Those 70ish Girls

“Grace…do you think Essie has been acting a little surly lately?”

“Goodness, Pearl, why are you bent on using big words that I don’t understand?”

“Grace, ‘surly’ isn’t a big word. It only has five letters in it. I was referring to her mood as of late. She’s been snippy and she hasn’t played poker with us since I don’t know when.”

“Well now, Pearl…don’t you remember? Ellie caught you cheating, and it’s not the first time. Do you remember the time you got thrown out of the church’s bingo fund-raiser and…”

Pearl, (interrupting )…Yes, yes I remember. I had my heart set on that beautiful ashtray. I took two thingamajigs off of that kid’s card when he wasn’t looking. I should have switched our cards. I will always regret that I didn’t switch our cards.

“Pearl!” Grace was distraught. “The child’s name is Ellie, not Essie, and that boy was her friend. I don’t believe Ellie has many friends.”

“Well he won anyway didn’t he?” Pearl was not backing down.” I’ll never forget that surly look on his face.”

By now Grace was wringing her hands in a wadded up dish towel. I know this because I was standing in the doorway of Grace’s kitchen. Without even looking, I knew she had that nervous grin on her face.

Both of these ladies live in the rooms above Sanderson’s store. Each of them has a little apartment. I help them with chores almost every day after school.  They give me a meager sum of money in exchange for my services.

It sounds to me like they don’t think I do a very good job. Rats! I need cash to maintain the lifestyle I’ve grown accustomed to ever since I got this job. I had better toe the line. I don’t care if I can swing a Bing and a coke every day after school, I have to resist…it’s not worth it.

I knocked on the door before I walked in and  hung my coat on a hook.

“Why do you want an ashtray, Pearl?” I asked. “You just blow air out from a pretend cigarette.” Pearl did not answer my question, but Grace did.

“It’s for Bradley Crandall. He smokes air cigarettes too, but he always asks for an ashtray for his pretend ashes.” Grace was dead serious.

About that time Pearl the dog came running into the room. She had waited as long as she could to go for her walk. 

I don’t even have to put a leash on her anymore. She stays right beside me unless she sees kids or another dog. She runs off then. Besides, Pearl the human doesn’t want her dog to run around like a floozie and get fleas.

I would love to have my own dog but my mom is an unreasonable person. She said to pretend that Pearl the dog is mine. I try to, but it isn’t the same.

I want to be an entrepreneur. I heard Mr. Crandall say there’s a lot of money in it. Maybe he’ll be at Pearl’s when I get back. I really want to put a plan into action. I’m already  eleven.

 

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Today was our last day of exploring new places and tomorrow will most likely be our last day on the road. I’m really torn between wanting to keep going and wanting to go home. I know Kip feels the same way. The dogs get more attention when we’re on the road so that would be their choice, but I have no idea what the cat would rather do.

Anyway, here are the best of the pictures I took this morning while at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

(Yes, we saw another little fawn today.)

The Vicksburg National Military Park commemorates the siege and the defense of Vicksburg in 1863 and includes more tham 1,300 monuments and markers, 16 miles of tour road, a restored Union gunboat, and a National Cemetary. It’s an historical must see.

After leaving the park, we took the dogs for a walk by the river, and then brought them back to the rv for their afternoon nap.We wanted to explore the downtown area and have a fun lunch someplace where we didn’t have to unwrap our food. Today was sunny and in the mid-seventies which made it nice to walk around and snoop inside some of the stores as well.

We found a cute little bakery and had a delicious lunch. Kip wanted to taste the brownies. I took a cheese danish to go.

The Mad Baker Bakery

The railroad station

The skies were beautiful today. 

Our epic journey has been an unforgettable adventure.

Thanks dear friends for adding to the fun.

SeeYa Soon!!!

This post is a snapshot in time. I’m getting behind and it’s already past my bedtime. I have included lots of pictures to take up space.

Sunday, we left wherever we were and drove to wherever we are.

Sunday

Here we have some pics of the drive along Trace Natchez Parkway. The road has an interesting history. It was traveled by highwaymen and Presidents. It’s a beautiful and peaceful drive, so we took our time making our way from Meridian to Vicksburg. 

Around noon we pulled into a roadside park and made some sandwiches for a picnic lunch.

The leaves haven’t turned as much here as they have in some of the colder climates.

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Vicksburg

The Vicksburg Battlefield Tour

“See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key. Let us get Vicksburg and all the country is ours. The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.”

President Abraham Lincoln

It took three months of continuous fighting before Vicksburg fell to the Union Army in the Civil War. 

Most of the battles during the siege of Vicksburg were fought on the grounds inside the Vicksburg National Military Park. A few were fought on land given to the city, but the battles fought there are marked as well. 

Below: The Shirley house, which was sometimes referred to as the Southern White House and a picture of the view looking across the battlefield…beautiful country.

