Mississippi - Day 15 - to Starkville

Indian Mound Campground, Starkville
Wednesday, 15 January 2020

The rain finally petered out around 5:00 this morning, and I'm tired of this campground, plus my month here is half over with much of the state still to be seen, so I'm heading out.

today's route

Today I'm heading north to Kosciusko and Starkville (home of MS State Univ.) via the Natchez Trace Parkway.  First I had to get out of Jackson.

On the road
Normally I'd have picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway just a few miles from the campground, but a big section of the parkway is closed for some reason, so I had to go around, which meant going through town.  This time I stuck to interstates as the most direct route to the parkway.

I passed Medgar Evers Blvd. and realized I'd forgotten this was his state.  Aside from him having been a civil rights worker who was assassinated, I couldn't remember anything about him so looked him up.  Very interesting and courageous man.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Medgar-Evers  Apparently Rob Reiner made a movie about the third and finally successful trial of his killer, called Ghosts of Mississippi, with an all-star cast.  Evers was a WWII veteran and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Natchez Trace Parkway
Driving the parkway was one of the main points of the day.  This parkway runs up nearly to Nashville, and I'd wanted to pick it up both in TN and in AL, where it cuts across the northwestern corner, but never had the opportunity.  So that's what today was about.

It's an actual parkway - sort of 1950s style - 1 lane each direction with no shoulder, lined for its length by thick stands of trees on either side.  Good road surface, 50 mph speed limit, turnoffs for historic sites and scenic overlooks and trails.  Markers at the turnoffs explaining various aspects, such as the one explaining the Tupelo-Bald Cypress Swamp in that area.  I saw 4 Great Egrets together near a swampy area.

Through the trees I sometimes saw scattered houses and crop lands and herds of cows. 

I was sure there must be deer in the area and, at one point, I did in fact see a deer crossing the road.

I saw Bluebirds and Cardinals a few times.

All the rain we've had left a lot of standing water and soggy ground along the way, and I often saw Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons at these areas.  Again, just because there's water doesn't mean there's fish.  Where would the fish come from?

The parkway doesn't allow commercial trucks and, considering how narrow it is, I can see why.  There're no traffic jams and no intersections.  There are marked exits for a town or highway but no interchanges or traffic lights.  Just the parkway.

I imagine in the summer it's a lovely, cool drive.  It's more a pleasant drive than a scenic one.  There's nothing really to see but trees and the occasional bird or mammal.

Kosciusko
I think this name is pronounced KAH-zee-OO-skoh (that's how someone on the radio pronounced it).  I stopped here partly because we all needed a break but mostly because this is where Oprah Winfrey was born and I was curious.  It's also the birthplace of James Meredith (the first African-American to enroll at Univ. of MS) and Charlie Musselwhite (known as a "white bluesman").  In other words, this place seems to produce mold-breakers.

But whatever happens here isn't obvious to a casual visitor.  It's the county seat and has the usual courthouse on a square.

a surprisingly magnificent building that overshadows its surroundings

As I'm starting to expect, Google's instructions were way off.  It missed the turn off the parkway by a couple of miles, meaning I had to decide to backtrack to get here.  And once here I found the streets didn't go like Google said they'd go.  But I got here.

I found what seemed to be a municipal parking lot (it was unlabeled) a block off the square and we stopped there for a while.  Walked around town a bit, ate some lunch, took some photos.

Google had told me to go on this street.

As you can sort of see, the yellow center line is almost to the curb - it's not wide enough for anything but a bicycle there.  There's a solid white line on the left side that usually means don't cross the line - for parking or something.  As you see, there is enough space there for cars alongside the building on the left; it's the 1st Methodist Church and it takes up the entire block.

I first came at this intersection from the other side, heading this way.  But when I got to this block I was stumped.  No indication that it was one-way or two-way, except a car was coming toward me in the direction I'm facing in this photo.  The cars you see on the left above are parked and facing different directions.  I was afraid to go forward from the other side, because it didn't say one-way but where would I drive with those cars parked on what seemed to be my side?  I went around the block.

I later saw people driving on that road as if it were a two-way street, dodging the parked cars if they were coming this way.  And since this intersection is only a block away from the courthouse square, it's a main street and used by lots of cars - at least while I was there.  I took this photo just after I came out of that municipal parking lot.  It was just weird.

