A Recovery Day

I was thinking today about the first trip we took across the US in our RV almost six years ago. We were supposed to report to our Mennonite Disaster Service work site in Louisiana the first of October. Because our church hosts the Washington State MCC sale, the Mennonite Country Auction, the first weekend in October, we made arrangements with MDS to leave right after the sale.

We drove pretty much straight through from Washington State, stopping at rest areas for four to five hours of sleep and an occasional hour's nap, then continuing on. I think we made it to the Diamond, Louisiana work site in just three days. I cannot even imagine trying to do that now!

Nowadays, a three hour drive is about all we like to do. That means we leave late enough in the morning to avoid the morning rush hour traffic and make it to our new site before the evening rush hour. It means we get set-up when it's still daylight and have a bit of time to relax before supper.

Then we usually use the next day as a recovery day, staying at home in Auntie Violet and just taking life easy. (Which for Forry means a couple of naps in his recliner and plenty of time with his Sudoku...) I may or may not catch up on the laundry, but I usually spend most of the day reading or knitting. If we're planning to go sight-seeing in an area, we usually plan that for the next day.

Neither Forry nor I are morning people, so this kind of schedule suits our retired life-style. Because we have been on the East Coast with the three hour time difference, we often end up watching Mariner's home Seattle Safeco Field baseball games starting at 10 PM at night. Depending how long the games last -- and whether they go to extra innings -- we may not get to bed before midnight or later.

Today was one of those recovery days.

Our Last Day at Homestead Farm Campground

This was our last day here in Pennsylvania. It's hard to believe we have been here for a week already. This is the second time this year we have spent time in Pennsylvania. Last July we went to Pittsburgh for a week for the Mennonite Church USA biennial gathering, then spent a week with our friends Leslie and Bill exploring the area of western Pennsylvania. This time we have spent our time in eastern Pennsylvania, but there is a whole bunch of this big state that we have not been anywhere near.

Of course, we did use part of our time here checking out Delaware and New Jersey as well. I continue to be surprised at how green the eastern portion of country is. I know it has been a wet spring, but from what I hear, the countryside is always green this time of year.

We have speculated wondering just how many people are actually employed mowing?! We first noticed it when we were in Louisiana and Mississippi working with Mennonite Disaster Service and have continued to observe it this entire trip. I get the impression that is there weren't people continually mowing along the highways, they would be quickly engulfed by the grass. I commented to Niece Daphne when we visited her in Virginia about all of the lawn they had to mow. She commented that it was actually mostly volunteer weeds! Unlike most housing in the west, there seem to be very few fences between properties -- and it's all mowed!

We've been a bit surprised by all of the agriculture we have been seeing. There are lots of fields of grain in various stages of ripeness as well as many fields planted to corn -- fields that range from a couple of inches tall to way over knee-high. We've seen a few fields of strawberries, some of blueberries and several fields full of cabbages.

Most of the communities seem to be fairly prosperous. There are not a lot of empty buildings or run-down properties. We've loved seeing all of the old tall brick and stone houses and churches. It is beautiful country.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Mississippi, ALABAMA!

We got an early start this morning (even for us), leaving Movietown RV Park in Canton and heading south on Interstate 65. Our GPS Sally really wanted us to go east on I-20 and argued with us almost half the way -- she so wanted us to cut across to the other side of the state and go down I-69!

This is a small portion of the VERY large automobile factory just outside of Canton. Opened up just a few years ago, it has a great deal to do with the improved economy in this part of Mississippi --

The Nissan factory covers acres of property and is its own small town --

It was an overcast day. We had an occasional drizzle, but seemed to be running just behind the real rain storm. There was lots of water on the road being sprayed up by the trucks. As we left the North Delta area of  Mississippi, we were no longer in farmland, but in the pine barrens.

We drove south through Mississippi and into Louisiana, driving north of Lake Pontchartrain on I-12 until it changed into I-10 and took us back through the 'heel' of Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. What a different looking route it was from the first time we had driven it following Katrina. You have to really look to see some of the broken-off trees still visible amongst the greenery. It felt sort of funny to see the sign pointing towards Pass Christian, which was where our folks from Menno did our first service with Mennonite Disaster Service following the hurricanes.

It was a l-o-n-g day, we had driven twice as far as we normally do when we finally crossed into Alabama. It was another fifty-three miles, close to four-thirty and almost dark when we found our site at Styx River RV Park. I don't think anyone will be getting up very early tomorrow.