Sunday, 12 January 2020
 |
| peaceful sunrise after yesterday's storm |
 |
| today's route |
During the Civil War, Meridian was a railroad crossroads and, thus, very important to the South. In 1864, Sherman led his troops through town, burned many of the buildings and wrecked the railroad lines in every direction. But I knew that wasn't what was nagging at my brain.
During the Freedom Summer of 1964, 3 Meridian-based civil rights workers disappeared, and their bodies were later found buried in an earthen dam. Rather than putting a stop to the voter-registration efforts their group was doing, the disappearance and death of these men brought national attention and thousands of new volunteers to the area. Eventually, 7 KKK members (including a deputy sheriff) were convicted of violating the civil rights of the 3 dead men. Three were found not guilty. Only 1 was convicted of manslaughter, this not occurring until 2005. I think it was this that had stuck in my memory about Meridian.
On the road
As soon as I could, I left I-20 and moved to US Route 80, which weaves back and forth across the interstate and passes through the small towns along the way. Google got really upset when I insisted on this route, but I managed to wrest some mildly accurate mileage information out of it.
Not far along the road I passed the Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility. Interestingly, this was built as a prison for those with serious mental illness. This former defense attorney can't help but wonder, if they're that mentally ill, what are they doing in prison?
Not far along the road I passed the Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility. Interestingly, this was built as a prison for those with serious mental illness. This former defense attorney can't help but wonder, if they're that mentally ill, what are they doing in prison?
The trains that got Meridian burned during the Civil War are very much still there. I came around a corner of the road and found myself staring at the oncoming headlight of a locomotive of a Kansas City Southern Railroad freight train. Turns out the road runs close to the tracks right there, and the tracks were curving just as the road was, which is why I had a head-on view of the train. A little unnerving, though.
I passed the tiny (pop. 344) community of Chunky, just east of the river of the same name.
It's odd how just a few miles from the interstate can make such a difference in the view. On this road I crossed very narrow bridges, and passed crop fields, lots of cows - a few with calves, and scattered houses of all types - some small, some quite large, some mobile homes, some made of wood, some of brick - all different kinds.
I listened to an interview on the radio with Joe Henry, songwriter born in MS and raised in Michigan, who was talking about the duality of the world. For instance, he said "if you exorcise your demons, your angels leave too." Interesting idea.
I smelled a skunk at several different places, assuring me that I was in the country.
I crossed railroad tracks everywhere.
I also heard on the radio that there's a map that shows the extent of the wildfires in Australia superimposed on a US map, so I looked it up. If you haven't seen this, you may want to check this link. It's terrifying. https://www.abc15.com/australias-fires-to-us-map
I passed through part of the Bienville National Forest.
Near the town of Forest, I passed a huge Raytheon radar plant and learned they'd undergone a massive expansion in 2018.
I passed a large flock of Great Egrets and realized I don't remember seeing them in a flock this size before.
Pelahatchie
When I came to the town of Pelahatchie - The Place to Prosper - I decided we could all use a rest stop and, it being a Sunday, parked on the main street in front of a city building. As I was getting us pulled together so I could take the dogs out, I saw a police car pass by twice with the cop staring in the windows, and then he parked nearby, so I decided I'd better go out and have a chat with him.
He said no I wasn't doing anything wrong, but he'd never seen an RV this far from the interstate that wasn't lost. So I explained my intent to see what MS is really like, which can't be done from the interstates, he agreed, and we chatted for a bit. But the odd thing to me is that the town isn't more than a few miles from the interstate as the crow flies, and not many miles further than that following the roads, so it seemed odd to me that me being there would seem odd to him.
I got the impression that this little town (pop. 1350) is trying hard to reinvent itself, and they apparently have a nice little park just off the main street (I say "apparently" because it looked awful when we were there, but it was the day after a terrible storm had dumped rain and tree branches all over everywhere) and I think they have local festivals.
But on the other hand, this little town is more than one-third African-American and is somehow big enough to have both a public school and a private academy, which makes me wonder if there's a lot of racism here. And for some reason, their Wikipedia page doesn't breathe a word about industry or other job source.
A little way out of town, though, I found the Mississippi Baking Company, which I guess is the source of employment. I had trouble getting information about the company online, as they seem to be confined to Facebook (WHY would an industrial company content itself with an online presence of Facebook?) which I can't access. Still, it seems they make the bread for McDonald's Big Macs and McRibs, so I guess they're busy.
Back on the road
I stopped at a traffic light and found myself next to a long flatbed truck carrying the banged-up pieces of a small airplane. The cabin looked okay, though, so I'm hoping everybody got out without major injury.
Route 80 passes clear through the capital city of Jackson, but it's definitely not the city's scenic side. I passed nothing but industrial buildings - many old and grimy - and a number of small businesses.
