October 24 through October 30, 2003

Friday October 24:

It was 53 at 6:45AM; as predicted, it is cooling off.  The TV had shown a deep southerly dip in the jet stream along the Mississippi Valley all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, and indicated this would usher in a cooling change in our weather pattern.  I guess so!  Oh, well, we are definitely getting south.  I had not realized before how southern the culture in Missouri and southern Illinois is, but we really are as far south as Kentucky.  The styles of cooking and the friendly local customs in the area are definitely of the South!  :-)  I suppose their traditions and customs grew linked more closely to New Orleans and the South along the river transportation artery than to places east and west.  However they started, we are enjoying the region's friendly southern hospitality!  :-)  Today we will travel to within striking distance of Memphis, and a planned visit to Graceland.  We has passed this up on our last passage through Memphis, but will stop this time.  We will also stop to see New Madrid MO, center of the largest earthquake recorded on the North American continent, and the Tennessee info center.  New Madrid turns out to be interesting, but the welcome station is closed, and we cannot buy the advertised ice cream.  :-( We CAN use their parking lot for lunch and a stroll along the levee though!  :-)   New Madrid was founded in 1789, the first American settlement in Missouri.  I think that makes sense, as it is in extreme southern Missouri along the major transportation artery of the day, the Mississippi River. Today that transport role continues as barges pass close to the observation deck built out from the levee.

Behind the tug in the picture is Island Number 10.  It played a major role in Confederate plans to block the Mississippi River to Federal use, and was captured by Union General Pope in 1862.  He constructed a canal to move his boats south around the Island's defenses, and successfully attacked causing large losses in men and material to the Confederacy.  The earthquake happened earlier, in 1811, and strong after shocks lasted for over a year.  Fortunately the death toll was light as few people lived here at the time.  A repeat occurrence (overdue by some reports) today would be MUCH different.  This house sits snug behind the New Madrid levee.

The whole downtown area is not much above the current river level, which is low.  There were pictures in town of waters on the main street 10 feet deep during floods.  New Madrid is a working port on the river, with grain loading facilities visible in the background left along the levee.  We moved on passing many cotton fields in various stages of picking.  As we entered Memphis, I was struck by a sign recruiting for the police academy, right next to a fence with concertina wire on top...

YIKES!   We stopped in Walmart, Americas Way, Memphis as planned this evening, but only long enough to replan a route to another Walmart, and cut vegetables for dinner.  There was concertina wire on top of fences in this area too, and abandoned business buildings, and this Walmart was NOT a super open all night.  Now is the time to listen to our street sense and move on!  We plotted  a 15 mile route to a Super Walmart east of Memphis we had stayed at in the spring, but a few miles along found a nice looking Super Walmart and Sam's on Winchester Rd in SE Memphis.  We turned around and stayed, taking grateful notice of the security vehicles patrolling the parking lot.  We have traveled under 5 miles from the last stop, but the environment is completely different.  Dinner is chicken and rice...mmm mmm good!  It's a late night preparing the webpage, but only a couple hours more work to do tomorrow!   SLEEP time!

Saturday October 25:

I awoke VERY early and went on line, with a good strong Verizon connection. I finished downloading a mass of email and usenet news, but financial sites are closed real early for maintenance it seems.  The phone battery is about done, but it will charge while I snooze.  :-)  After daylight, the financial sites worked, and we finished our business, shopped, then headed out to Graceland in increasing clouds.  Scattered drops started falling as we drove. The Graceland parking fee was $2, not too bad, but it was right next to a shopping center offering FREE parking.  Competition works!   We carried umbrellas from the parking lot.  At first glance, Claire thought Graceland was not something she had to see....especially for $30;  way too much TACK!  We headed back to the RV, intending to move on later in the afternoon.  Claire then decided she HAD to see it, a part of Americana, so we returned and paid our dues; it could have been much worse.  We had a half hour wait for the bus taking us across the street, and they forbid digital cameras that could record or take video.  I never use mine in those modes, so in my hands it CANNOT record audio or take video without an instruction book; nobody challenged me or asked any questions. :-)  The tour gave us freedom to take pictures inside the house WITHOUT flash.  I was able to get many, but not all that I wanted due to poor lighting in some places.  The 14 acre estate that Elvis bought from a doctor for $100,000 reeked of money spent, but it surely was not in my taste...nuf said!  Perhaps THAT is why Elvis died with multi-millions and I....  well, again, nuf said!    Here is the Graceland living room.

