Ok, what to do. I need a long ride and if I go north it will or can be still cold. Since I got ran out of Mississippi last year by the rain I feel a need to return and as you know there is something that pulls me to the Delta. Just like my pull to France and Vietnam make me aware that in my last life I was a French plantation owner in Vietnam.
So, here I go. Or I should say "we". My good buddy Bill from Jacksonville wants to play too so he has graciously agreed to come along. He is dying to retire but his boss, himself, will not let him quit yet. He has a few projects to finish and every time he gets close some long time friend/client begs him to do another and he is such a soft hearted guy he agrees. I think this time he may mean it.
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| Bill and his mantra |
I received this message from my good friend EQ3 last year on my ride. I wanted to post it again as his words are profane depending on your interpretation. It refers to when we were discharged from the US Army.
Happy Anniversary. Fifty years ago on June 1, 1971 we became civilians. It was the best of times. We met the enemy, and it was US. Young and stupid ruled the day. I wasted money on a damn car when gold was $35.00 an ounce. And all that other stupidity too. Amazing fools lived to tell about it. I’m going to be smarter next time, says El Stupido!
Carry on. EQ3
| So, I like to throw in some art of the places I am going. I find these on a google search. I googled "Mississippi Delta Art" and this is what I got and a page of similar ones. Guess it is better looking than a field of cotton. It is available at Lowes Homestore for $30. Let's see what another search brings up. D  OK, this is more of what I had in mind. Now, as you regular readers know last year I got ran out of Mississippi by the rain. This year I decided to research the weather for April and found this weather website that shows in graphs and writing all the average weather in Clarksdale MS. This information is very nice, but pretty useless as the only weather that counts is the weather over your head at the moment. Day 1 April 9 St. Pete to Lodge at Wakulla Springs 253 mi Today was an unusual slow start. I had about 5 hours of riding and could not check in until 3pm. So, I did my usual morning. Up at 5, a small meditation fire in the backyard in the dark, a couple of coffees while watching a rerun of Maverick. Usually I would walk but this morning I drove Vicki's car down to the park to preposition it with all her support equipment for the Blues Festival in the afternoon. Had a nice walk on the waterfront and then back home. Had lots of time to finish packing and take a shower.  my morning walk photo Vespa's have a two part exhaust pipe and the connection has a gasket that goes bad from time to time. It sounded like mine was headed that way so instead of waiting and changing it on my back in some parking lot and ran it up on the lift and the job was done in twenty minutes. Kicked the cats and told the wife goodbye and hit the road around 10. It was just a ride. Ninety percent of it was uncrowed four lanes and ten percent a straight as an arrow road across the panhandle to Wakulla. Rolled in about 3:30. Though the ride was uneventful other than high winds the weather was perfect. Deep blue skies and no clouds. |
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| The Howard Franklin under widening |
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| Spring is in the air |
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| Arrived alive at the Lodge at Wakulla Springs |
Bill arrived just after 6 and we went into the restaurant for a beer and Martini. The restaurant was very busy and our waitress/server/what was very concerned about her not being able to serve us rapidly but we put here mind at ease. We finished drinks and dinner about 9:30 and things had slowed done a little a Aubrey had time to visit. We were very surprised to find out she was 18 and still in high school. She is mature beyond her years.
Day 2
April 10
262 miles 6.5 hours
We walked out of the Wakulla Lodge around 9 with the temperatures in the mid-40's.
Our first stop was by the Ricky the Volunteer Ranger to tell us to please stop for the stop signs. Roger Bob and we headed on down the highway.
Today was a beautiful ride down the long straight mostly nothing FL20. We did stop in Blountstown to visit a locomotive. Otherwise, despite research there was nothing worth a visit except the Nation Naval Aviation Museum. Sadly, Bill being just a taxpayer was not allowed to enter the military base. It did not make him happy.