That's a vacant lot on the right where the trees are.  A block from the main square, across from the huge Methodist church, and it's a vacant lot.

I'm guessing this street indicates something about the way folks think around here.

I honestly didn't see much of anything else here that I haven't mentioned.  Just services, like a drug store and auto repair - like that.  The city itself says it has "minimum opportunity for industrial development" and "looks toward tourism as a means for economic development."  I gotta say, they've got a ways to go to develop tourism.

Back on the road
Here and there along the parkway are places where folks can pick up the original Natchez Trace, what's called the Old Trace.  It's still accessible in some places for hiking, though I never figured out where folks would park.

I've been noticing that there's red dirt here in MS just like in AL.

I turned off the parkway and headed east toward Starkville.  I passed a turnoff for Sturgis - looks like most states have a town with that name.

Starkville
I went first to a place I was assured was the main drop-off point for recycling and that it would accept glass.  Well, when I got there I saw no indication that they accepted glass and the bins that would have held other recyclables were missing.  I guess they'd been hauled off to be emptied and not returned.  I couldn't get rid of a thing.  Disappointing.

I went next to a business called Aspen Bay Candles.  As far as I could tell it was a local business and I was hoping to find a small factory.  But I never found anything at all.  The place that seemed online to be the headquarters turned out to be either a Dairy Queen or the vacant lot next to it.  The only other place I found online was a specialty shop downtown where, I assume, they sold the candles.  But that's not at all what I was looking for so I kept going.  Disappointed once again.

I went next to the Welcome Center at Mississippi State University, where I'd heard there was an extensive clock collection I wanted to see.  Yet again Google left out some very vital piece of information or other - none of the roads or signs looked like it had told me it would so I got lost.  I wandered around campus some, which was a bit of a trick since classes must have just let out and students were pouring all over the place, and dodging them with the RV was interesting.

I saw the football stadium in the distance and aimed for that, knowing the Welcome Center was across the street from it.  And found it.  What I also found was that it shares the building with the US's 2nd largest Barnes and Noble outlet, the official MSU bookstore.  The small parking lot was packed, pedestrians were everywhere, and the next door lot (which charged to park) was also nearly full.  Not a chance in the world I could get in to the Welcome Center.  Disappointed yet again.

I then (hesitantly) followed Google's instructions to a place called The Little Dooey, supposed to be a local institution for BBQ, I thought.  I wasn't hungry - it was only about 1:30 - I'd expected to get here later in the day anticipating stops at a candle factory and a clock collection  But I'd been promising to walk the dogs so thought I could stop here.  Well, parking was slim here too because it was on such a narrow street that there was no street parking; it had its own parking lot, but the sign said parking was for Little Dooey's only and even at that time of day I didn't want to push it.  So I decided to walk the dogs and then get BBQ.  We walked (dangerously) along the narrow street to another narrow street, and finally got to sidewalks and went around the block.

In repayment for letting me park, I went to get some barbecue and got another surprise.  They indeed sell their own barbecue, but they mostly expect customers to get pulled pork sandwiches or chicken wings or crawdads.  They had a lot of all those things for fairly reasonable prices.  The BBQ, on the other hand, had limited selections and very high prices. 

I ended up getting the same thing I'd gotten a few days ago at Rose's - to compare.  A half-rack of ribs, baked beans, turnip greens.  This is what it looked like, which didn't seem nearly as appetizing as Rose's had looked.  And I paid $20 for this, which I thought was outrageous.  But I'd come for barbecue and there wasn't anything else on the whole menu I wanted, so I paid it. 

When I had it for supper later, I learned that the food was really good.  Though the greens were better at Rose's, this barbecue was better - spicier, I think.  And though it doesn't look like much, it turned out to be enough food for 2 meals.

Odd experience.

And then on to tonight's campground.  It took me a while to find, even though it's on a dead-end road that parallels the highway so there're businesses only on 1 side of the road.  But their sign was small, had peeling paint so was hard to read, and gave directions for where to go if you're starting from some unknown point - apparently it was intended to be a highway sign, but there was no chance it could even be seen, let alone read, from the parallel highway.  That was the only indication of where the campground was.

I found it when I'd driven to the end of the road, turned (with difficulty) and came back slowly looking at the mailboxes for the street number.  That's when I noticed the sign (which I'd missed before) and then noticed a few RVs hidden behind some bushes.