 The dining room does look elegant and expensively furnished.

I like the marble under the table.  The TV room seemed....like ELVIS.  :-)

The pool room surprised me.

I had been thinking SWIMMING pool.....not billiards.  DUHHH!  There is too much on display here to include on this webpage, but I thought this part of his gun collection interesting.

Elvis' favorite was the turquoise handled Colt 45.  Again, he obviously spent MONEY on this!   Elvis's entertainment costumes are on display in several places in Graceland too....here is a room with some of his costumes and numerous industry awards.

It is hard for me to understand lots of things about Elvis, but how he could simultaneously project the macho image he did at home (Taekwondo, gun collection, horses....) while wearing those things on stage ESCAPES me totally.  :-)  I suppose he did what his managers wanted on stage.  I do think he was basically a decent person with a sense of duty...he went in the service at the peak of his career when he could have found ways out....and he could SING, but maybe not (depending on opinion) act!  Still, his movies made fortunes!  The other thing he could not deal with is his new found wealth, and he paid the price with addicting drugs, dying in 1977 at age 42....a true tragedy in a life that could have lasted so much longer.  Elvis had his parents living here too, and all of the family is buried in the back yard in a small "shrine" with an eternal flame.

 All visitors seem to spend time here, as did we.... On the way out we saw horses grazing in the pasture where Elvis kept his.

 The horses were masked "for their eye protection"; they too could not seem to avoid a display of some things in questionable taste for the visiting public...  :-)   We took a final picture in front of Graceland while awaiting a seat on the return bus, as still more tourists cue up for the tour;  it's not only Elvis' records that produce gold!  :-)

We left Graceland in rain, driving across the Mississippi  River to Arkansas, seeing little but the vehicle ahead and spray from the road.  The west Memphis Flying J was hard to find even AFTER seeing the sign, but I followed another RV (at Claire's insistence) and found an obscure driveway.  The RV island was occupied and unroofed, rain was pouring down, and we decided to park where we could and fuel in the morning.  Dinner was stir fried beef with peppers eaten to a serenade of clattering hail and crashing thunder.  I'm GLAD we are stopped NOW!  This is nothing to drive through in unfamiliar territory!  I worked late to finish the webpage, but had it uploaded before retiring.

Sunday October 26:

The weather had cleared by morning, but it was quite a bit cooler.  We took leisurely showers, then filled fuel, water, propane, and dumped, taking most of an hour to complete these chores.  The propane fill was one of the worst I have seen;  the filling tech opened the vent valve very wide, filled slowly, and stopped filling before the vapor even came out of the vent...We paid for 4.4 gallons, I wonder if we ended up with much more fuel in the tank than before we started. :-(  We drove towards Helena AR for a visit to the Delta Cultural center, and soon found an Arkansas tourist info center and rest stop.  Here we found signs which said 'Overnight camping only"....as I puzzled over their meaning, Claire suggested it might mean ONE night only...and of CUSS, that's it!  :-)  We found out here from knowledgeable attendants that the area is called the Arkansas Delta because it is FLAT so far from the river, the result of deposits of soil over the ages as the Mississippi runs towards the Gulf of Mexico 400 miles away at only 250 feet above sea level.  The river slows down and drops its silt as the slope of the land lessens.  This flat country is ideal for growing rice, and we see much of it in the drive to Helena; it is the Delta Region's most prominent crop, although cotton and soybeans are here too.  Helena was confusing by our driving directions, but the GPS soon had us oriented and we found the cultural center right on the river, in a restored rail depot.

 Unfortunately it was closed....whether only on Sunday, or most times in this off season we would not know.  We climbed the levee, and watched a working river port load barges with grain hauled in by trucks.