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| This for you John |
On Florida 85 just short of Crestview we passed what we thought was a damsel in distress with a flat tire. We did a U-turn and went back to help only find out she was a long way from a Damsel in distress. Laurin had the car jacked, the old tire off, and the spare going on. Bill did assist when he whipped out is electric pump to check the air in the spare and had to add about 30 pounds. Lauren was not having car luck this week. This car is actually a rental because her car is in the after somebody hit her in a parking lot, She is from a family of military personnel. Her brothers, her sister-in-laws and her dad are all in the military. She has been in the Air Force for 7 years but not sure she will make it a career.
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| She had it covered |
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| Bill pumping up the tire |
We stopped at the Original Oyster House and had oysters and lunch. Our only meal of the day. Frank I have no idea where the pictures went.
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| The oysters |
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| They had a kite flying competition at the battleship memorial |
Overnight is in downtown Mobile Alabama.
Day 3
April 12
Mobile to Vicksburg
253 miles 7 hours
We motored out of Mobile around 9 headed west. Looks like a mostly lovely day with a little rain.
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| Morning in downtown Mobile |
When I go on these rides I try to find interesting and odd things to check out. Checked out most of the things in Mississippi around the route that I go but I found a couple of interesting ones this time. First there's a monument and Southern Mississippi for Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crash when it ran out of fuel killing several other passengers. Thought about swinging by there until the lead singer last week recorded a song for Ron DeSantis didn't see any need to go out of the way for that.
The next surprising thing that I found that in 1964 they set off two underground nuclear devices in Mississippi. Kind of tells you what the federal government thought of Mississippi back in the '60s. I was going to swing by that cuz we went very close but to reach the little monument that they have you have to walk two and a half miles on private land. So the picture in the article is enough for me.
The next interesting place that I found was Palestine Gardens (formally know as Palestinian Gardens) and it was sorta on our route. We had to get off US98, that we had been on since Florida, and meander around a lot of back roads in the middle of nowhere with nothing there except what was later described to us by some local as the drug trailers, to get to this spot. It is now owned by Don and it was supposed to be closed on Monday but he kept it open because God told him somebody would probably stop by. Now mind you, there is no way to keep anybody out of the property. There's no gate, there's no anything to block the road or entrance into the garden. He took us on a guided tour which can last up to 5 hours . We told him we wanted the very very abbreviated tour. I found it to be very interesting as he had studied the Bible and had many quotes and stories related to his various scenes that his predecessor and he had built. Bill thought it was very interesting of how people take the Bible twist all the facts they read to make it come out to fit their story. And Don certainly did that but in a passionate way. Pretty soon we saw that this could easily turn into the 5-Hour tour and we told him we had to leave. He was kind enough to offer to pray for us before we left and though Bill and I don't believe in the fairy tale we are always polite and accepted his prayer.
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| The bathroom was the motorcycle garage too. |
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| The tour came with an umbrella |
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| Don explaining to Bill what Jesus did here |
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| Bethlehem |
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| Guarding the temple |
Now we're off to camp Shelby. A Mississippi national guard training center that has a very good collection of tanks, helicopters and a nice museum.To get there I ran us down about 10 miles of what was listed as paved road and it was at one time. I had even done a satellite look but the spot I looked as must have been where the last bit of tar remained.
The last time I was at Camp Shelby it is just like this time, the museum was closed. But we did roam around and climb on all the equipment. We both enjoyed it even in the light rain.
We moved on towards Hattiesburg and pulled into Don's truck stop and Cafe. Got gas and since it was already about 2:00 in the afternoon we ate lunch. You can see from my Buffalo chicken salad that they believe in large portions out here in Mississippi. As good as it was I did not finish it.
From here it was just a ride to Vicksburg. The light rain that had been coming on and off all day ceased and just a ray of sunshine came out. We arrived at the Corner Mansion B&B about 4:30 and we're greeted by my old friend Macy and her husband Joe. This is my 4th or 5th time passing through here and it's nice to see them again and know that their business is booming. They have a lot of Europeans staying.