This is a small, unpaved campground with an office that's open only 1 hour a day.  I called their number and the person (who I learned later is the owner living in Michigan) said park in a vacant spot and meet the manager at 4:30.  Though that turned out to be wrong - the manager comes to the office at 5:00 on Wednesdays. 

It was hard to find a campsite that wasn't too muddy - I didn't want to let the dogs in and out into a mud puddle - and that looked level, but I found one that was more level than in the Clinton campground, so that was an improvement.

When I walked the dogs around, I discovered the campground is tiny.  I think there're only about 25 campsites, and half the campground seems to be slightly underwater.  Seriously.  I saw an old building, a fence and the dog park all standing in water that must have been 6" to a foot or more deep.  Not much campground and no dog park seriously limited our place to walk.  The redeeming feature: the site with water & electric hookups cost only $20.

Such an odd day.

Mississippi - Day 14

Springridge Mobile Estates
Tuesday, 14 January 2020

I ended up not doing any sightseeing at all today, because it just poured rain all day long.  Really poured.  It was really hard to take the dogs out because they didn't want to go, but how long can they hang onto their bladders anyway?  And then I had wet towels hanging around the cabin with almost no chance of getting dry because it was way too warm to turn on the heater, but I didn't want to turn on the fan because the dogs were wet - I could never get them completely dried off, not having a hairdryer and a towel not being enough.

I worked on the blog and spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where to go next.  If this campground had been any more pleasant, I'd likely have stayed here another day.  But the whole place is paved over, with elevated planters filled with holly and cedars to divide the spaces.  And as I said before, it's on a hill and I was getting tired of the doors in the RV's cabin always swinging wide open or refusing to stay open.  I'd really like a level spot for a change.  And they were charging me $30/night (Good Sam rate) for this ambiance, so I decided to head out somewhere else.

I can see on the weather reports that the rest of the country is going through the same weather patterns I've been dealing with, but that's not making it easier for me to take.  Honestly, I miss the nice normal winter weather I got in Connecticut and New Jersey and Delaware last winter - cold temps and a bit of snow and ice and just ordinary winter weather.  Instead, what I'm getting is a damp version of an ordinary winter in the South.  This is much like we got in Austin and it's just not my idea of what a winter should be.

Momma always said this weather is why she preferred to live in the South rather than the North - after growing up in Rhode Island, she'd had enough winter to last her a lifetime.  I'm the opposite.  After growing up in Texas, I've had enough warm winters to last me a lifetime.  Alaska and Washington state taught me winters can be cozy and challenging and winter-y.  And this winter in the Deep South is reminding me of all that.  Very useful.

Mississippi - Day 13 - Jackson

Springridge Mobile Estates
Monday, 13 January 2020

today's route

I'd have come to Jackson anyway, since it's the state capital, but the main reason I was here right now was for Lily's monthly appointment to get her nails trimmed and her flea medicine applied.  I always do this on the first of the month, so we were 2 weeks behind and I didn't want to put it off any longer.  Her appointment was on the completely opposite side of town but wasn't until 1:30 today, so I spent the morning taking a scenic tour of Jackson and doing a few errands.

Post Office
I'd given David the address of a US Post Office substation to send my mail General Delivery.  In the past, I've always called the post offices to confirm that they'll accept General Delivery (which they don't all), but this time I tried to call several times and let it ring more than 20 times each, and nobody ever answered.  So I took a chance.  That was almost, but not quite, a mistake.

First, I couldn't find it, Google - both street route and aerial photo - having lied to me.  I finally stopped at a little shop and asked for directions, and the very nice young woman came outside to show me where the turnoff is and explained how I needed to go to find it. 

It turned out to be down an unmarked street to a dead end, and the building was barely marked as a post office.  Very weird.  And when I went inside, they told me they didn't accept General Delivery and it was supposed to have been returned to sender last week.  But I looked so distressed that one woman went back to check and came back with the news that it hadn't been returned because there wasn't any return address on it.  I knew good and well my brother had put a return address on it and said so, and she said nonetheless they couldn't find one so it was supposed to be sent today to the dead letter office.

But then she went back in the back again and somehow found that it hadn't yet gone downtown, so I have my mail.  That woman spent the whole time I was in the post office scolding me, like them not answering the phone and me not having any way of knowing the rules was my fault - though I didn't bother to defend myself because I wanted my mail.  The other woman was very nice and encouraging.  All very strange.

