We are finally starting our long-anticipated journey. We planned to leave Minnesota on a Monday morning but a pending snow storm urged us to leave a day early. Dave was not crazy about pulling the trailer on ice or heavy snow. Thank goodness we made that decision because our home town had over 12 inches of snow and blizzard force winds on Monday. We had light rain during much of our drive and temperatures flirted with low 70’s. We spent one night in a Walmart parking lot south of St. Louis and reached our destination in Mississippi late Monday afternoon.
Fuel costs are a one of our expenses as we travel. Diesel is at a high level right now in Minnesota. We filled up at $3.04 per gallon. The lowest we found was $2.47 in Fenton, Missouri.
We decided to watch license plates to see how long it would take to view one from every state. We saw 12 states plus Ontario, Canada during this leg of the journey. The first one we saw was from Mississippi!
Jo had never been to Mississippi and was intrigued with some of the things we have seen so far.
We saw furrow irrigation in southern Missouri. Dave sure didn’t have this, growing up on the family farm in Minnesota! We saw cotton fields with some of last year’s crop still on the plants. Jo had never seen a cotton field before except in pictures. There were some neat hawks, we believe they were red tailed hawks. They like to perch on posts along highways and swoop down on their prey, small rodents. We must have seen a half dozen along a 10 mile stretch of highway.
The dirt is red! Southern Minnesota dirt is black! This is the Pine Belt and has as many pine trees as we are used to seeing in northern Minnesota but they are a long needle variety. I think they are loblolly pines. The pine cones are huge and look funny, littering the ground under them!
We also saw magnolia trees. The leaves are so rich looking, dark and shiny. I did not realize they could grow so tall. I had thought of them as a bush.
Actually, flowering trees and shrubs are all over, adding to the beauty of the state. So far we’ve seen crepe myrtle, azaleas, camellias, magnolias and wisteria. The Baldwin Pear tree is beautiful and has a gorgeous shape. We’ve seen a lot of daffodils also, in yards but also in road ditches so I think they are growing wild.
People are so friendly, even when they do not know you. The story we heard is that they smile and wave at everyone, in case they knew you but forgot that they knew you! They are delightful. You usually get a hug on an introduction, rather than a handshake.
I’ve never seen so many churches and many of them are Baptist. Many of these are are huge complexes and most have neat white steeples. On one two mile stretch, we counted 7 churches. Five of those were Baptist.
Roads and streets are winding and narrow. Dave is trying to get me lost by taking a different route when we return to the same places. He thinks he is going to quiz me in the future. Right…
The view through the door of our trailer.
One of our friends in Hattiesburg was featured in a local magazine. He has been diagnosed with ALS. He’s a great guy with many many friends. He is know as a selfie junkie. The magazine cover photo is made up of a collage of his selfies!!! Here is a link to the article: All You Need Is LOVE
One afternoon we toured the Mississippi military museum at Camp Shelby. It detailed Mississippian’s involvement in The War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, The Korean conflict, Vietnam and Desert Storm.
On February 24, our friends, The Gypsy Rose Band, were performing at Sidelines. Jane had arranged for our friends to all be there, as a going away/engagement party for Dave and me. They did not know it was actually our wedding party. We announced our marriage the previous day, at that event!