For dinner Bill took off on the scooter to the Biscuit Company and brought back a chef salad and a bowl of gumbo that was shared on his porch.
It was a great day
Day 4
April 12th
Vicksburg
The corner Mansions B&B serves a great breakfast at 9:00. Bill doesn't normally eat breakfast and surprising I did not die waiting for 9:00 of starvation.
Breakfast was an international event. There was a younger couple with a new baby from Holland. There was a husband and wife with their teenage daughter from Paris. There was a husband and wife farm England. And a husband and wife from the USA. Very interesting conversation all around with the European saying where they're going and where they been and what they liked.
My laptop computer decided it was time to start dying. Finding someplace to cure it in Mississippi is not easy but I did find a CPR cell phone place that said they worked on computers and bring it over and they would look at it. Stacy and I tried to get it started but it would not crank and she said from my description she was pretty sure that it was the screen was dying. I deduced it might be from all the vibration from riding on the back of scooters all over the world so I picked it up and dropped it from about 3 in and it started. She pointed out white spots on the screen which indicated that it's time is coming soon. Hopefully it'll make it through this trip.
From there we went to the Vicksburg national war memorial. Mainly just a drive-thru with lots of monuments representing the different units that fought on the Union side and the Confederate side. However, half to roads were closed for maintenance. We roamed what roads were open for about an hour or so and then the rain started so we decided to go back to the Corner Mansion, arriving about a little after 1:00.
The rain stopped about 4:30 and we rode the short distance back downtown to the Lower Mississippi River Museum complete with a large tug setting high and dry for touring. The threw us out at 4 when it closed and so we went up the street to the Key Brewery waited for it to open. It is beer hall with some great food. I had braised pork belly with heirloom grains, quinoa, benne seeds and a sauce of pistachios and herbs. Bill had onion and potato chip pizza. Don't laugh. It was good.
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| Dystany was our server. She was great as you can see by the smile She is studying to be a nurse and hopes to be a traveling one. |
Day five
April 13th
Vicksburg to Clarksdale
156 MI 2:45
We vamosed out of Vicksburg about 8:00 skipping the wonderful breakfast that Macy was going to prepare as did two Dutch guys who were headed to Memphis. The weather guessers had everybody scared of the weather that was coming and they wanted to get to Memphis before the storms hit and we wanted to get to the Shack Up Inn before the rain hit. The Vicksburg schools were shut for the weather today.
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| Joe and Macy came out to see us off |
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| Margaret's grocery |
Despite predictions of on and off rain it was an absolutely gorgeous ride. Almost clear skies and warm temperatures and we rolled into the Shack Up Inn about 11:00. Bill the owner was kind enough to let us check into our shacks Biscuit and Gravy. We met an Italian blues band that was checking out and we promised to come watch them at the Ground Zero blues bar.
We went to the Rest Haven restaurant that has been here since 1947 and is owned by a Lebanese family, which is also the name of many a funeral home through the south, and had the blue plate special. Grilled pork chop, rice and gravy, purple hull beans and cornbread. It was more than any human needed to eat but was excellent.
A quick tour Clarksdale and we're back Biscuit and Gravy to wait the coming promised storm. This time they were not lying. The rain started about 4:00 and then at 5:00 the tornado sirens went off, the wind picked up to about 50 mph and the rain came down torrentially. It poured and poured and thundered and lightning and the wind blew. The old shacks were just a shaking in the wind but fortunately this one, unlike last year,was not leaking in a half a dozen places. Also unlike last year the rain passed after a couple hours.
We called the only taxi in town, Jolly taxi, and Roosevelt picked us up promptly to take us to Ground Zero blues club to listen to those Italians. We had planned on dinner there but the kitchen had just closed. Now we are glad we had the blue plate special for lunch. The first set was excellent as they were playing the blues. Second set not so much as they played some requests of their benefactors in the audience of Willie Nelson and some other strange things.