The barge on the left side of the picture has already been loaded aft, as that is sitting low in the water.  The forward section is being loaded through the conveyer and tube as we watch.  It was interesting, but the weather was not really comfortable, even in our fall jackets; damp and raw feeling in the north wind, and no sun.  It is a southern cold snap, feeling much worse than it's 50 degrees due to the wind and humidity.  We took pictures, then returned to Walmart and shopped.  We could not find the Walmart marshmallows we like, nor barley for soup; I guess tastes down here must be different.  :-)  Claire prepared left over squash soup mixed with chicken rice stew for dinner...really quite good, and totally stomach stuffing, as we wanted no leftovers from THIS meal!  We used the phone heavily here, both calling folks and on the internet.  It was a roaming area, but here everything worked except Verizon's SMTP send mail server,  and we were able to work around that easily.  The time change left us quite ready to turn in early, and we turned the furnace on for the first time in a while before retiring; it FELT like we would need it in the early morning hours!

Monday October 27:

It was 45 degrees under the RV this morning, and the furnace had come on during the night.  I awoke late for me, just as the morning light dawned, but it was 6AM…TIME CHANGE!  Ok, we must be ready for early dusk today too!  Today we will drive 90 miles to near Vicksburg, then hit that town tomorrow.  Claire went in to Walmart for a few things, and came back with marshmallows; they had loaded the store with them overnight!  :-)  They still had no barley though.....   We drove across the river bridge into Mississippi; it appeared very low, as dry mud banks were exposed for quite a distance. Rt 1 south along the river seems to have half of the light traffic in semi trucks hauling agricultural products.   We passed acres upon acres of cotton and soybeans; this is FARMING country.  Not much rice visible though.  It appears this is COTTON country, as it is harvest time and the huge bales are resting along the road and at the field's edges.

Only the tops are covered by a plastic sheet against rain.  I am surprised they are not worried about the sides soaking up water, but the bales appear very compressed.  I am curious to learn more about the cotton growing industry and how they do things that appear mysterious now.  We pass an establishment surrounded by bales; a GIN Company...and I doubt this refers to alcohol.  :-)   Evidently the cotton is NOT ginned (seeds removed) in the field as it is picked.  We stopped for lunch along the sidewalk in a residential area of Rosemont; it was level with plenty of extra width.  All the towns along here post reduced speed limits which we are careful to observe.  We made coffee and continued on.  We were in Greenville shortly after noon.  This town appeared larger than any we had seen since Memphis.  We planned to overnight in the Super Walmart here; we were shocked to find the Walmart store empty and for rent... :-(   We pulled into the empty parking lot to consider our options.  Perhaps on to Vicksburg?    Claire spotted the new store across the street first.  :-)  We decided to prepare dinner which included considerable generator running to brown meat here, where we could bother nobody, then move over to the occupied lot later in the afternoon.  Perhaps this big new Super Walmart will have barley?   Hmmmm....   The gas prices here are the lowest we have seen on the trip, $1.24/g after the 3 cent Walmart card discount.  We will not need that much as we have traveled less than 200 miles since our last fill in West Memphis, but at these prices we will stay topped off.  The store had NO barley, and we drew the blankest stares when we asked for it...nobody even knew what it was.  I'm convinced folks here do not use it at all.  We have enough for Claire's beef and barley soup, and she adds potatoes too.  We gas up this evening, then park for what we think will be the night...but as I am standing outside relieving the pressure in the pressure cooker, the security guard drives up, we chat pleasantly, and he asks us to move to the far side of the parking lot before retiring for the night.  SURE!  We appreciate the security folks driving around watching us all night, and anything we can do to keep them happy we DO!  Claire's soup is DELICIOUS as usual....tastes better than Campbell's Beef & Barley I used to LOVE as a kid.  :-))  We move, just in time to catch the news at 6, but only catch half of it.  Here news starts at 5:30.  Oh well....  I turned in early and slept easily; this lot is relatively quiet.  :-)

Tuesday October 28:

Temperature was 50 degrees under the RV this morning, but the heat came on a few times in the night.  We plan an early (for us) departure for Vicksburg to allow time to visit the info center and see part of the city before overnighting in the Walmart there.  We can finish the city Wednesday, and move on or not as the situation warrants.  We found the drive to Vicksburg pleasant and mostly smooth through mostly cotton farming country.  We stopped in Vicksburg's Tourist info center, picked up pamphlets, then drove across the street to the civil war battlefield National Park.  This park has 16 miles of driving tour in a loop going first north along the Union lines, with many state and unit monuments placed where their positions were.  Interestingly, Massachusetts was the first state to place a monument to it's 1500 participating  infantrymen in the newly formed National Park in 1903.

