Mississippi has Sunrises and Sunsets, Too!

Parked in my son's backyard here in Mississippi, you might think we are not seeing any more beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Okay, maybe I didn't expect to see them myself.

This sunrise is seen from the doorstep of my RV. Something to wake up to even if we're not by a lake.

Did I say we're not by a lake? This was taken about 20 feet from my RV, and yes, we are by a small lake. My journey so far has been plotted by one lake and then another. Many of them have been surprises. Who knew Oklahoma was a state of lakes? Louisiana? Or that Mississippi would have dotted its subdivisions with little lakes. This little lake is in the residential development where my son lives and I know my grandchildren have fished in it, but I've never heard about what they've caught. Nevertheless, lakes are good for the soul, even little lakes.

There have been other discoveries here in Mississippi too. Here's a landscape that delighted my eye.

And my palate, since I had not had a latte' in six weeks. You might notice on this cup that I have not only found Starbucks, but I've found a friend there too.

Okay if you're reading my posts, you're probably not here to see pictures of paper Starbucks cups, so here is the best I've got for today.

This is a new shot of the azalea I posted a few days ago. A couple of people commented on it being odd to see an azalea blooming during the fall. So I went back to take a second look, and yes, it is an azalea. And there is a story behind it. This is an "Encore" azalea and it blooms twice yearly, once in the spring and then again in the fall. These azaleas are happy in climates as far north as Ohio, according to a local gardener. They simply have not yet been "discovered."

Since I last walked by, it has been tucked into its winter mulch. Feet warm on the chilly nights, it can smile in the sunshine.

And Chorro and I are looking forward to even warmer temperatures forecast. I understand there will be some outdoor Christmas festivities tomorrow.

And tomorrow is a new day.

Down a Country Lane

Today my son offered to take me on a walk down a country lane not far from his house. These woods are on the edge of a housing development in the suburbs. It pleases me to discover nature hidden away close by.


The rain has ended and the skies cleared to this crisp, clean blue that made me want to inhale deeply. And hey, there actually is a country lane just on the other side of the stop light




The road leads through small farms, fenced into neat rectangles. Some fences were white, tidy structures while others were barely standing.






These little guys seemed eager to have some company and came trotting over to us. Maybe they are used to getting a handout.

I say 'little guys' because they were, literally. Here they are with my son, to give a little perspective.

In the pasture with those two horses and several more was this little odd-ball. No, he's not an overgrown rodent, he's a little pot-bellied pig.

Now for a contrast in beauty. Nothing melts my heart the way a single rose in bloom like this one does. What a show-off!

And coming over the hill and seeing this whitewashed fence with the roses trailing over it and more horses grazing in the green field was like a poster for serenity.

I'm not sure I can identify the raptor here (help me out bird-friends), but she was soaring and gave me the perfect snapshot for the blue-sky high of a morning walk after the rain.

And here we are, back at the woods we started from.

Little boy memories took over my son at this point and the woods coaxed him over to see if there were any tree houses or hide outs that had been played in over the summer. I'm not sure what he found but he was smiling.

This walk was the highlight of my day. Who knows what else is hidden in the city?

And tomorrow is a new day.

Settling in

It continued to rain this morning and I noticed that I am settling in, literally. The levelors under the RV wheels are settling into the Mississippi mud and sinking out of sight . That doesn't work because my refrigerator insists on being level if I expect my food to be kept cold.

No problem, I speak Home Depot!

And with just a little assistance, an 8x10 becomes 6 nifty new bases for the big yellow Legos that I use to level my RV.

And, here I am back up out of the mud, nicely levelled.

Yes, that is green grass I am parked on.

Even though it was still raining, with a little nosing around I found some flowers in bloom, a good sign that I am perhaps far enough south for now.

Impatiens in bloom. Fresh little faces.



These yellow pansies made me forget it was raining.



Pink azaleas, almost too perfect to be real



Masses of roses, as fragrant as they were abundant.



These boggle my mind. Little Christmas trees and hanging baskets of pansies on the same display.


And the only sun I saw today.

I am really ready for sun again, we've been in the rain for several soggy days. Tomorrow the forecast is for sunshine and clearing skies.

And tomorrow is a new day.

Across the Mississippi

Today we drive east in heavy rain to cross the broad Mississippi, an event that will be a 'new experience' for me. So many tales about this river, so much folk lore around it. My first encounter with the Mississippi was floating its swirling, muddy waters on a raft with Huck Finn, when I was about ten years old. I loved it. I'm curious to see if it's changed much since then.