We met a young Icelandic couple who were traveling the US and their friend who was moving to Clarksdale. We had met them earlier in the day at the Shack Up Inn. Really nice young couple and they took up a pool cue and started playing pool. Made for a great scene Italian blues, tall slim Icelandic blonde with her handsome boyfriend shooting pool. She had been to Alaska and Seattle on business for a week in each place flown to St Louis and now was traveling through the South visiting New Orleans, Houston and Austin where they would fly back to Iceland. We told him they will see more of America than 99% of the Americans.
Roosevelt picked us up at 10:00 right on time and we were back home where the temperature started dropping in the winds kept howling but I slept like a baby.
Day 6
April 14th
Clarksdale Mississippi
The temperature this morning was 44 degrees but the sky will crystal blue. 8:00 we saddled up and went downtown to the Yazoo pass for breakfast. One of the best omelets I've had in a long long time. Cooked to perfection for my taste. After a leisurely breakfast we walked around downtown. From 2000 to about 2018 Clarksdale was experiencing a rebirth. New restaurants and stores were opening, blues joints were opening, one or two buildings were converted into living homes or rentals. But sadly, it has not lasted and Clarksdale is slowly circling back down again. Stores are closing, restaurants are closing, even the Shack Up Inn is not doing as well as it used to despite the fact that it's doubling in size since I first started coming here ten years ago. Good news is all most of the shacks on the other side of the tracks are not owned by Bill but they just manage them.
Chilly Billy Howell showed up right on time in his red Jeep at 10:30 to pick us up at the Biscuit and the Gravy shacks. Billy has a degree in theology so you know he knows how to preach. Fortunately, it's not about religion it's about the delta and the blues of Mississippi. I extremely enjoyed this trip last year even though it was in the middle of a monsoon. This year is going to be fantastic under clear skies and cool temperatures. We went through downtown Billy telling Bill all the history from about when they built the synagogue here which is no longer in use as there was a large population of Jewish merchants in Clarksburg when it was the center of the shopping for all the agriculture around. Then we worked our way out on Stovall road past the Stovall plantation and Billy and Bill were having a great time talking about the different architecture and the styles of the homes. I was a little surprised that Billy was very familiar with most of it. Went down to Friars Point and up on the levee and down to the river and back around and over the dale. On the levee Whistle came up to visit us. Last year we had to whistle to get whistle to come up. This year once he saw the red Jeep he came trotting. Billy has started giving him treats. The tour was great and I highly recommend it to anybody that ever happens to stumble through Clarksdale.
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| Bill, Whistle, Billy |
Last year we had to whistle to get whistle to come. This year as soon as he saw the red jeep he came running.
In the afternoon we rode over to Charleston Mississippi where mine and Bill's good friend Roland Henry grew up, to take a picture of his childhood home. In his email to me he said it might be the place he comes back to die. I advised him if he's going to come back to die he needs to be pretty close to death before he shows up.
Beautiful ride through the country and we're back in time to hear some afternoon blues. You can hear the blues everyday in Clarksdale and it's an informal arrangement amongst the music people in town. The Bad Apple, which is just a little tiny juke joint in the wall, Apple plays and teaches you about the blues and some of the players on afternoons and today was one of them. There's a lot of fun but in the small place with just one guy playing a lot of amplification it gets loud.
Back at the shack about 8:00 we called it a day and made our big plans for tomorrow to go get a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.
Day 7
April 15
Shack up Inn
(As I write this in the evening 20 yards to my rights player practicing for a set tonight on the stage at the shack up inn. There are two other people that are also playing. Doesn't get any better than this.)
