Easter Sunday, March 27
Mason, TX to Palestine, TX – 277 miles
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| Inside UMC |
We
head east from Mason at 9:45. The skies
are still cloudy and the wind cool and strong, but we find the sun beginning to
shine the further east we go. The
bluebonnets and paintbrush are still spectacular on this stretch of hill
country highway. In places some yellow
flowers and pale pink morning glory types also dot the roadway.
We
fail to find a restaurant quickly that will serve up breakfast, so we finally
stop in Bertram at Pueblo Antigua, a Mexican place. I check that it is open and give Rick a
thumbs up! We both have quesadillas –
mine is Hawaiian with pineapple and ham.
I figure that
will be my Easter ham!
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| Yellow flowers line the road. |
Past
Georgetown (north of Austin) and we link up with US 79 near Taylor. Gas up and I take the wheel for the next 70
miles or so. We immediately seem to
leave the hills, the prickly pears, and a desert feel. The land is flatter, green grass and cultivated
fields surround us. This is my first
foray east of Austin into the land known as East Texas! Frances promised hardwood forests and pine
trees. We are on country roads that wind
in and around, up and down. Trees line
the road, wildflowers in profusion.
Paintbrush are especially the color of the day with whole fields deep
red.
There
is no visible office and just a scattering of RVs in the heavily treed
area. We see a guy working on a concrete
slab and drive over. ‘I have a
reservation for tonight.’ “How in the world
did you get a reservation? Who did you
make it with?” ‘Online. I have a
receipt.’ “But the web site was taken
down, it isn’t operational! The park has
changed hands.” ‘I believe the website
is VERY operational…my credit card has been charged.’ Anyway, the guy was very flexible. He found us a spot, no charge (he’ll take it
up with the former owner!), do we want the wifi code, and BTW, you are invited
to dinner over at the RV next to the fence!
A nice pond, but stagnant, and I did get
some mosquito bites! A rustic little
cabin and a bathhouse under remodel. But
the corker is that they are reopening in a week as a ‘clothing optional’
campground! I told Rick this might be
the strangest campground I have booked us in!!
A walk around the grounds amidst the trees and then phone calls to moms and boys. Quiet evening and I have to admit....not much competition for the wifi!!
See all of today's pictures HERE
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| Reflections in the pond |
3.28.16 Monday
Palestine,
TX to Natchez State Park, Natchez, MS
(Through
Louisiana!)
290 miles
Well, an eventful day of travel
touching three states in under 300 miles! We left Palestine around 8am, the air brisk,
and the mist rising from the pond with all the moisture in the air! Rick ended up driving all day today (my
bad!), but we took breaks in spite of a fruitless effort once again to find a
breakfast place at the appropriate time!
We traveled up and down, noting more and more the waterlogged areas
still under water from the recent flooding.
It got even worse once we were in Louisiana.
We crossed into Louisiana at
Loganport and then to Mansfield. I tried
to text Mac and find out where Diane grew up because I had the idea it was
somewhere around here. But cell service
today ranged from No Service to LTE T-Mobile premium! Go figure!
The Sabine River forms the boundary between Texas and Louisiana and this
upper region suffered torrential rains a couple weeks ago which eventually made
their way down to the gulf and closed I-10!
We passed logging trucks today in
the middle of Louisiana. Rick remembered
at some point that Weyerhauser left the PNW and went to the southeast pine
forests! Our US 84 route took us through
some struggling small towns, beautifully landscaped homes, lots of oil and
natural gas evidence, and water….lots of water and greenery!! Without the internet I am struggling to
finish identifying some of what we saw, but for sure crimson clover and
wisteria. The other horticulture
highlight were the azaleas! Huge bushes
everywhere in a range of colors from pink to salmon to red to lavender – mostly
pink though. Very few bluebonnets
now. Thin spreads of paintbrush. But the purple wisteria (I THINK that’s what
it is!) is draped from trees, telephone lines, and stands alone as a bush. I’ll have to confirm that later!
After the fourth little town in a
row in which we couldn’t find a place to eat breakfast, we gave up and Rick
pulled over at the side of the road and we ate from the trailer! He was hungry and needed to stretch! I found an abandoned building there, nearly
covered with overgrowth, and it reminded me of Pastor Katy’s Easter
sermon. I did NOT go exploring inside ….bugs,
snakes, alligators, and dangerous timbers lingered!