So the lesson I learned is always always always call ahead of time before using a particular post office for General Delivery.  And always always always ask questions before giving up something as hopeless.  Very useful incident.

Jackson landmarks
From there I drove downtown.  My plan was to do a sort of reconnaissance today to look for locations and parking so I can go visit tomorrow.

I drove into downtown on Capitol St. and it looked like a capitol building dead ahead of me, though my directions said it was actually off to the left.  When I got closer I discovered that the building that looked like a capitol was, in fact, the Old Capitol Building.

state capitol 1839-1903 (internet photo)

It's now a museum.

The building that's been the state capitol since then was farther into town.

design reminiscent of the US Capitol (internet photo)

The eagle on top of the dome is 8' tall with a 15' wingspan; it's made of solid copper and gilded with gold.

From 1983 to 1990, John Grisham served in the state House of Representatives, during which he wrote A Time to Kill and The Firm.  More productive use of his time than many state legislators can say.

A few blocks away is the Mississippi State Fairgrounds, across the street from the MS Department of Archives and History (the state history museum) and the MS Civil Rights Museum, the 2 museums being connected by a walkway.  All those are about halfway between the old and new capitol buildings.

Google's directions to the Old Capitol Building would have had me plow through the base of an elevated roadway; it was nearly impossible for me to turn around so I made the only alternate move, which was to turn into a parking lot.  Fortunately, the parking lot ended up near the street that Google had promised I'd run into before, I just took a rather roundabout route to get there.

But the lesson I learned from playing around in that parking lot is that I had little chance of finding a parking place if I came back to go to the museum in the Old Capitol, which I'd intended to do.  I can go a lot of places in this RV, but there are limits, and that was one.

Driving north from downtown I passed Millsaps College, a very small (less than 1000 students) Methodist school that claims Johnny Carson as an alumnus, among others.

I saw a lot of Art Deco style buildings in Jackson.

Flowood shopping centers
Flowood is a suburb on the exact opposite side of Jackson from Clinton.  I'm sure it's a regular town with houses and things, but all I saw was a highway lined with shopping centers.

I went to one that had both a Target, where I got some supplies, and a PetsMart, that included a Banfield.  I got Lily taken care of without any more than the usual hassle and walked the dogs a couple of times, so it was a productive interlude.

Back on the road
Although only on the road back to the campground.  I passed LeFleur State Park, which is halfway between Flowood and Jackson, meaning it's in an urban area.  I'd been told by some campers I met in Alabama that it was a good park to stay in, and I'd tried to make a reservation, but the park's page kept saying it was closed indefinitely due to flooding.  Odd, really, because it's on much higher ground than much of the town, but there it is.

It's across the road from the MS Agricultural Museum, which I'd also thought about visiting.

So it was a productive day (mail, Lily, shopping, sightseeing) and I mostly enjoyed the town.

Mississippi - Day 12 - to Jackson

Springridge Mobile Estates, Clinton
Sunday, 12 January 2020

peaceful sunrise after yesterday's storm

today's route

Driving through Meridian on our way west, I kept having this nagging feeling I was forgetting some important piece of Meridian's history that I should know about, so I finally looked it up.

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?

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.

City Hall and once, maybe still, the Masonic Lodge

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.

Mississippi - Day 11 - storm system

Benchmark Coach & RV Park
Saturday, 11 January 2020

We stayed in the campground all day and I, for one, was glad to do it.

The weather forecast said the worst of the bad weather would be coming to town in the early afternoon, but that didn't mean the rest of the day was fine.  The rain wasn't constant, but there were few intermissions of merely light rain when I could take the dogs out.

We got lucky and had no tornadoes nearby, though I heard other parts of the state weren't as lucky.  That was my greatest fear because tornadoes are so incredibly unpredictable about where they touch down and how much damage they cause.  Plus, I still haven't figured out what I'd do with the critters - especially Lily - if I had to evacuate the RV.  Plus plus, I didn't know where this park had designated as a storm shelter, if in fact it had done any such designating.

And then there are the version that are called straight-line winds, which can be equally as damaging.  Luckily we didn't get those either.  We did, though, get some very strong winds that blew down a lot of tree branches and shook the RV from time to time.  Tree branches falling heavily on our roof was my next greatest fear, and I was really glad to find we were in a somewhat protected area here.