Bill and I blasted off about 8:30 this morning headed for Graceland. He had never been there and I haven't been there in a long time and I needed a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Nice ride on rural back roads. We hit two detours with nothing other than an hand painted arrow drawn on a road closed sign. No signs after that to get back to the road. In Memphis we zip right into the parking lot at Graceland. The parking is 10 per vehicle but they just charged 10 for both of us. It is a lot different then the last time I was here. Sort of like Memphis looks like, a tacky Orlando theme park not very well maintained. So we got online for our show and went into a little tiny theater for an uninspiring movie. Then we were herd us onto the bus giving us a tablet and headphones and bus us over to Graceland. It was just a long line of people nose to toes stringing through the house. It's not the Graceland of my memories this was sort of like being in a buffet line. Finished with the house we went back to the other side with the exhibits of his cars, archives, other people's sequins and his airplanes. I found the whole thing done poorly. There were great large spaces with nothing in them. We got our peanut butter and banana sandwich which was disappointing and said goodbye.
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| The famous fried peanut butter and banana sandwich |
From Graceland a motored over to Brussels Bonsai. This is a huge commercial grower and seller of bonsai and he has numerous greenhouses full of them. I had bought three here many years ago of which one is still living. After walking through and looking at the bonsai, talking to one of the pruners who had been there 31 years, I decided I would think about it instead of buying one.
Back on the scooters we headed south back towards Clarksdale. We decided to go to Rest Haven and have dinner. I was pretty disappointed because at night they don't have the vegetables that I enjoyed the other day for lunch. Veal parmesan with spaghetti and a nice little side salad was adequate and did the job.
Now back, at the shack with the adventure today over and I never ever need to go to Graceland again.
Day 8
April 16
Shack up Inn
Today was a wet day and remained inside for most of the day. Around 5 we had a little break in the weather and made a run in to town for our only meal of the day.
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| This was mine and Bill had salmon |
The evening was spent listening to music in the Juke Joint Chapel at the Shack.
Day 9
April 17
Shack up Inn to Tallahatchie Flats
52 wet miles
This morning the Easter Bunny delivered tons of rain and hail to my front door. It stopped after a while and about 8:30 I sent Bill a message and ask him if he'd like to go to Granny's pancakes for breakfast. Fortunately his phone was turned off because it didn't take long before the sunny skies became wet again.
At about 9:30 I got a message from Kim at the Tallahatchie flats that our rooms were ready and we could come on down. By 10:00 the skies lightened up and the rain had gone away. We were loading the bikes when Bill ripped a hole in his hand. Nothing serious for me or you but for him who's a bleeder, it was kind of important. I got some Band-Aids from the maids and we put those on but in the neighboring Shack there was a Dutch couple and they heard us talking and they offered some better Band-Aids. At the shack up Inn everybody is a friend and friendly.
Our hour 10 ride South was uneventful with no rain. Once we had stored stuff and our individual shacks we decided we better rush off to lunch before the Easter crowd got out of church. This is a church town. As we were making our way through town though we noticed most of the churches were getting out at 11:45. I guess they all got the short version of the Easter service. The Crystal Grill is about the only non-chain restaurant open and it's very famous and has been here forever and that's where we went. Started and still owned by Lebanese immigrants. There was a line the people in front of me who had a reservation but the lady behind me walked over my back and said we would like a table for six. The host said I'm sorry it will be a long wait you should go someplace else and they did. Then I told her we had a party of 2 and how long would the wait be she said "could be 10 minutes but here follow me" and took us directly to a table.
It's a fairly large restaurant with many different rooms and there were large tables of six and eight and ten member families there in their Easter best to have lunch in our room. Everybody knew everybody so it took them awhile to get through each room as he had to stop and say hello to each other.
A waitress last night was Hannah and Bill said she was new and I didn't believe him but he was correct. She was cute and efficient but not confident. Our waitress today was cute very confident and very efficient. We watched her work the room of five tables. Two two tops, two eight tops, and one twelve top. She worked them all smoothly and efficiently.
On the way home we went by the Walmart to get me some cheese and chicharrones. Sadly I was unable to acquire any wine as all the liquor / wine stores are closed evidently on Sunday. So happy hour will be pub cheese, chicharrones, Bill's Cheetos and M&M's.