Just west of Vidalia, LA, we passed
the Frogmore Cotton Plantation. Frances
of the Mason CAVs had told us it was worth the visit, so we plan to take it in
tomorrow while the weather is still decent.
Nearer to Vidalia we pass a Wal-Mart and decide some grocery shopping is
in order before we get out to the state park.
Seventy five dollars later, we are back on the road!
Through Vidalia and over a huge
bridge arching across the mighty Mississippi.
We can still see evidence of some flooding here as well. Through Natchez, which appears to be a clean
and beautiful town – catering to the tourists!!
Natchez State Park is located about
13 miles northeast of the city. Our plan
was to get settled and then come back into town for dinner and a visit to the
Visitor Center to collect some information.
But….once we wind our way back to our campsite (another 3 miles I would
figure from the highway) we decide a home cooked meal will be just fine!! I pull out the venison steaks we had with us,
make a salad for me, and Rick enjoys the tater salad he picked up at
WallyWorld. We picked up materials at
the state park office which give us what we need to know for tomorrow at
least.
We picked well on the internet! Our site, with concrete pad, is nestled on
the outer edge of the loop with the door facing a thick stand of trees. We can see the water of the lake just barely
through the trees. The lake is VERY
muddy right now from all the rain and flooding.
Rick said he is MUCH happier here than at Riverside RV Park right on the
Mississippi in downtown Vidalia. We don’t
have sewer connections, but the bathhouse is decent and if we are careful we
can go four days on our holding tanks.
And….the price is very right at $18 a night rather than $35+!! We have been warned, however, that ticks and
wasps are currently abundant on the trails!
Conversations with Luke and Cherrie tonight on the
phone --- spotty service that bounces from No Service to 3G! But we got questions answered anyway! Good
night!!
3.29.16
Tuesday
Frogmore
Cotton Plantation – Walking Downtown Natchez
My brain is overloaded with
information tonight as I sit down to record our educational day! A restful night as the park quieted down and
the air cooled off (that won’t be the case tonight we fear!) We pulled out shortly after 9 to drive back
across the river to the Frogmore Plantation in Louisiana, about35 miles
away. We passed the plantation
yesterday, and it comes highly rated, so worth the drive. Stopped at Walmart to get some drinking water
and postcards. I couldn’t get any
postcards…they didn’t sell them.
Obviously sending postcards is becoming a dated thing!
We got to the plantation just as a
tour was beginning, so quickly paid our $15 each and joined in. The tour guide was an Illinois girl, but she
has spent plenty of time in the South based on her accent, plus she said she
had worked the cotton fields as a young girl for her family. She is the owner of Frogmore now. The gift shop/headquarters is located in what
used to be the ‘company store’. We
visited various buildings all over the plantation and heard trivia and facts
that described the cotton industry from pre-Civil war when cotton was king and
slavery very real through the end of the 1800’s and sharecropping to modern day
cotton farming.
Some random facts we garnered:
- CRISCO is made from cottonseed oil!
- Cotton is graded now by digital camera based on the purity, the strength of fiber, and length of fiber.
- Frogmore doesn’t charge other farms to use their gin. Instead they keep all the seeds gleaned from the cotton and sell it for oil or livestock food.
- The cotton flower changes from white to bright pink overnight.
- Modern day machines can pick in a week the acreage it would take 150 slaves all fall to pick.
- During the heyday, 100 steamwheelers plied the Mississippi between Natchez and New Orleans carrying cotton to market.
- Gumbo is an African term for okra. Niyami is their word for sweet potato (hence the term YAM!)
Click on the link above to see the photo journal of the cotton plantation tour. They will tell the story the best.
Thunder rumbles while we are in the
tour and the road is wet in places driving back to Natchez, but we got little
rain ON US today. (The Frogmore gal did
say that the area had received nearly 14 inches of rain in the past month. They were a little tired of it!)
We are hungry! It is 1pm by the time we get back into
Natchez. We find the Magnolia Grill,
located in ‘Natchez Under the Hill’ (otherwise known as the area below the
bluff!). It is situated right on the
river and we get a seat right on the window.