Here it is, the quick glimpse of it between windshield wipers, crossing the bridge with traffic now as heavy as the rain. I really didn't have time to take it in because suddenly I was in Vicksburg.

New state, new city, new look. The seasons changed while I was crossing the bridge and I left Louisiana's soft autumn and arrived in Vicksburg in a late summer thunder and lightning storm.

There is much traffic, and my Mississippi ponderings are put on hold while I maneuver my 8X25 foot box on wheels between semi's and SUV's at 65 mph. Hmm, could it be we are ALL taking up too much of the road?

Although I've visited Mississippi many times, I've never driven through it. The bits and pieces I've observed have always been green and beatiful in my May and October visits, so I'm looking forward to seeing if my impression of the greenness of Mississippi holds in December. What do you think?

Unfortunately, my photos today are taken through the windshield with heavy rain and dark skies, so I apologize but still wanted to give you a glimpse of my day.

Here, at dusk, I am finally settled into my new campsite. No, I don't have a view of a lake, but I'm am closer to long hot showers than anywhere I've camped so far on my journey. And for that I am quite grateful! However, that's really not the best thing about this campsite, the best thing would be the smiles and greetings and conversation with the wonderful group of people who host it ;-)

Tomorrow I will begin an in-depth exploration of Mississippi!

And tomorrow is a new day.

Investigating the Mounds

We woke up this morning to the gentle sound of rain on the RV roof. It was a good morning to snuggle deeper into the covers and sleep a while longer. Since I wanted to check out the Poverty Points National Historic Site farther north though, I knew I needed to get up and get the RV ready to move.

So chores and the checklist later, in even heavier rain, we pulled out of the campground and headed off to learn about the Mounds People. These are not the chocolate-coconut guys, these are people who migrated to Louisiana from the north and west, probably from Russia or western Asia, 10,000 years ago or more.


Over time, they formed settlements in Louisiana and Mississippi, settlements which were agriculturally based and fairly stable. These people built mounds, earth structures, some of which formed fairly large communities.


At Poverty Point, there was a complex construction of concentric ridges, built in a semi-circle. Dwellings were probably built on the ridges. Behind the outside ring, centered, is a large mound which, they say, looks like a bird in flight when viewed from overhead. Here's a depiction of it.







You can see that it was a very large community of hundreds of dwellings.



Archaelogists think there were a series of tall posts placed around the outside edge of the dwellings that served as a 'calendar' for the seasons by reading the shadows thrown by the posts. The symmetry is interesting and the placement of the bird is to the west. On the northern edge is a mound which appears to have been a burial site.



The museum had large displays of points from the site, like these. (Eat your heart out, Sis.)






And something that I think is unique to this area are these little clay balls, which, since rocks are hard to find here, were made to be heated in the fire and then placed in pots to cook food.





My RV was not allowed on the road around the site and it was raining so hard I opted not to walk it, so I never learned whether the site is being actively excavated now or not.



The Montana-turned-Mississippi man tells me than Montanans can stand on these mounds and not know they are on them. Locals, however, think they are noticeably high. The mounds/ridges are in the trees in the distance, but they also circle around toward me. Where I stood to take the picture would be the central area of the half-circle.

After we left Poverty Point, I crisscrossed the area by RV looking for a latte'. If there is such a thing around here, it was no easier for me to spot than a mound. So, back to the campground to do laundry. We'll be on the road again tomorrow.

And tomorrow is a new day.

The Louisiana Mounds

Do I dare to say it was cold here today knowing I left behind the land of sub-zero temperatures? Okay, I'll confess that my winter jacket is still packed away beneath other more useful things. Let's say this evening is chilly.

We spent most of our day inside, doing warm things like washing dishes, rearranging storage boxes, and vacuuming the floor.

Nevertheless we decided to go out for a walk in the late afternoon sunshine. There is always exploring to be done and pictures waiting to be taken!

We learned that this state park is the site of the "Marsden Mounds."

Louisiana has over 700 mound sites, built by prehistoric civilizations as much as 4000 years ago. The mounds here are about 3500 years old and were built in 3 separate phases, excavated by Harvard in the 1960's. Some of the mounds appear to have been residences, some burial sites, and some religious or ceremonial sites. And some sites, like this one, apparently served different purposes in different phases.