It started pouring rain about 4:00 and looks like it's going to last a while let me know scooter riding today. However, tomorrow looks wonderful but all the places I wanted to take Bill museums etc are closed on Monday so we'll have to come up with just a riding plan around Mississippi.
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| Tallahatchie flats |
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| The Place matte |
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| This now an official oyster tour |
Day 10
April 18
Tallahatchie Flats
108 cold miles
We left the Tallahatchie flats about 8:00 to go downtown to a Gucci coffee shop. Was very nice but not very Gucci as the coffee maker's the same one I have in my house. However, they did have great fresh sausage egg and cheese biscuits.
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| See the rarely seen breakfast item? The newspaper |
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| William in his office |
We left there headed west on us 82. All the tour stuff is closed on Mondays but we were going to ride by a couple of them. First stop was Indianola and the BB King museum. Took a couple of photos and headed on down the road. I started to realize it was getting cold and windy. I hadn't even thought about the temperature. I was just glad it wasn't raining. Next stop was Leland Mississippi hometown of Jim Henson and the Muppets. They had a little tiny Jim Henson museum about the size of my bathroom with very nice and enthusiastic docent. After doing everything we could do in there including using the bathroom we'd used up all of 15 minutes. Back at the scooters we had a conference and we both agreed we should go back home because it was just too damn cold. The temperature, which we had not checked but we did now, was 54°. That is one degree above what Bill thinks is the most uncomfortable riding temperature of 53°.
Got back to our shacks where we both cranked the heat up till our bones got warm. At 12:45 we ventured out to Fran and John's for lunch and both had acceptable salads. There was a sweet 16 party going on with some of the cutest little Southern Hussies you've ever seen in your life all dolled up with their hats and they're fine outfits.
We left there and rode out to the local airport just to see if the big airplanes are still there. Didn't bother to take a picture but they're still about 10 Air Canada airplanes on the ramp that they are disassembling. From there we went back into town to fuel up and to get me a bottle of wine and a beer for Bill. Wine is only available in a liquor store and they're all closed on Sunday. I rode around with as Bill took a couple of tourist photos of the John Deere dealership, the Bobby Gentry sign at the Tallahatchie River and a visit to Robert Johnson's grave.
We stopped into to see Robert Johnson. As I have commented in the past this graveyard is totally unattended, with graves sinking, headstones falling over.
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| A fresh grave |
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| Bobby Genttry |
All that tour stuff done we were back at the shacks trying to get warm even though now the sun is out the temperatures 59. That's chilly to us Florida boys on a scooter.
Around 6:30 we ventured out for dinner. Our 1st,2nd, and 3rd choices were closed but that was not the big problem. The problem was my scooter started acting up. We headed for our 4th choice but when I shut it off it would not start. Bill went back to the Flats to get my tools. By the time he returned it started. I made beeline back to the Flats as it was getting dark. Bill brought back dinner. Just the comfort food I needed, Popeyes fried chicken.
As we ate dinner we strategized about what to do.
The nearest Vespa dealer was 275 mi away in New Orleans but I had no desire to go there. There was one in Atlanta there's one in Mobile Alabama and there's one in Pensacola Florida. Alternatively
We can make a run for Richland Georgia where my niece lives and have some support there.
What I did know is I had to get the hell out of where it was as this is sort of a no man's land for scooters.
After some wine and chicken we decided to make a run for Pensacola which was about 350 MI. Bill was scheduled to go home tomorrow and I was scheduled to stay and he agreed to ride with me to Pensacola as my chaperone in case things went really bad.
The plan made, we went back to our respective shacks and started packing.
Day 11
April 19
Greenwood to Fairhope Alabama
296 miles
I didn't sleep well last night I guess it was worrying about the scooter or they almost full moon blinding me through the window. Up early as usual I contemplated that the problem with the scooter could be electrical so I went out and disconnected the battery. That did not make any difference.