There is a stop for a major naval exhibit including the  recovered mine sunken river ironclad gunboat Cairo, on exhibit under a permanent "tent" outside.

This vessel was recovered from the river bottom in 1964, in sections, as she was too weak and heavy with silt to raise in one piece.  Considerable restoration was done at a shipyard before she was moved to the park. An indoor museum houses many original artifacts removed from the Cairo. By the time we finished the naval museum we were a bit too tired to get off and walk the confederate lines, but we did drive them rather than take the shortcut road provided directly to the exit.  It was quite obvious the confederates had the advantage of the high ground. Here is one position Grant tried unsuccessfully to breech using trenches tunnels, and explosives.  His efforts were repeatedly repulsed.

 After taking an unacceptable number of casualties in such vain breech  attempts, General Grant held Vicksburg under siege and took the time to starve the Confederates into surrender in 1863, returning the Mississippi as the highway to the sea for the Union midwest.  Even so, the Union lost over 10,000 killed wounded or missing in the campaign while the Confederates lost over 9000.  We asked directions at the park visitors center for a Chinese Buffet whose pamphlet Claire picked up in the info center; fortunately we did so, as not all roads led to that buffet!  Dinner tasted OK, but as I write this the next morning I regret thinking I could get away with it....  :-(  We returned to the RV to watch the last half of the news, then drove to Walmart, which appeared miraculously at the end of the journey a couple miles further from the last turn than the computer predicted.  Oh well, all's well that ends well!!  There were other RVs in the lot, so we just parked and I immediately turned in.

Wednesday October 29:

Heat was not turned on; the evening was very warm for first part, and only in wee smalls did I need light spread.  The Chinese buffet had way too much salt or MSG or both, I was awake all night drinking water, then slept late to make up for it.  I should know better than to eat in such places!!  My knuckles will hurt all week!!!!  GRRR...We departed by 10AM, and first crossed the bridge to visit the Louisiana Info Station.  We found a few other RVers there also, AND a dump station!   The Rvers were interesting; they both had the same make RV (Dutch Star), and I perked up when I heard the seal problems one of them had on an under 3 year old rig; he had an Allison transmission seal replaced, then two rear end seals replaced TWICE (first time with brake linings and drums at a cost of $1700.  These are Freightliner Diesel pusher chassis that cost REALLY big bucks too.  There may be different seals required for synthetic fluids, and many of these problems may stem from use of synthetic oils with seals that were not designed for them.  We are definitely going to stick with Ford factory recommended fluids and change intervals in this motorhome!  We went  into the info station for pamphlets on Baton Rouge and the gulf coast (and some very good free Louisiana coffee!), then showered and dumped.  We expect a dump and water tomorrow in Natchez  too, but the secret of life in an RV is to NEVER pass up a chance to dump free!  :-)  You can never be sure the next one you expect will be working.  This is the first ever water faucet that the threads were so rusted our hose would not go on.  I had to hold it in position to deliver water.  At least the water was not stale in the pipes, as a 1/2 inch trickle came out of the faucet continuously even when shut off...oh well, at least it filled our water tank with decent water even if we had to work a bit it for it!  After another cup of Louisiana coffee, we drove back into Mississippi and South on the Great River road.  In 30 miles we got on the Natchez Trace Parkway; this road was not as spectacularly beautiful with flowers as it was two springs ago when we traversed it, but it was still pleasant and carried almost NO traffic.  We suddenly remembered we had forgotten lunch at 1PM, but found a convenient pulloff for that, and Purry had a walk in the woods.  I appreciated his choosing SHADE.  It was over 80 degrees; pleasant in the shade, HOT in the sun.  We were back to running our fan at every stop!  We stopped at the Natchez info center to look for Mississippi  gulf coast info, but that available here stresses the casinos not the less developed beaches we are interested in.  The dump station appears working, and water runs...we can shower again in the morning, then dump on our way out of town.  :-)   We move to Walmart for the night; in the middle of dinner a knock comes on the door.  A peek through the window reveals the Walmart security guard;  he asks pleasantly that we move if we are staying for the night.  We agree, and after dinner and the TV news, we move.  The guard comes by, and asks for a refill on his icy water bottle (a used pop bottle with water frozen in it before he came to work).  We comply with filtered Louisiana water...  :-)  The night is quiet and sleep is good!