Much of the day, though, what we got was really heavy steady rain, leaving such deep puddles that, even when we did go out, we had trouble finding somewhere to walk that we didn't have to wade through.

And then there was the thunder and lightning.  The critters have all become extra sensitive to thunder, living as we do in a metal box where the sound can reverberate.  And poor Gracie couldn't find anywhere to dig a hole where she could feel protected.

The dogs slept together a lot, which seemed to comfort them.  Usually they do this on the beds under the table, but not always, as you can see.

But one of the other things I've come to fear is the lightning, living, as I said, in a metal box. 

I never used to be afraid of strong winds or lightning or thunder - bad weather's never held much fear for me.  But I've learned many new things on this trip, and fears of bad weather seem to be among them.

So this storm had something for everyone, the best part being that it had passed over by late afternoon.  This campground left a lot to be desired, but I felt relatively safe here, and that's worth a whole lot to me.

Mississippi - Day 10 - to Meridian

Benchmark Coach & RV Park, Marion
Friday, 10 January 2020

very low lake level

Despite the low lake level at last night's campground, there's at least one Bald Eagle that hangs around there.  I know because I heard it calling several times when I was walking the dogs early in the morning.  At first I thought I was making it up because surely there weren't eagles this far south.  But the bird book says there are - I'm either on the side of the line on the book's map that says they come here in the winter, or I'm on the side where they live year round.

today's route

The whole idea of this driving trip came from the many times Momma and I would whiz across Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama on the interstate, seeing almost nothing of these states as we were going to and from Florida.  As we passed by, I wondered about the people who lived in these states and about what the rest of these states looked like, wondered about their lives and what their towns were like and how they earned a living.  That's where I got the idea of spending a month in every state.  Compared to spending mere hours in these states, it seemed a very long time.  Now I'm learning that most states have so much diversity that 2 months would be a more realistic time frame. 

So today, as you can see on the map, I strenuously avoided the interstate and wended my way east, then north to Meridian.  I wanted to take that highway in black (Route 42) that runs more directly to the town of State Line (creative name), but part way along there's a bridge washed out and no easy detour that I could see, so I took the longer route.

I spent the drive worried about the storm warnings forecast for all of Mississippi that included damaging winds, thunderstorms and tornadoes.  Very worrying.  They were forecast to come in during the night and tomorrow, but Nature can surprise the forecasters and I wanted to be somewhere near help, if it turned out I needed it.  In fact, the storm's winds didn't start picking up until we were actually in Meridian, so it was okay.

On the drive
I heard on the radio that quite a few inmates in MS state prisons are being moved to a privately-run prison.  Last week, 3 inmates were killed at Parchman Prison and, when the news became public, MS's ghastly prison conditions were exposed yet again.  Parchman has been called "notorious" for good reason.  This 2018 article from American Public Media does a good job of explaining not only its past but also its near-present.   https://www.apmreports.org/inside-parchman

Today being Friday, MS public radio plays a program called The Gestalt Gardener, which is very popular, judging from the people calling in.  I learned that this unusually warm weather we've been having is called a Blackberry Winter by country folks.

I learned that growing greens is trickier than you'd think.  You have to harvest them before it gets too hot, because heat makes them bitter.  But you can't plant them too early or they'll freeze, though cold weather early can make them sweeter.  Those really great turnip greens I had yesterday weren't enough to make me ready to run out and grow them, but I thought this was interesting.

I passed a church named Mahned Church of God.  I have no idea where that name came from because the church's homepage is on Facebook and I couldn't get details on the regular information pages.  Odd name, though, here in rural eastern Mississippi.

I saw lots of leftover birds' nests in the branches of bare trees.  I also saw a lot of clumps of mistletoe.

US Hwy. 98, that I took going east, is a lot like an interstate in many places - solid trees on either side so I can't even see the country as I pass along.

All day I saw a lot of filled logging trucks going the other way.

I passed Cluck & Buck Lane, and Bodacious Road.  A sense of humor is alive and well in rural MS.

The second half of my drive was on northbound Route 57, which varied between 2 lanes and 4 lanes with a median - but neither type of roadway had rest areas or even shoulders.  I drove for many miles with no ability at all to pull over, except the turnoffs to the few scattered small towns along the way.  That was a problem because by then, the dogs and I all needed to stop and take a break.  I finally found what looked like an almost abandoned plant of some kind with a large parking area and we stopped there.  Though there were only 2 cars parked out front, it turned out to be an active plant of some kind that seemed to be dealing with metal in some way - no signs at all so I couldn't figure it out.  Their parking lot, though, is apparently used during emergency evacuations as a rest or staging area, based on the only signs I saw, telling people where to park.

