Mississippi - Day 9 - to Hattiesburg

Paul B. Johnson State Park, Hattiesburg
Thursday, 9 January 2020

today's route

I was heading today toward Hattiesburg, but my main goal was to see parts of Mississippi I'd never seen before - my previous experience with the state being confined to interstates.

The drive north and west
I passed the turn for the Trent Lott International Airport in Pascagoula - I'd forgotten all about him.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB they call it) had a one-hour nature program on, with a couple of naturalists and a surprising number of Mississippians calling in to ask questions.  I heard audio tapes of the calls of various frog species, including Spring Peepers that are breeding right now in MS - apparently they show up in more northern states later in the year.

I learned that the Great Horned Owl nests in mid-winter because its eggs incubate for a month, then the young stay with their parents for a full 6 months, learning to hunt.  They're considered the premier nocturnal hunters from Canada to Tierra del Fuego.

I learned that toads don't drink much water by mouth but instead absorb most of what they need through the skin over their bellies.  This was an interesting program.

We passed through the DeSoto National Forest in several places.

I passed a sign for Ashe Seed Extractory, which sounded odd so I looked it up.  It's part of the US Forest Service where 3 employees provide "genetically appropriate and diverse" seeds and cones for reforestation for the DeSoto National Forest.  Is "extractory" a word anywhere besides here?

I heard somebody on the radio talking about a vehicle for sale and said, "You may can get it on an upper trim level."  And I realized I truly am in the South.  "You may can get it" is the sort of expression I heard when I was growing up but haven't heard since Texas got so urbanized.

I saw magnolias and pines all over.

I heard on the radio that last November Mississippians elected all Republicans to fill their statewide-elected offices.

I didn't see many fields that I thought would be growing crops in the spring.  Mostly it was just isolated houses of various kinds.

I passed tonight's campground on my way into town, but it was still early enough in the day to keep going, and I knew tomorrow was going to be a long drive and didn't want to put off seeing the town.

Hattiesburg
I think Mississippians pronounce this name as HAT-ihs-burg.  I've always made that 2nd syllable a long "e" sound, but I think they're making it a short "i" sound.

Coming into Hattiesburg, I saw a sign saying it too is a Certified Retirement Community.  I finally got curious about just what this designation means and looked it up.  Six states have so far taken part in this program, intended to encourage retirees to bring their pension checks and provide jobs for locals.  The program says it's doing the background research for retirees looking for a place to live.  Here's a link for more information.   https://www.topretirements.com/certified-retirement-communities

I passed a church labeled The Biker Church, not a denomination I've heard of but they seem to have one or more in most of the US states.  They say they're a family-oriented church, no motorcycle is necessary to attend, and believe giving [to the church] is an act of worship because "everything we have comes from God."  Many are affiliated with the Baptist Church.  Interesting what we have in these diverse United States.

Hattiesburg is the home of William Carey University, a small (5,000 enrolled) Baptist-affiliated college.

I'd found online a place to drop my non-glass recyclables, and it took some hunting around but I found it on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi, another school in Hattiesburg.  This school was the last of Mississippi's public schools to integrate, thanks to a strongly segregationist president who, the year after racial integration, began expelling gay men to "purge" the school of "sexual impurities," according to Wikipedia.  But times - and presidents - have changed and today, with an enrollment of nearly 15,000, this school ranks high nationally in academics and research programs.  They have the only blue crab hatchery in the US at their Gulfport campus.  Famous graduates include Brett Favre and Jimmy Buffett.

Driving away from the university along 4th street, I discovered that it's a dividing line in an odd way: an intersecting street is named North Street on one side of the intersection and South Street on the other side.  I don't think I've ever seen this kind of North/South divide.

I wanted to drive around a bit to see what Hattiesburg's like so aimed for a historic train depot.  Fittingly, I got stuck in a major traffic jam caused by a very long freight train that had come to a stop.

Railroads seem to be a major part of life in Mississippi - I see trains and train tracks everywhere and every campground is on or near an active train track.  I even saw one hotel in Pascagoula that claimed on a billboard that no train horn could be heard in its rooms.

So once again I found my way blocked with lots of other folks, all of us waiting for a train to move.  I had plenty of time to look around and noticed a small park nearby, pulled us out of the traffic lane, and worked us into a parking space.  The dogs were very happy and I was glad to get out of that mess.  I watched the train start up, then stop, then move again, then stop, and finally move its very long way past the center of town.  It must have had 100 railroad cars attached.

I was able to take a back route (Google's directions got me to dead-end streets) to the train depot, but by then I didn't want to stop again.

Hattiesburg train station

Attractive building, though.  Looks much more substantial - all that brick - than the usual train stations.  It's been in continuous use since it was built in 1910.

BBQ
Today would have been my Daddy's 100th birthday, though he never had a chance of making it that far - none of the Gregory men get close.  It was 3 kinds of cancer that cut Daddy's life way too short at age 66 and, though we always had a heads-butting kind of relationship, I miss him all the time.

I'm most sorry that I didn't really have a chance to know him as an adult so, among many other things, don't know how else to mark today's occasion.  I stopped at a locally-acclaimed barbecue place which I actually think Daddy would have been interested in.  I'm learning that in MS, if you want really good food, you should check out the small places usually attached to gas stations, which is what this place is.

Rose's BBQ

If I hadn't read all the skeptical-of-the-outside-believers-of-the-barbecue-inside comments online, I'm not sure I'd have stopped.  But I was really glad I did.

Heeding consistent online pans of the brisket, I got the sausage/ribs combo plate.  Also heeding the online comments, I ordered the baked beans (cooked with jalapeño) and turnip greens (cooked with brisket).  I don't remember ever eating any kind of greens before (my Yankee Momma didn't understand them) but thought I'd take a chance.  They were absolutely wonderful - the best thing about this wonderful dinner, which was all pretty good.  For $12, I got enough food to make 2 dinners.

And while I was in there, I heard the local gossip about one of the Hattiesburg jewelry stores being burglarized last night.  They were stunned because the store's in a very public place and is always well lit at nights.  Apparently the thieves managed to get a valuable haul.

But the folks at Rose's countered with the time they'd been burglarized by someone driving a truck into one of their walls and taking away their safe.  I never realized these less-populated areas could be so crime-ridden.  (Hattiesburg has about 46,000 residents.)

On to the state park
I drove past a decent sized lake that had such a low level of water I wondered if they'd somehow had a serious drought here.  But when I asked at the office, I learned that they'd intentionally drained the lake to clean out the vegetation - not something they'd want to do in the summer when folks come for recreation.

I was surprised to learn they offered propane for sale at their maintenance building and drove back there.  The guys that pumped my propane were wearing identical uniforms - white shirts and green-and-white striped pants.  No insignia but I wondered, and when I went to the office to pay, I asked.  She said they're jail inmates that work here at the park.  I wondered if they got paid but figured even if not it's likely better than sitting around a cell with nothing to do.

Not many people camping tonight, but two of them were playing on the disc golf course near our campsite.  That, for some reason, drove Gracie absolutely bonkers.  I really don't know why.  As I pointed out to her, they were adults, they weren't yelling or even talking loud, they weren't bouncing a ball - none of her usual triggers.  But frisbee-type items seem to be high on her list anyway.  I could barely walk the dogs because I couldn't get far enough away from the guys to suit Gracie.  Weird.