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.

At Sun Seekers Adult RV Park

Today was a catch-up day here at Sun Seekers Adult RV Park. I did several loads of laundry -- after we finally got up and going this morning.

One of the things that still surprises me about the south is the number of evergreen trees. I had always envisioned this kind of tree as indigenous to the west -- to the Rockies and especially the Pacific Northwest. I was quite surprised to discover that lumber was one of the top cash crops in Mississippi. This campground in quite treed. We're not getting very good satellite reception on TV. We may try moving Auntie Violet forward a foot or two. After all, got to watch the Super Bowl commercials on Sunday!

This is what was happening today at the park. The gentleman on the left spent all day with a shovel, pickax and a pair of pruners digging a trench for a new sewer line for the sites on the edge of the park. (They do have a small backhoe on the back of that little tractor, but evidently the tree roots were more then it could handle.) The two gentlemen on the right were serving in a supervisory capacity. There was a pretty steady parade of retirees trading off on that important role all day today.

I spent almost two hours on the phone today in a conference call with other members of the Church Resources Committee to review the financials of Mennonite Church USA before our scheduled Board conference call this coming Saturday. After I got off the phone, Forry and I headed into town for a much needed stop at Winn-Dixie for groceries. We ended up at Taqueria Jalapena, a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot that turned out to have really good fajitas.

When we got home, we had a chance to talk on the telephone with Daughter Dawn who has just returned from a ten-day medical mission trip to Guatemala. Sounds like she had a wonderful time (though she's fighting a bug...) and was able to do some good work. We're so proud to her -- and a bit jealous if truth were known...

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.

Out 'n About

We took the Toad out this afternoon to look for an auto parts store to find a battery water filler (makes it easier to fill the ones in the back...).

As we came out of the road leading to Movietown RV Park, we saw the men on this water tower. We thought at first they were washing it --

Then we realized they were actually painting it. It's going to go from that light bluish color to white. Can you imagine being that guy who's swinging below the curve with a paint roller?

 After we got the gadget for filling the batteries, we went to a Kroger's. It was a bit further north towards Jackson in Madison. I couldn't find any information -- other than the usual demographic and early history stuff -- about this town, but it looked like it had all been built within the last few years. And all of the buildings were pretty fancy and ornate.

Does this look like the usual grocery store to you?

I did read in Wikipedia that Madison has the highest per-capita income in the State of Mississippi. It sure showed in this grocery store. I think the only one I've ever seen that was bigger and had more stuff was a Whole Foods store we had gone to with Leslie and Bill.

We had another of those gorgeous Mississippi sunsets tonight. This is looking west from the Kroger parking lot. Note the fancy pediments on the roofs of these other pretty ornate buildings.

WINDY Day!

We went to bed last night with the sound of the wind blowing. We woke up this morning with the sound of the wind blowing feeling the gusts of the wind against Auntie Violet's sides.  We spent the morning listening to the sound of the wind and watching leaves -- and other stuff -- blowing across the lawn of the RV park. We listened to the wind this afternoon and watched the clouds racing across the sky with occasional patches of blue sky accented by black clouds. This evening we ate chicken and dumplings at Tom and Juni's motor home and listened to the wind buffet the sides of their house.

But all of a sudden, it is quiet.  Has it finally stopped? I asked Forry and he immediately hushed me -- "SH! It will hear you and start again!"

I am tired of the wind! It was windy in Arkansas at Tom Sawyer's RV Park. We had gusty winds when we drove into Mississippi. We've had wind ever since we arrived at Mid South RV Resort. I am so tired of the wind!

Life on the Mississippi

Juni and Tom left for Mississippi today, but we decided to stay on at the Tom Sawyer RV Park a couple of nights longer -- just so we could watch the activity on the river.  This tug came very close into shore this morning pushing its barges --

It was really moving along putting up a bit of a rooster tail --

This one was a bit farther out. Its barges had some kind of tanks -- maybe oil?

Some of the tugs dropped off their barges for unloading and then tied up a little farther up the river --

This is the office of the RV Park.  It, like the bathhouses and laundry, is on wheels so that it can rapidly be moved to higher ground.  Since the RV Park is on the river side of the levee, it does flood. The receptionist said that the water this year was higher then the power lines -- and she was very thankful they were able to be open.

There was a beautiful sunset looking west on the river tonight --

While to the east the full moon was rising --

It was a nice day to spend watching the activity on the river, but it was chilly enough to need a jacket.  I took the bedspread from our bed over to the laundry and got it washed.  It's a bit too much for Auntie violet's little Splendide washer. Another nice thing about this park -- the laundry is free!  There are two fairly new washers and dryers in the bathhouse near to us and I understand there are a few more in the one at the other end of the park.

There is a "freeze warning" in effect for the Memphis area this evening.  Sounds like the temperature may get all the way down to 32 degrees!