The "mounding" of the earth is not very obvious and I would not have known the mound was not natural to the land. Each of the little white markers in this picture is a sign at a different mound. The one on the left is the largest. It is an interesting feeling to wonder about the people who were once gathered at the very spot I was standing.

I am curious about those people and tomorrow we will drive a short way to Poverty Point Historical Site to see if I can learn more about them.

In the meantime, the sun was sinking low and making for some interesting contrasts with trees, water and sky.

And finally, the sunset I've been watching for since Oklahoma.

Now I am content to call it a day.

And tomorrow is a new day!

A Good Day for a Walk

I'm sure almost everyone took a walk today, from Atlanta to Minneapolis to Casper/Cheyenne to Bozeman to Orcas Island! Chorro and I took ours before we ate, though. It was chilly here, but comfortable as long as we kept moving. This is Poverty Point Reservoir, and I think my camera was kind to the sky, since I don't remember it being quite that turquoise.

We didn't see any black bears, and our first major wildlife spotting was this turtle, who blends in well with his habitat. I hope you can pick him out.

A few ducks were out for a stroll too.

And these guys obviously already had eaten and had their seats, waiting for the afternoon football game to start.

But what we all waited for was the turkey!

Okay, so it's a chicken. For me, it still had all the necessary features. It browned nicely, had drumsticks and made lots of leftovers. What more could I want?

Oh, of course, the Collard Greens. Fortunately, Atlanta called in before dinner and I learned that I had to cook them for a loooooong time before they would be tender. And the vote? Well, let's just say that if the election were held today and they were Hillary Clinton, there would be a lot of disappointed feminists. I would have to say that their redeeming feature was the bites of crunchy bacon hidden in them. But for them to be truly good there would have to be way more bacon than greens.

The collard greens are at eight o'clock, and clockwise, are my mashed rutabagas, broccoli with shredded cheese, "turkey," and sweet potato-brown rice dressing with gravy. My dessert is baked acorn squash stuffed with an apple-pecan-cinnamon filling.

My dinner was indeed delicious, as I hope was true of all of yours. I had the advantage of being able to fix exactly what I wanted.

We had a pretty moon to cap off the evening, spied during a late stroll to the trash cans.

And tomorrow is a new day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've only been here three days, but we've walked the trails and photographed the lake. The chipmunks don't want their pictures taken and we haven't seen any birds. You've seen views of the lake at every time of the day.




So it seems like time to consider moving on.


My copilot agreed, even though he really hates it when I drive. He did put a little pressure on me this morning to be the driver, but I just don't think it's a good idea . . .



Driving along the countryside, we saw chrysanthemums blooming and a big rose bush covered with pink roses. In Monroe, winter pansies have just been set out. Winter pansies! I brought along a trowel so I could stop and dig in the dirt now and then, but as you can see these pansies were weed free and happy looking.






















We drove through Monroe, which was a very busy city today, because we needed to stop at a grocery store before making our next camp. I have been enjoying salads for lunch, and at my last stop I could only find iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce? Oh please, let me find some fresh spinach or at least some romaine.

No luck finding grocery stores on my route through Monroe, but down the road I did find a store with spinach, broccoli, green and red peppers, celery and huge piles of collard greens. Hmm, even though I've never cooked collard greens in my life before this, I'm already imagining a Thanksgiving dinner built around them.


After we got set up in our new spot, Chorro and I went for a walk in the woods. Shortly, we stumbled onto a gathering of root people -- a large family getting together for Thanksgiving, obviously.





Still further we found an even larger assembly of root folks gathered around a central tree (altar? grandfather?). As you can see, they began to leave as soon as we arrived, even though we were humbly and sincerely sorry for intruding.



Maybe they just don't like getting their pictures taken.

We took off down the trail and I remembered to tell Chorro about the warning I had received when checking in. This park is known as habitat for Louisiana Black Bears. And it's not okay to feed them.



Chorro was a little unnerved at hearing this.



I will say he considered going on, but he's not a foolhardy dog and even wandering wonder dogs have their limits. So ...



When I looked at the sky, the forecasted change in the weather seemed imminent. We turned around and headed back to the RV, where after dinner we are going to shell pecans for a Thanksgiving dish tomorrow and maybe we'll even steam our collard greens tonight.




















Because tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.