineka trudges along US 29 southward toward China Grove. Photo by Jon C. Lakey,Salisbury Post.

Chuck Sherrill, from Gaston County, uses his tractor with a mower to cut the grass on property belonging to Parkdale Mills near Rowan Mill Road and US 29 in southern Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

An eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly lands on a clump of wildflowers along US 29. photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A utility crew works along US 29 near Cedar Springs Road. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A small dog looks out of th wash tub at after get a bath at Doggie Doo's and Cats Too pet grooming salon off US 29. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

The headstone for Thomas Sumber in the St. Mary's Episcopal Cemetery near the former Swink Plant along US 20 south of Salisbury. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

We learned Tuesday why August has its dog days.

Post photographer Jon Lakey and I couldn’t resist following a sign on U.S. 29 South that took us down a gravel road to where Pam Hamby has a pet grooming and boarding business.

The sign gave the name of her establishment: Doggie Doo’s and Cats Too.

“You groom cats?” I asked Hamby.

She held up her arms, as if inspecting her latest wounds.

“I’ve got some scars from cats,” she said. “They’re worse than dogs.”

Hamby had just finished her grooming of a Maltese dog named Jaziman. She likes to call her Jazzie.

“She’s a regular,” Hamby explained. “She comes every two weeks.”

Jazzie looked like she had stepped out of the pages of a ladies fashion magazine.

Her silky white hair was parted perfectly down the middle of her back. Her bangs were trimmed. The long strands of her coat barely skimmed the floor.

Over about two hours, Hamby had cut, soaked, shampooed, hand-dried, cage-dried, shaved, fluffed and combed Jazzie, topping off the works with some yellow bows.

She looked (and smelled) a whole lot better than Jon or me.

And so went the third day of our walk across Rowan County, as the whole route kept close to U.S. 29 through the remnants of Salisbury to Webb Road.

Not only had we seen dogs on this trip, Jon said, but our own dogs (that would be feet) were tired, too.

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We ran into Michael Brubaker, who was waiting for Salisbury Chiropractic to open.

He sat in his in turbo-diesel Dodge Ram 3500, which was attached to a large storage building Brubaker was delivering later in the morning to a place near Greensboro.

Brubaker hoped to get a quick back adjustment and head out.

He’d be good for the rest of the day at least, Brubaker said of his balky back.

Based in Woodleaf, Brubaker’s business specializes in moving storage buildings and putting them in place on the site. He makes it a one-man job.

“The (hydraulic) trailer does all the work for me,” he said.

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Chuck Sherrill, mowing the field across from Parkdale Mills, stopped his New Holland tractor as he saw Jon and me walking toward him.

He and a companion, who was weed-eating elsewhere on the Parkdale property, had left Gaston County early in the morning. Sherrill said he woke up at 3 a.m.

“You have to get started early,” he said.

The Gastonia-based mill company owns a lot of property in what many people still call the Rowan Mills community.

Sherrill comes up for the Parkdale Mills job about every month or so, and he can accomplish all his mowing in one day.

“It’s a day’s work, though,” Sherrill said, revving up his tractor again.

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At the Lazy 5 Ranch Veterinary Hospital, we ran into Jill Nelson, who was bringing in her cat, Pumpkin, for a weigh-in.

The orange-colored Pumpkin, who could be mistaken for just that at Halloween, has a weight problem.

“He wants food all the time,” Nelson said.

Jill took some of the blame. When Pumpkin joined her household as a stray five years ago, Nelson said, she and her husband should have been given the book, “Cats for Dummies,” since they didn’t know what to do.

Pumpkin took advantage of the feeding free-for-all but, at her vet’s suggestion, Nelson took control and now has Pumpkin on a weight-loss program.

Bethany Scott, technician supervisor at the pet hospital, guided Jon and I into the back so we could witness Pumpkin’s weigh-in.

He registered a slender 11.58 pounds.

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Angela Ford had brought her 14-year-old Sheltie, Lady, to the animal hospital so doctors could examine a swollen toe.

Lady had been abandoned as a puppy, and the woman who found her trusted Ford to give her a good home.

Is she spoiled?

“Say, ‘I’m just rotten,’ ” Ford said, giving voice to Lady.

Speaking of spoiled, I should tell you about a kitten that Joe Lancione and Tom Wolpert, owners of “A Step in Time” in Salisbury, have made their shop cat.

“It was meant to be,” Lancione said as their kitten was given a clean bill of health Tuesday morning.

The kitten was born outside their store. The men had noticed her with the mother and three siblings. One day, this particular charcoal-gray kitten accidently hitched a ride from the store to their house, where the guys have two other cats.

They were able to capture the kitten and return it to the mother, but one day it showed up again at the store. This time, the mother and siblings were nowhere to be found.

Wolpert and Lancione decided she was a keeper, and she has become the star of the store.

“She loves people,” Lancione said, describing the kitten as a jumper and climber who stands up to any visiting dogs. “She plays with everyone.”

Most cats have nine lives. Wolpert and Lancione figured she has used up at least one.

So they have named her “Eight.”