Rick finally is able to see some barge traffic going up and down the
river!. The prices are a little steep so
we decide to just have a bowl of the ‘Soup of the Day’ – Crawfish Chowder. I think we both assumed it would be
comparable to the soup listed on the menu….around $8. Well, they were out of the chowder, so the
waiter recommended the shrimp,corn,and crab bisque instead. We said ok and I have to admit, it was a
large, very filling, bowl of soup laden with good size shrimp and chunks of crab. It was also $14 a bowl! (And no bread or roll – not even a cracker
with it!) So….lunch was good, but….
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| There was a photo at the Presby church of three women, skirts hiked up, staring at a tree. No one knows what or who they are and we couldn't photograph or sketch the exhibit....so I came home and drew it from memory! |
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| This is a manse!! |
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| William Johnson House |
We are burned out. It is 4pm and time to head back to the
trailer for a light dinner and quiet evening.
3.30.16
Wednesday
Natchez
Trace Parkway and Vicksburg National Military Park
See Pictures HERE
We decide to head to Vicksburg today
as the forecast rain isn’t due to hit until after noon sometime, maybe even
later. Maybe we can dodge the water and
get this trip in, saving the visit to Melrose Plantation house until a
predicted very wet Thursday (at least it is indoors!)
I arise early to grab a shower
before things get busy. As it turns out,
the campground is absolutely still save for a couple solitary birds waking
up. Still relatively dark at 6:30 and so
very calm. I enjoy a good HOT
shower!
We take off around 8am, but have to
backtrack first toward Natchez because we realized we didn’t have enough gas to
get to Vicksburg! We missed the Walmart
and Murphys gas yesterday and it is coming back to bite us! But we only backtrack about 5 miles to find a
gas and convenience store, grab coffees and donuts for Rick, and put enough gas
in the truck for the trip (ignoring the fact we are paying almost 20 cents more
per gallon than if we had driven further into town!
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| I loved the wildflowers and split rail fences! |
We stopped at the Sunken Trace
briefly to walk down and see where the footpath has eroded down about 6
feet. I imagine during heavy rains it
becomes a creekbed!
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| Sunken Trace |
From there it is another 20 miles of
Trace Highway, and then we turn on State Rt 27 to cut across to Vicksburg. It takes us right into town and the Visitor
Center for the National Military Park.
Time for a history lesson! Vicksburg
was the key to the Union victory in the Civil War according to Abe
Lincoln. By taking the city, the Union
regained control of the Mississippi shipping paths and divided the Confederacy.
But the victory did not come
easily. The city was under siege from
May until July. The Union suffered some
major loses. The ironic and perhaps sad part in all this is that Vicksburg
voted PRO-Union in the secession vote for the state of Mississippi. They didn’t want to secede and yet they
suffered gravely even after the war.
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| Illinois Memorial |
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| USS Cairo - ironclad ship that sunk |
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| Chase took our picture |
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| Rick and Chase survey downtown Vicksburg. |
We pull into the park with a few
raindrops falling, but we have escaped any big storms today! Rain stops.
Rick heads off immediately for a
good long walk and I take a shorter one, exploring the nature trail briefly
(bridge out), the lake shore tentatively (we have been warned about ticks and
snakes) and then out the road for a bit before settling down to read and write
and draw!
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| I found a purple trillium! |
Around 6:30 the radio gives several
weather warnings, but they are for towns to the east of us with the storm
moving NE. Severe thunderstorms, high
winds, and big hailstones. We do
experience some heavy rainfall during the evening, and to date it appears Rick’s
fix of the air conditioner has worked.
(Knock on wood!) No drips so far
and it has rained pretty hard. It will
be a warm night, however, as we can’t leave many of the windows open with the
wind blowing the rain in from all directions.
Good night!
3.31.16 Thursday
Melrose Estate and Cajun Cookin’
Oh what a night! It was 75 in the trailer when we went to bed,
Rick prepared to turn off the electricity during the night if thunderstorms
came. So far all we had had was rain…in
waves of intensity. We woke around 1 to
rumbles of thunder in the distance. Rick
went out to pull the plug then just because he knew he wouldn’t go back to
sleep otherwise! A couple big flashes
and booms eventually nearby and then rain.
We fell back asleep. About 4 am,
CRACK! We both about jumped out of
bed! That one was close! Flash and boom! Several more a little further away and then
more rain. Glad the power was off for
that one!
When I got up at 7, the rain had
stilled. Puddles all around. We are glad to be on a concrete pad rather
than the muddy spot we first had at Mason!
The birds are singing and it is still 71 degrees in the trailer. More storms are predicted today. For now….I am going to draw!!