Clinton, where my next campground is, is a suburb on the western side of Jackson - a Mississippi Main Street Community and a Certified Retirement City. So there you go.
I passed the Mississippi College in Clinton, which turns out to be MS's largest private university - a Baptist-affiliated school of 5,000. And as it was established in 1826, it's also MS's oldest college, and the US's 2nd oldest Baptist-affiliated college. A veritable institution.
The office of my new campground was closed for the day - a lot of them are on Sundays out of tourist season, and especially in religious Mississippi - and the campsite they'd given me turned out to be on enough of a hill that I didn't give more than 3 seconds of thought before looking around for a substitute. The campground wasn't even half full, though, so I wasn't too worried about ousting someone coming in later than me.
And it had started to rain again, which made getting set up harder, compounded by the only campsites that weren't on a grade were the ones farthest from places I could walk the dogs. I compromised. But I'd already reserved 3 nights here so I wasn't really happy about the situation. I'm finding some really odd situations in the campgrounds in MS.
I passed the tiny (pop. 344) community of Chunky, just east of the river of the same name.
It's odd how just a few miles from the interstate can make such a difference in the view. On this road I crossed very narrow bridges, and passed crop fields, lots of cows - a few with calves, and scattered houses of all types - some small, some quite large, some mobile homes, some made of wood, some of brick - all different kinds.
I listened to an interview on the radio with Joe Henry, songwriter born in MS and raised in Michigan, who was talking about the duality of the world. For instance, he said "if you exorcise your demons, your angels leave too." Interesting idea.
I smelled a skunk at several different places, assuring me that I was in the country.
I crossed railroad tracks everywhere.
I also heard on the radio that there's a map that shows the extent of the wildfires in Australia superimposed on a US map, so I looked it up. If you haven't seen this, you may want to check this link. It's terrifying. https://www.abc15.com/australias-fires-to-us-map
I passed through part of the Bienville National Forest.
Near the town of Forest, I passed a huge Raytheon radar plant and learned they'd undergone a massive expansion in 2018.
I passed a large flock of Great Egrets and realized I don't remember seeing them in a flock this size before.
Pelahatchie
When I came to the town of Pelahatchie - The Place to Prosper - I decided we could all use a rest stop and, it being a Sunday, parked on the main street in front of a city building. As I was getting us pulled together so I could take the dogs out, I saw a police car pass by twice with the cop staring in the windows, and then he parked nearby, so I decided I'd better go out and have a chat with him.
He said no I wasn't doing anything wrong, but he'd never seen an RV this far from the interstate that wasn't lost. So I explained my intent to see what MS is really like, which can't be done from the interstates, he agreed, and we chatted for a bit. But the odd thing to me is that the town isn't more than a few miles from the interstate as the crow flies, and not many miles further than that following the roads, so it seemed odd to me that me being there would seem odd to him.
 |
| City Hall and once, maybe still, the Masonic Lodge |
But on the other hand, this little town is more than one-third African-American and is somehow big enough to have both a public school and a private academy, which makes me wonder if there's a lot of racism here. And for some reason, their Wikipedia page doesn't breathe a word about industry or other job source.
A little way out of town, though, I found the Mississippi Baking Company, which I guess is the source of employment. I had trouble getting information about the company online, as they seem to be confined to Facebook (WHY would an industrial company content itself with an online presence of Facebook?) which I can't access. Still, it seems they make the bread for McDonald's Big Macs and McRibs, so I guess they're busy.
Back on the road
I stopped at a traffic light and found myself next to a long flatbed truck carrying the banged-up pieces of a small airplane. The cabin looked okay, though, so I'm hoping everybody got out without major injury.
Route 80 passes clear through the capital city of Jackson, but it's definitely not the city's scenic side. I passed nothing but industrial buildings - many old and grimy - and a number of small businesses.
Clinton, where my next campground is, is a suburb on the western side of Jackson - a Mississippi Main Street Community and a Certified Retirement City. So there you go.
I passed the Mississippi College in Clinton, which turns out to be MS's largest private university - a Baptist-affiliated school of 5,000. And as it was established in 1826, it's also MS's oldest college, and the US's 2nd oldest Baptist-affiliated college. A veritable institution.
The office of my new campground was closed for the day - a lot of them are on Sundays out of tourist season, and especially in religious Mississippi - and the campsite they'd given me turned out to be on enough of a hill that I didn't give more than 3 seconds of thought before looking around for a substitute. The campground wasn't even half full, though, so I wasn't too worried about ousting someone coming in later than me.
And it had started to rain again, which made getting set up harder, compounded by the only campsites that weren't on a grade were the ones farthest from places I could walk the dogs. I compromised. But I'd already reserved 3 nights here so I wasn't really happy about the situation. I'm finding some really odd situations in the campgrounds in MS.
No comments:
Post a Comment