Driving north, I passed a lot of crop fields (though I couldn't tell what they'd be planted with) and cows and a tree farm.  Lots of pine trees, which I think were being farmed.

I passed through the small town of Buckatunna, which sounded like a joke to me, but I learned it's named after Buckatunna Creek, which I also passed over, and comes from a Chocktaw word.

I saw a sign indicating Little Mission O.H. Church.  I'm sure that's what the sign said, but I can't find any reference to it online so don't know what it's about.  I think the church was down a narrow road that turned off Rt. 58 so wouldn't have gone looking for it in my RV, but I'm curious.

There was a lot of water standing in the median - so much that I saw a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron both fishing in the same patch of it.  But it was the middle of a 4-lane highway so where would the fish have come from?

South of Meridian I passed what looked like a really tiny oil refinery - pipes and tanks and a pipe with flame on the top.  That couldn't be it, though, because I've seen zero indication there's oil under MS.  Looked odd, though.

All along MS's roads I see signs saying, in various ways, please don't litter.  And all along the roads I see a lot of litter - and it almost seems like there's more in the vicinity of these signs.  It's not quite as bad as - was it Virginia that has such a problem? - but it's much more noticeable in MS than in anywhere I've been for a while.  Too bad.

I've seen a lot of Trump 2020 support in this area.

Meridian
I'd intended to keep going through town to the campground, which is actually in Marion just north of Meridian.  But that storm was starting to come through, the wind was picking up and clouds looked more ominous, so I thought I'd go by the carousel I'd mainly come for and just check.  I'd seen online that these days it's only open on Saturday afternoons, and I thought I'd better see if maybe they'd posted any signs about whether their hours would change due to thunderstorms or tornadoes.

It turned out to be a good thing I checked - there was a sign and it said they were closed to the public altogether, though it could be booked for parties now and then.  So even if I'd gone to the trouble of unhooking from the campsite tomorrow and come into town, I wouldn't have been able to see any more than I did today.  Which was this:

I took this photo through a window - you can see there's a lot of daylight coming in.  It was built in 1896 by Gustav Dentzel, a German immigrant, who built the carousel for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition.  It was eventually bought by Meridian for the new amusement park they were putting together, along with its house that was also designed by Dentzel.

the sign above the door says 1909, which was when it was installed here

The carousel is the world's only surviving 2-row stationary Dentzel menagerie carousel.  And the house is the world's last surviving carousel house that was built from a Dentzel blueprint.  Right here in Meridian, MS.  How about that?

The carousel is still in Highland Park, the area built to be an amusement park, and many of the original buildings are still there, including a 1909 gazebo and a 1930s swimming pool.  I'm sure at any other time of the year, this park looks really pleasant, but when we were there, it looked desolate.  Standing water, dead leaves, litter.  It just seemed a shame.

Also in the park is the Jimmie Rodgers Museum, to honor the native son who is known as the Father of Country Music and was the first person inducted (posthumously) in the Country Music Hall of Fame.  He died in 1933 of TB at the age of 36.  I was surprised to see how many of his songs I knew, given my nearly nonexistent knowledge of him or of original country music.   https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/jimmie-rodgers  The museum didn't tempt me because it looked like an abandoned shed, although I'm sure it was nothing of the kind.  Maybe I was looking in the wrong place, having yet again gotten lousy directions from Google and ending up on muddy, rutted, dead-end roads.  With more time, better weather, and during tourist season, I'd spend more effort trying to find it.

I went on to the campground, getting there during a deluge of rain, complete with thunder and lightning.  It took a while before I was willing to get out of the RV to plug our electric cord in.  Gracie was terrified, of course, and when I got out of the RV she slipped out around my legs - apparently thinking her terror was coming from being in the RV.  I was holding the umbrella, which scared her again, and it took me about a minute before I could grab her and get her back inside. 

But that part of the storm blew over by suppertime, so we could go out for a walk without getting soaked.  It's a tiny campground next to a broad field that I was sure would attract deer.  In fact, on our last walk that night, I had trouble with both dogs when we got near it and assume that some interesting wild critter was out there.

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.