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| Melrose Estate |
Evening. We have had a few drops of rain early this
evening, but so far the storms have not come.
From what I could see the one time I was able to get online this
afternoon….we may be driving into them tomorrow!
We battened up the trailer and left
for town around 10 with a list of stops to make – some fun, some
necessary. First stop was at a Jiffy
Lube place to get an oil change for the truck.
We’ve driven 3000 plus miles and Rick is really good about taking care
of our truck since it has to work so hard to pull the trailer! Not the cheapest, but what we expected and we
got a car wash and a vacuum job out of it as well! Back on our way to make the 11am tour at
Melrose – the National Park Service antebellum home available for tours. Only when we arrive, we find an 11 o’clock
isn’t scheduled, even though all of us have read “tours on the hour”. Since there are 14 of us there, the gal calls
for help and then gives us the tour herself!
The Melrose estate belonged to a
Pennsylvania transplant to the south, trained and practicing as a lawyer. He received two estates as wedding presents,
along with the requisite slaves. He
moved up in the world rapidly and Melrose was built mostly for ‘show’ – to
exhibit his wealth and status in the Natchez society. Since it is park service owned and operated,
meticulous attention to historical accuracy has taken place in
restoration. Much of the furniture is
the original from either the first owners or the second, a banking family. The land itself was never cultivated after
the mansion was built. Previously it had
been the site of small cotton fields on the edge of town.
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| This is a 'Shoo-Fly'! Basically a large fan operated by a slave child to push air around. |
Out buildings included the kitchen
with slave quarters above (now the NPS office and gift shop), a dairy/laundry
building with slave quarters above, several slave cabins, carriage house, etc. There was an excellent exhibit on the slave
life in one of the slave cabins. Rick
and I found seeing these lavish homes built and run on the backs of slavery
difficult.
On the grounds
is a huge, beautiful live oak with fern-covered branches spreading out and
draped with Spanish moss. The azaleas
are starting to pass, but a row of white iris was in bloom.
Third item on our list – food. We wanted to try some authentic Cajun cooking
before we leave, so we find the Cajun Rice House serving Jambalaya and seafood
gumbo. I am leery of getting something
too hot for me to eat, but I found both ‘tolerable’! My mouth was hot when I was done, but it was
good. Both were not exactly what we
expected. Jambalaya is a dirty rice –
ours was laced with various pork and sausage flavors and seasonings. The seafood gumbo did not have okra in it,
unless the okra was totally ground up.
It was a gravy like broth, spicy, with shrimp and crab bits. The café also was selling live crawfish by
the pound, or you could buy it cooked.
We refrained and bought some frozen shrimp at Walmart instead! (Not quite the same, but convenient!) I am wishing I had internet so I could look
up some recipes to adapt to our tastes a bit more, but still with plenty of
fish in it!
We come to WalMart next for a grocery/gas stop. The gas is very important as we don’t have
much left in the truck! Inside for some
groceries and then….we find all the pumps have crashed at the Murphys outside
the Walmart. Sadly…they are 20 cents
cheaper than anything else around! So…
We hit a McDonalds in the hopes of getting internet
long enough to make a reservation at an Corp of Engineers campground in Alabama
south of Tuscaloosa. Al and Judy
reminded us in Mason of how nice some of these parks are, plus you get them for
half price with the Senior Pass. But I
couldn’t get the web site to work!
Finally Rick called and we are booked for Service Campground just
outside of Coffeeville, Alabama, about 210 miles away. We’ll stay the two nights and then drive up
to Tuscaloosa on Sunday morning – a mere 140 miles at that point.
And then….we must get GAS! Back to Murphys and we find the pumps are now
operating. Fill up the truck and off for
the campground! We are pleased with our
Natchez adventure. We are rested, yet we
have explored a little, survived a storm, seen plantations, battlefields, and
antebellum homes, AND tasted jambalaya, gumbo, catfish tacos, and seafood
bisque. Not bad!
The campground is quiet and relatively empty. Many of the rigs around us have left and no
one coming in until the weekend. Lazy
evening with the fan going. The air is
still, muggy, and it is still 79 degrees in the trailer. A warm night ahead!! Hopefully without those sudden bolts of
lightning and cracks of thunder!
