Unidentified Tree?

There is this really pretty tree next to Auntie Violet. I asked the volunteer at the office what it might be and she seemed surprised I asked and obviously had no idea. I've been looking through my books but...

I CANNOT find a match to these interesting leaves in the 528 pages of my Field Guide to Trees of North America. The only leaves with this shape and number of lobes that I can find have pointed, not rounded, lobes.

This morning, though, I noted this leaf which made me think that this could be an adaptation of the only tree that I found with this shape of leaf.

I now think it might be a tulip poplar... Liriodendron tulipfera. The book says those striations on the trunk turn into deeply furrowed bark as the tree ages.
Does anyone know any different? Or have a better notion?

We did run into the little town of Fountain this afternoon to mail the insurance payments. On the way we saw this smoke...

As we got closer, we realized it was not a fire, but a BBQ joint!

We ended up stopping and buying a side of ribs to take home for dinner tonight...

A second look at the pig by the road made us realize that it was also part of the smoking operation!

PS We did take the little lizard off of the lavender plant and leave him at Styx River RV Park. I thought about leaving him on the plant, but thought he might wander off of it into the Toad somewhere. That would not have been a good scenario...

Finally, FLORIDA!

This morning we left Styx River RV Park in Alabama to head for Florida. I picked up my Mother's Day lavender plant (a present from Granddaughter Claire) that sits by the front door of Auntie Violet when we are parked. As I was getting ready to put it on the floor in the front seat of Toad, I noticed movement. At first I thought it was another leaf. Can you spot what I found?

It was a pretty straight shot east on Interstate 10 into Florida. I-10 is a four-lane highway in very good shape. We only ran into one small slow stretch of bridge construction. (It is very unusual not to run into a GREAT deal of construction!) We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center and picked up a couple of maps and a whole passel of brochures. We are planning to be in Florida for a couple of months, so we should find lots to explore.

We turned off on State Highway 231 and headed south about fourteen miles to Pine Lake RV Park. This is one of the parks affiliated with our Resort Parks International membership, so we are staying here for a week at $15 per night for a 50 amp site.

Before we left this morning, I sat down and wrote out several checks for our annual insurance fees (the bills came in that batch of mail yesterday...). We'll have to make a run into town and the post office in the morning.

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.