Bill had to decided on a 8:00 departure last night hoping the temperature would be above the sunrise 41°. But at 7:30 it felt comfortable enough and we were ready to go and hit the road. Surprisingly the scooter worked well as if nothing had happened after an hour or so of riding. So after 3 hours of riding we stopped for lunch and I told Bill my new plan. He was released as chaperone and should go on as he wished. I was changing my destination to Fairhope Alabama. This would put me between the Mobile and the Pensacola Vespa dealers in case something reoccurred.
Lunch was at a great little BBQ in the middle of nowhere and the only restaurant for miles. The best ribs I have had in a long time.
Bill decided he would try and make it home ,another five plus hours of riding. Not my style but he loves it. We parted ways in Mobile as he got on the interstate to head east to Jacksonville and I continued on US 98 to Fairhope.
Fairhope is a very cute little town with a nice Hampton Inn right in the center of town. Got me a nice room with a view of a wall since that was such an exciting view I went out to have dinner. Couple of large margaritas and a California burrito converted to a southern burrito when they put cheesy grits in it and the day was done for me.
Not Bill. He ended up riding 700 miles and 13 hours on his Vespa to get home!!!!!!
Day 12
April 20
Fairhope Alabama
0 miles
Today I am doing nothing. Not going to even sit on the scooter. I did crank it up and it is acting normal, so hopefully I can continue the journey home tomorrow.
Another strange fact I found out this week that happened was the longest airplane flight ever occurred in Meridian in 1937. It lasted for 37 DAYS!!! Another airplane would fly over and lower fuel and food and oil down to them on a road.
It is all here in the video.
No one I know, even those who live and breath aviation have ever heard of this.
Day 13
April 21
Fairhope to Perry FL
300 miles 6 hours
I had hoped to stay at the Wakulla Lodge but it was full so I pressed on to Perry.
Great ride, beautiful weather.
Day 14
April 22
Perry to Newberry
78 miles 2 hours
I was thinking of heading on home but Dave called and told me the lawn mower was available to ride in Newberry at Casa Dalhunty home of Camp David. I love riding mowers. I had a dream job once as a volunteer where I just rode a lawnmower for hours a day. Then I got fired from my volunteer job.
Great ride and a great day cutting grass.
Day 15
April 23
Newberry to Home
148 miles 3.5 hours
I started the day setting outside in the dawn listening to the roosters next door wake up the day. It was very peaceful. No noises except the roosters.
I left about 7. The weather was perfect and this was mentally the quickest ride I have had between Camp David and home. Usually it is just something I have to do to get there but today I really enjoyed it.
I arrived home just before 11 and surprised our cat setter. She and the cats were still in the bed. Some people may say she must be lazy to be in bed this time of day but she deserves. Her normal day starts in the pool on the waterfront training at 5:30 and moves on from there to train others. She has now taken up the cause of training autistic children and is having great success. She is not making them Olympic swimmers but is modifying their behavior. They start unfocused and some unruly but over time with patients she has them in the pool and and following directions. She is very proud of what she has done and rightfully so.
Conclusion
Before I go on a trip such as this, especially to Mississippi, I start reading news and stories of the day for Mississippi. It is a different world and a different culture and I enjoy it.
There was interesting news feeds about what is happening in Mississippi from Brett Favre the former football player and native Mississippian in a welfare scam, to the everyday political hack stories.
One interesting one was a lot of noise about the pay raises for the teachers in Mississippi, the lowest paid in the nation. Florida is right down there in the bottom with them. For several weeks this was a leading story, but I knew there was more and a few weeks later, without as much fanfare it came out.
The legislature under the guidance of the governor gave themselves all huge pay raises. Where the teachers got about 8% the power makers got as much as 66% pay raises.
The teachers get a small piece of the pie and have to work in old schools that are falling down.
Mississippi is about last in every statistic of the nation. You will hear a lot in Mississippi about why this is so and "not our fault". It is for all the reason that you think.
All that said I have loved my trips to the Mississippi Delta and the people I have met there. I am looking forward to my next trip but this time I think I will explore the hill country.
Thank you for coming along on the ride.
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