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| My favorite scene entering Natchez State Park...the relic of an old building coupled with the beauty of a blooming azalea. |
4.1.16 Friday
Natchez, MS to Coffeeville, AL
211 miles
NO RAIN last night! Kinda eerie night, however. Lazy start to the day as we don’t plan to
leave until 10. But…at 8:45 a few drops
of rain start to fall which speeds us up a little. We don’t want to be hitching up in a
downpour! We had already put the front
end up last night in anticipation of wet, so that was already done! As it turned out the few drops were pretty
much it! So by the time we empty the
tanks at the dump station it is only 9:35 and we are on our way.
We follow US 84 straight across the
state of Mississippi. And you certainly
cannot complain about the traffic (very light) or the road (wide median, four
lane, all the way!)!! Rick drove to
Brookhaven, where we gas up again and switch drivers (armed with a new cup of
coffee as well!) Then I drove to Laurel,
MS, which ended up being a busier town than I anticipated. But it is the crossroads with an interstate
and another major US route, so…. We gas
up and then find the Waffle House right across from the gas station. Convenient.
Rick finally gets his promised breakfast out! I thought about trying grits, but was calorie
conscious and got the tomatoes as a side instead!
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| Pathetic welcome, 'Bama! |
It is only 40 miles from Laurel to
the border and then another 25 to Service COE Park just west of
Coffeeville. The terrain has been constant
– GREEN! Plenty of southern pines,
hardwood trees, waning azaleas and purple wisteria everywhere. It did not rain more than scattered drops all
day. I was disappointed in Alabama. The only sign we saw was a green ‘Alabama
State Line’ sign. Where was my ‘Welcome
to Alabama’?? Plus the road changed from
the wide four lane to a two lane quasi country road! Oh well!
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| Our spot in the trees along the Tombigbee River |
We find the entrance to the Service
COE Park very suddenly, but Rick manages to make the turn and we drive back to
a beautifully maintained, albeit damp, park.
After a drive-through we go back out to the park host and ask for a
different site (he had given us that option!) – the assigned site was difficult
to back into, a shared site, and backed right up to a site FILLED with cars and
kids. The guy said he understood! He is able to move us down 3 spots to #21
which is quite nice!
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| Along the Tombigbee River. |
We settle in, but only open the back
bed and don’t unhitch. Will wait until
after the predicted storm for that….just in case. A quick walk through the park, back out to
the day use area. We find a Birding
Trail, seeing a bald eagle and bluebirds, Spanish moss, budding trees, and the
Tombigbee River – a wide muddy swiftly moving river, carrying a wide variety of
storm debris downstream.
Later as we listen to the rain fall,
something quite heavily, we hear what sounds like a train, perhaps on the
opposite shoreline. I look out the door
to see if I can spy it and find a tugboat pushing a barge downstream right in
front of us! River action! Pretty cool.
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| Tugboat! |
We got postcards written today. Sixteen of them! Plus text or email messages to both Moms and
Luke. (All done while in Laurel at lunch
where I had LTE T-Mobile service.) Here
at the park we have NOTHING. No
cell. No internet. No TV.
So….time for old fashion communication….handwritten letters and
postcards!
4.2.16 Saturday
Coffeeville and Chillin’ at COE Park
That was the last of the rain for
abit! I awoke this morning to the sound
of birds, a 6:40 sunrise (we are further east!) and BLUE SKIES!! Hurray!
Beautiful day!
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| Flowers behind our campsite |
Our drive reveals a very small
village struggling. The high school/city
hall was hosting a trade fair and there was a fish fry happening. But we found the post office and mailed our
post cards. Who knows how long it will
take for them to travel to Oregon from here!?
We took a walk on one of the nature
trails this afternoon. It was very
soggy, but we found some new flowers we hadn’t seen otherwise. Really pretty! There is one plant I am curious to
identify. It has bright green leaves
nearly 12 to 15 inches long. When we
were in Mississippi we passed the Long Leaf Trace and there is a Long Leaf
River. I’m just wondering…. So many questions and no internet to provide
the answers! Ah well! (Addendum....Sunday morning another forester camper said they were BIG leaf Magnolias - only grow in southern Alabama)
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| Big Leaf Magnolia |
I added to my ‘treasures’
today. Tiny shells from Perdanales
beach, cotton bolls from Frogmore, and now sweet gum pods and a wad of Spanish
moss.
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| Another tug pushes a barge upriver in the setting sun. |
