To and Through Mississippi

8 Feb 2013

We got a bit lazy this morning, since we had a wi-fi signal right in the parking lot at Walmart.  We all sat around in the RV with our electronic devices like junkies getting their latest fix.  We weren’t on the road before 9:30, which was about 3 hours later than the days before.  It kind of bit us in the butt by day’s end since we didn’t make it as far into Alabama as I had hoped, but we are still poised to make it to the RV Park in Huntsville in plenty of time tomorrow.  And we drove to and through Mississippi, so that was something.

I had planned a stop in Vicksburg for today, so we took a few hours this afternoon for a little homeschooling field trip.  Neither Kory nor I had seen the battlefield there, and it was an important one in the Civil War, so we watched the movie at the Info Center and drove through the park (Illinois memorial above).  Kaleb did the Junior Ranger program in lieu of his American Government homework today, which he felt was a fair trade.  So now he’s “been there – done that” and he even got a badge to prove it.

Kory started out driving this morning, but when we opted to take the Historic Hwy 80 Road – which we’ve been on for days now – he didn’t appreciate my commentary about his speed.  It’s one thing when we have to get on the freeway and we go about 62 in a 75 zone, because otherwise it feels like the RV will fall apart if we go too fast.  But when we are on side roads where the speed limit is 55, I think it’s just fine to go 55.  Kory goes 40.  He feels like we are on the side road in order to see more things, so he drives like the little old man on his way to church on Sunday, and the cars pile up behind us.  When I told him my opinion about his speed this morning, he just pulled over and let me drive.  It went much better after that.  I set the cruise control for 55 and away we went.  I saw plenty, even at that speed.

Daffodils were blooming, tulip trees were displaying their gorgeous pink flowers and even Camellia bushes were in full color.  I saw red cardinals jetting back and forth across the road, a dead armadillo on the side of the road and big new schools in otherwise very poor looking areas.  I saw a lot of metal rusted roofs, houses with more junk in their front yards than junkyards, and signs advertising Laundromats, but they call them “Washaterias” here.  I saw rice fields and grain silos, southern mansions, mega churches, dogs playing way too close to the roads and people sitting on their front porches.  I now know why, when tornadoes blow through the south, they always hit trailer parks – because there are so darn many of them it would be hard NOT to hit one.  I enjoyed the drive all morning, and no one complained a bit. 

We were on and off the freeway after our lunch stop in Vicksburg, since Hwy 80 merged into Interstate 20.  We got off a while, then back on, in order to find Sam’s Club so we could gas up.  The freeway is just too boring with nothing to see but trees.  We stayed on the freeway at dusk as we were pushing to make it across the Alabama state line, but didn’t make it before dark.  Our destination was a Walmart in Livingston.  Turns out both our GPS systems mislead us and we ended up in a college town with no Walmart for miles around.  Even our Walmart Atlas said there was one in that town, but it must have been shut down because we couldn’t find it.  It was pitch dark and we were driving around like lost sheep.  Kory finally asked someone and then we knew we just had to move on.  Fortunately, there was a nice rest stop not far down the freeway, which is where we are now.  I hope I sleep well as it doesn’t feel like the safest place. 

When we drove through Mississippi, all the rest stops had signs under them that said, “No security provided.”  That got us to thinking.  But when we hit Alabama, all the rest stops said, “24 hour attendant on duty,” so I guess they’ve had a problem with crime in the rest stops.  Good to know.  At least this one is nice and new and clean and hopefully free from bad guys for the night.  

Tomorrow is out last little jaunt, finally heading north up to Huntsville.  Kaleb starts Space Camp on Sunday so this next week will be much different.  I think we’ll just do repairs on the RV and enjoy not driving for a while.  It’s been many hours on the road getting here, so the downtime will be nice.  At least we are all still speaking to each other, if not a bit snappishly from time to time, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for us.