Thursday October 30:

The temperature is quite warm in the RV this AM;  I put on a jacket, then remove it.  Outside it is 63 under the RV, inside it is 68.  Today we plan to see the National Park Service Heritage Park, then Longwood, a partially completed  antebellum house, then shower, dump & fill water at the Visitors Center before departing for Baton Rouge 100 miles south.  Heritage Park charges a fee for house tours, but outbuildings and the grounds are free.  When we inquired at the park's office, we were invited to accompany a dress rehearsal of a costumed period role play presentation put on by the park staff, intended to be filmed.  We happily joined the small group, and were treated to quite elaborate full costume presentations from the period 1842 to 1877 by two women and a man who turned out to be the park's supervisory ranger.

They portrayed the politics of the period, and the plight of the free Negro after the civil war also, from writings in personal journals from the period.  It was quite interesting, and the small group made us feel quite close to the effort they were expending.  Here two of the performing ladies relax on the veranda after rehearsal...

 The day was quite warm, in the 80's, and we did hear comments about how hot the period clothes were....  :-)   The intent was to complete the filming effort on the weekend with three more performances, then the months long effort would be complete.  The young black lady was especially good in her performance;  she was the financial specialist of the park...  :-)  We again felt privileged to "happen into" an unplanned special event.  The grounds here were strikingly beautiful.

The Spanish moss covered trees add a surreal quality to the landscape.  After lunch, on to Longwood.  We wondered at the narrow gravel driveway, but the person selling tickets assured us there was adequate parking for us at the top.  The first view of the house was somewhat of a shock!

 Early American "Taj Mahal" was my impression of the architecture, with it's maroon cupola with spire and HUGE brick exterior with white wood columns framing porches on three levels.  I did not think it outstandingly beautiful, just strikingly different, with an octagonal shape and out of the ordinary intent for grandeur....  The grounds WERE beautiful, on a hilltop with more Spanish moss draped trees and green grass.  The puffy white clouds and warm breeze just made the weather seem PERFECT!  The first floor, intended as the basement in the design, was the only part ever finished as the civil war eclipsed the fortunes of the Nutt family, leaving their plantations in ruin and Mr Nutt dead from pneumonia and depression.  Mrs Nutt raised eight children on the lower floor, which was quite elegantly furnished in period pieces (but no photos were allowed).  She doubtlessly did not do much entertaining, as her precarious financial condition after the war would not allow it.  The house and grounds are now owned by a Natchez garden club.  The docent who conducted our tour seemed to project an attitude that her own rightfully civilized lifestyle was destroyed by the same forces that halted construction on this mansion.  I find it hard to understand that such attitudes could still prevail today...I do hope it was an act.  Upstairs the building was unfinished just as Mr Nutt had left it, with storage crates and old artifacts still present.

Looking up inside the dome, it was totally unfinished, with only rough steps present as were used for construction.

 We showered in the Longwood RV parking area, as it was more level than the visitors center, then drove to dump and fill water (two separate operations here, as the faucets are hundreds of feet from the dump station).  It was after 4PM when we departed for Baton Rouge, and we figured under two hours;  we did not plan on the miles of construction reduced speed limits, and Baton Rouge rush hour traffic.  It was 6:45 PM when we stopped in the Super Walmart, after several awkward turn arounds due to missed turns.  We were both tired, and although the driving directions were not PERFECT, if we had NOT been so tired we could have picked up better on the directions.  Dinner was spaghetti and clam sauce prepared from left over canned Ragu sauce as a base; considering the fatigue of the crew, it was almost a miracle meal.  We will think a LONG time before trying a 100 mile drive into an urban area again after 4PM......Sleep came very easily, if not especially early this night!

Plans:  We leave the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, LA, heading east along the Gulf coast exploring the beaches of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle before moving to our storage campground in Fort Myers on Nov 13, preparing to start home Nov 15..  We have enjoyed the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond LA this Saturday, and will include that in the next update.  Until then, ENJOY!