Montgomery AL

Restored RR station Capitol Building Civil Rights Monument

Tuesday, May 26, 2009. From Selma to Montgomery AL, following the march for civil rights in the 60's. The marchers arrived at the Capitol from Selma. Great government building complex, church where MLK preached in the 50's, (resulting in the march and integration of Montgomery busses by Rosa Parks), civil rights memorial (Maya Lin) and Civil War monuments, first Confederate White House, etc. Why can't Sacramento have as wonderful a visitor's center, in the old railroad depot, with shuttles to the major governmental buildings? We parked Betsy there for 2.5 hours, free, safely, comfortably. Wonderfully restored building.

Food: Had my fill of Southern cooking today with fried chicken, turnip greens, cole slaw, and pineapple/cheese/Ritz crackers casserole, warm, as dessert. for lunch. I kid you not. And for dinner Gene had oyster po'boy and I a shrimp po'boy in a local roadhouse with a roll of paper towels on oilcloth covered tables. Yum yum.

Vicksburg MS to Meridian MS

Now I don't know how to move the photos around!

Kudzu upper left, Vicksburg middle, Natchez upper right, Vicksburg Military Park lower left and below.

Sunday, May 24, 2009. It's raining, raining, raining. The deluge on the highway was unbelievable, catching us en route to someplace, anyplace, that had a place to pull in and hunker down for the night. Crawled right past the exit from the 4 lane divided that had a WalMart sign, and then past the roadside rest, where you are allowed to stay the night, and it has security. BUT, then there were no places to turn around, and Meridian was ahead. Whew, made it, thanks to the good driving of the main driver, Gene, and the navigating to one 'park' that had one vacancy left. We had left our three night commitment in Natchez State Park because it had begun to rain, and when it rains here, it really rains!!!

The Vicksburg National Military Park tells the tale (in a 1.5 hour CD narrated driving tour) of the Civil War battle for control of the Mississippi. Many monuments from many states, divisions, battalions, infantry, etc. commemorating the many Union and Confederate soldiers who fought and died on these bluffs. When night fell the soldiers on either side of the battle line would talk to each other and share a smoke, but when daybreak came and the fighting began, they fell to killing each other, sometimes kinfolk or friends. Because help did not arrive, after 6 weeks of fighting the Confederate army surrendered to the Union General U.S. Grant on July 4, 1863. Lincoln had said Vicksburg was the key to uniting the Union, and Grant delivered the key to Lincoln's pocket. About 17,000 Union soldiers are buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery.

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, started at the end of the Civil War, to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flags.

We went on to see some of the historic houses in Vicksburg, stop at WalMart to get a new gps (our Jack was not responding well), admire the kudzu sculpltures, and go on to Natchez in a driving rainstorm. Kudzu? The vine that covers everything that doesn't move in the South, unless it is severely controlled.

On the way to Natchez, passed through Port Gibson, another Civil War battleground, and along the main road (Route 61, the Blues Trail) there are LOTS of beautiful smaller homes. The pouring rain brought news that the Mississippi river was going to crest Saturday at 4 feet above flood level at Vicksburg, 43feet on the gauge. In Natchez there are 500 ante-bellum houses in a few square blocks. Cotton was kind after the invention of the cotton gin, and although Natchez had been in a depression since the Civil War they began to prosper in the early 20th C with the discovery of oil and coming of industry. This may account for the high number of preserved homes; and it hadn't been burned down in the War.

Out of the state park we wandered a bit down some country roads. My favorite sight...three people settin' on the front porch of a single-wide, the two women with kerchiefs on their heads, in long dresses, and the man in blue jeans and shirt. Jus settin and rockin and wavin.

Natchez Trace runs 444 miles northeast to Nashville, following an old Indian trail, improved in the late 18th C to give the US access to the then extreme southwest of the land, owned at that time by the Spanish. Emerald Mound is a ceremonial mound used by the Native Americans in 1400. The Trace itself is a 2 lane 50 mph parkway with a canopy of oaks, dogwood, magnolia, alder, hickory, and pine (plus others I don't know), some hanging with Spanish moss. There are many downed and broken trees and limbs, resulting from the recent (and current) storms and high water.

We've learned not to go into a big town to find lunch, so we stopped in Clinton MS, to go to a bookstore, and ate a Greek salad in a Lebanese restaurant called Petra, right there in the deep South. On to Jackson and the Agriculture and Forestry museum, with several authentic old buildings from the 19th C and a re-creation of a small village before the roads were very much improved, and a wonderful exhibit hall including model railroads, real crop dusters, depictions of, what else, agriculture and forestry. Thoroughly satisfying museum. Learned that the skinny logs we've been seeing on trucks are skinny pine trees, grown without knots until they are very high, and that the fields of green that look like corn but aren't are sorghum (SAW gum).

Photos NM, OK, AR

Hot Springs AR to Vicksburg Mississippi

Yesterday before we left Hot Springs, we went to the tackiest road side show possible, and my camera battery died before I could take a picture of the big yellow sign "Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo". We paid our money and saw piles of alligators from 2 to 3 years old, swarms from 5 to 20 years old, and pens of really oldsters like us. The toothless attendant picked up a 10 year old to have us feel him. They say alligators don't hurt people, crocodiles do. But they make noise, and we heard only hissing (means, leave me alone), not the grunting (mating call) or the bellowing (rain coming in 12 to 24 hours). Who knew?