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David Steagall, a chemical engineer by training, didn’t start his Christian missionary work until he was 54.

A retiree now, he has traveled 26 times to India, besides other places such as the Ukraine and Romania, “to tell people about Jesus.”

But he also frets about the state of affairs in his adopted Rowan County.

“Our county really needs prayer,” Steagall told me Tuesday morning, when we turned the corner toward the Hess station on U.S. 29.

“God can change things. God is the answer to all our difficulties here.”

Steagall and his friend, John Thomas, a native of India, were traveling home after the weekly men’s prayer breakfast at First Baptist Church when they saw us walking down the road.

The men became friends through each other’s mission work in India. Thomas, who married an American woman and lives in Iowa, is spending a few days at Steagall’s home.

When we first made the corner of the Hess service station, Thomas was waiting there, handing us a booklet that said, “The Way to God.”

Steagall soon emerged from his SUV and joined him in our conversation.

Steagall said half the people in Rowan County don’t go to church. At the same time, 40 percent of the people in Rowan had come in some kind of contact with social services in a month’s time, he claimed.

Poor student achievement in Rowan County also is alarming, he said.

Referring to our trek, Steagall said he had done his own prayer walks in local neighborhoods in the past and saw “a lot of poor people.”

“It was very upsetting,” he said.

Both Steagall and Thomas have future mission trips to northern India in the planning stages.

We thanked them for their corner evangelism.

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I played secretary of the day at Distinctive Naturescapes.

Near Rowan Bolt & Supply, Jeff Matthews pulled up in his vehicle and handed us two ice-cold bottles of water.

He then offered to let us use the office at Distinctive Naturescapes, the landscaping business he and Dave Collins own across the street. Jon and I had some trip updates we needed to file for the Post’s website.

Lucky for me, the Distinctive Naturescapes secretary has Tuesdays off.

In a few minutes, I was sitting at the front desk near the door typing away.

When a man came in, I dutifully pointed him back toward Collins’ office.

When the telephone rang, however, I resisted answering it.

I have my limits.

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We talked a good while with Johnny Keen at Johnny’s Muffler and Auto Glass, Cindy Nooner at On Track Auto Sales and Mitch Eidson at Exhaust Systems Inc.

As you might have noticed, there’s a stretch of U.S. 29 devoted to the sale, upkeep and repair of vehicles.

Keen has a busy operation that employs four people. His shop can pretty much handle repairs on cars “bumper to bumper, really,” he said.

He used to be on East Innes Street in downtown Salisbury, and has had this spot for about five years.

Business is “not anything like it used to be, but business is still good,” Keen reported.

Nooner, who has been selling used cars for 14 years, agreed that “it’s been tough.”

“But with that in mind, depending on what you do,” she said, “you have to be able to change. Things go through cycles. It never stays the same.”

She and her husband, Tim, own the place, which advertises zero percent interest and offers state inspections. The Nooners like the fun of selling pre-owned cars, Cindy said.

“There’s more variety,” she added, “and we’ve met some wonderful people.”

Eidson, a Catawba College graduate, used to set up Midas shops in 13 different states.

“They ran me from one place to the other,” he recalled.

But he tired of the traveling and, with the help of his parents, Ruth and Robert, built the Exhaust Systems shop at U.S. 29 and Cedar Springs Road.

Ruth recalled that the family needed a loan from Security Bank in Landis to get the business built and started in 1983. The loan was paid off in a year, and the business has operated debt-free since.

“Our suppliers tell us we’re the last emissions exhaust shop in the state,” Mitch said. The shop specializes in mufflers, catalytic converters and pipes — nothing else.

Mitch holds the patent on a stud and manifold nut pliers, by the way.

“People have been good to us,” Mitch said. “We’ve been here a long time.”

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At Home Lighting & Supply, we caught Marsha Evans with a bottle of Windex, cleaning her front glass door.

Mickey and Marsha Evans started their business in China Grove in 1984, and they have been at their Salisbury store on U.S. 29 for 22 years.

“It has been an excellent spot,” Marsha reported.

After some more visiting with us, she returned to her Windex.

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The walk along U.S. 29 was a tough one at times, as we tried to stay off the road as much as possible.

It sent us into the high roadside grass that hid plenty of ruts and ditches.

A roadside memorial caught our eye. It included a light-blue, Kansas Speedway ballcap and some faded red, artificial flowers.

Jon also examined a box turtle, which had expired at the edge of the road.

Close to the end of our day, we spied the mostly forgotten St. Mary’s Episcopal Cemetery, which a fairly new marker says was established in 1889.

The families buried here, not far from the old Cannon Mills Swink Plant, include names such as Hammer, Haynes, Sumner, Harris, McKenzie and Setzer.

Given over to time, it’s a cemetery in need of a loving touch. Stones have been pushed over, or they have collapsed. Substantial trees are pushing against others. Depressions in the ground show where graves have sunken.

Back in this corner of the world, Jon and I could still hear a nearby freight train and the steady roar of traffic from U.S. 29.

Even so, it seemed a quiet place.

Wineka and Lakey will continue their walk across Rowan County today, following U.S. 29 before branching onto Main Street in China Grove.