Off to the Mississippi border, crossing at Greenville after a night in the Pecan Grove RV Park at Lake Village AR, one of the prettiest we've been in. There is a new bridge and new freeway being built over the flooded Mississippi River at the big bend in Greenville. The new bridge seems to be a Calatrava, very light and airy, beautiful. We rattled on US 82 and down US 61 to Vicksburg, stopping in Leland to look at the funky 61 Blues Museum. Then more miles of cultivated fields, into darkening clouds and a night's rest in Vicksburg, before starting the Civil War trek tomorrow.

New Address

We have moved from this blog, travelswithbetsy.blogspot.com to travelswithbetsy1.blogspot.com. Sorry for the inconvenience; if you signed up to follow on the 'old' blog, you will need to re-do it on the new one. I think I'm getting the hang of it now; just substitute , and we'll be good. the '1' makes a big difference.

Thanks,
Gail & Gene

PS I don't get it; it's supposed to direct you from travelswithbetsy.blogspot.com to travelswithbetsy1.blogspot.com. but it seems to appear only on the '1' site. I give up.

May 18, 2009. Out of the hills and hollers of mid Arkansas, off the blue highways, to US 65 and I40. Pickles Gap village promised fudge and ice cream and a look at local crafts. We had seen some hand made guitars and dulcimers in Mountain View, and beauties they were too, but I hadn't yet found any hand made quilts. Even though Pickles Gap Village promised such, they were actually made in China. Boo hoo. Perhaps embellished in Arkansas and a 'local' tag added, but Chinese they were. The only locally made stuff I found in this shop was soap. Everything else was the usual cutesy roadside chotskes.
North Little Rock KOA provided easy access to the Arkansas River front where the Clinton Presidential Library complex had torn down 30 acres of decrepit warehouses and derelict abandoned buildings, leaving a late 19th Century railroad station of the Choctaw line in all its terra cotta frieze glory. Now used to house the Clinton School of Public Policy, part of Arkansas University, it's fully restored for office and classroom use. Arkansas U is the only U in the country to offer a Master's degree in Public Service, another Clinton legacy. The library building is a 'bridge to the 21st century' and stands beside an abandoned railroad bridge, which will one day be walking path connected to other paths in the park beyond. The architecture is quite stunning, long and narrow, and lots of glass, floating above the ground, flanked by water sprays, and inviting. On the lower level is Cafe 42 with both inside and outside seating, and very stunning when you walk in. Set with white linen cloths and napkins, its elegance is offset by a very modest, tasty and inexpensive menu. The library itself exhibits on the two upper floors, with a very good (self congratulatory, of course) video by Linda Bloodworth Thomason the first stop. There are stacks of papers neatly bound in blue with the presidential seal from floor to high ceiling on both floors, bays of policy decisions with attendant facts and stories, a timeline of accomplishments in Economy, US, and the World. Very impressive. For fun, all the gifts given by others are displayed, a table is set for a State Dinner, the Cabinet Room and Oval Office are reproduced. There are homey touches about life in the White House for the Clintons, and photographs of family life. Clinton was the 42nd Governor of Arkansas and the 42nd President of the US. Well worth seeing.
We were able to park not far away and they provided a shuttle to the Clinton Museum Store, near the River Market area, where we shopped for postcards, and then fruit, veggies, dog treats, and a straw hat. The shuttle returned us to Betsy and Lucy. We drove to Central High School, a huge, impressive building in a slightly seedy part of town. I wondered if the kids wore uniforms, as I saw boys with black pants and white shirts coming and going. The Mobil station on the corner is the headquarters for the museum, frozen in time in 1957. Drove to the Quapaw district of older homes, where one was advertised for sale (7,000 square feet, reduced from $495,000. Made a run for Hot Springs, tried to find the best pie in the world according to Road Food, finally found it closed. Successfully found McClards barbecue and stoked up for the night with take-out of more than we could eat ($15.) Headed for the Brady Mountain COE camp, found a spot right near the lake (Ouachita, pronounced WASH e taw), and plotted our next move.

On to Pine Bluff, but no time to stop as we're going to Mississippi. There are only a few places to cross the Mississppi river in Arkansas, and Lake Village/Greenvilee MS is one of them. We rolled through green park-like pine forests, gradually giving way to cultivated lands, corn or soybeans, cotton, and other fields too new to name. Seems as if we are reaching Mississippi bottom land, or land that once was flooded, for the soil seems rich and is growing green mightily. Tomorrow we go to Mississippi itself, and begin to follow Civil War and a Civil Rights trails.

Motorcycles

Have I mentioned motorcycles? The winding roads of the blue highways in the hollows and byways of the Ozarks call to bands of motorcyclists. They zoom around us, or draft us, and in small towns park up the main street 5 or 6 to a parking place as in downtown Nevada City. You should see the leather! There are yards and yards of it around every body, for good reason I know, and quite attractive on most everyone. A group of about 6 are in this KOA, camping at the end where tents are encouraged, and a scruffy bunch they are. Mysteriously, they are walking back and forth to an aging motorhome with the newtheory.com URL on the side. Haven't checked it out. They also headed for the pool before realizing it's completely green.

Just walked to the bath house...sparkling clean, automatic water from the faucets, white ruffles and pink roses, actually quite attractive. You just never know what's around the next bend on these travels.