We stood on the same ground as the soldiers fought on as we followed the story on a CD we purchased at the visitor center. It directed us to pull up to one of the locations on the map and listen to the description before getting out of the car to view the place where it had happened.

There are sixteen tour destinations but you can go at your own pace. You can also hire a guide or download the tour on your cell phone.

The Illinois memorial was one of the most impressive. Below is the rotunda of the memorial.

The cemetary

The cemetary within the park

We stopped to take a picture of this little fawn that was  standing on the roadside inside the park between the 3rd and 4th stations. A little later, we left to grab some lunch and when we got back, the little one was laying on a narrow spot beside the road.

We knew he must be hurt, as he had been in the same location for almost an hour. We watched as he got up and crossed the road. Nothing appeared to be broken, but his hip looked like it was badly bruised. It could be he had fallen down the steep hill to the inside of the winding road.

We called the visitor center and they sent a park ranger out right away. She said she was going to leave the fawn alone now that he was off the road . There were no animals in the park that would harm him and his mother would most likely find him soon.

Below: The fawn runs off. At least he’s no longer close to the road.

Below: Kip talks to the ranger and another, older fawn we saw a few minutes later.

We’re going back to finish the battleground tour and see the historic downtown area today. Then tomorrow we head for the homestead. Below are a few shots of our rv park (location.) We’re right across from the Mississippi River.

We didn’t have internet last night or this morning at the park.

A picture is worth a thousand words. 

Do you believe that’s true?

Could I just show you pictures

Without a word or two?

What if you get the story wrong?

Would the words spin in my head?

Because I couldn’t say what needed to be said?

Imagine a world without words. 

Could pictures tell your tale?

Pictures OR words…Which one would prevail?

I had some trouble yesterday

My internet went CAPUT!!!

I couldn’t do a thing. How’s that for simply put?

****I got it back!!****

We are staying at the Percy Quin State Park near McComb, MS for a second day. It’s a beautiful place and it was just $14.00 a night, so it met all the requirements for a layover. 

We took the dogs and found a big open field on the edge of the park and let them run around without leashes. They loved it!

We walked a little path that started at the edge of the field and found an old abandoned cemetary with fifty or so graves in it. I say abandoned because it was obvious no one had been there to care for it in years.
Some of the dates we could read on the headstones went back to the mid 1800’s. Many were only in their 20’s when they died. 

We did find one headstone with 2005 as the date of death. I would love to know the story. I might try to locate a park ranger before we leave tomorrow and see what I can find out.

Tomorrow we are going to drive to Vicksburg via the Trace Natchez Parkway. It’s supposed to be a spectacular drive. The parkway goes on for over 400 miles, but we will drive it between Natchez and Vicksburg. I found an rv park in Vicksburg and made reservations for two nights because there’s a lot to see. The lady who checks people in here said she spent a whole day in the battlefield and another one at the cemetary.***

It’s now Sunday morning and we’re loaded up and headed to the Trace Natchez Parkway, then on to Vicksburg.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Thursday

What a day! Calvin the mechanic was there at 8:00 am with the part SeeYa needed and had her all fixed up in about an hour. I called Calvin, Steve in yesterday’s blog. His name is Calvin and he works for Steve. He is really a nice guy and knows his stuff!

I took the dogs (separately) for long walks this morning while Kip and Calvin worked on SeeYa. It was a gorgeous morning in Mississippi.

(We had a good spot at the KOA in Toomsuba, MS.)

We packed up and boogied around noon and made it to McComb, MS. I was rv park finder challenged again. I called places all afternoon, but it appeared that I wasn’t going to be able to make it happen. It wasn’t that they were full, but they were either too far out, or didn’t have full service spots.

We stopped at a park that sounded pretty nice, but turned out to be no good. It was the second time in a week this happened. I did take this picture of an old train they had sitting at the entrance. I tried to make it look nostalgic. It was a “through the window” drive-by pic.

Another shot w/o the effects. It makes me want to know it’s story.

We went on to McComb and finally found a spot in the Quin State Park. It’s beautiful and we can’t believe it’s only $14.00 a night for a full service space. At that rate, we may stay another night and go to see the Camp Van Dorn World War II Museum. Besides, we didn’t get settled in here until 8:00 pm last night. It’s no fun setting up when it’s dark and we’re weary…

Sammie: Yeah…I’m weary too. Are you weary Pattie?

Pattie: Yeah, Sammie…I’m wearier. What does weary mean, Sammie?

Sammie: I’m not sure, but I think it involves bones, so I’m all for it!

Pattie: Me too, Sammie. I’m more ‘all for it.’

I’m weary too. I never have room for my head.

Friday morning

I’m sitting in my favorite spot… sipping on a cup of coffee. It’s quiet except for the sound of the birds singing.

We are going to leave here tomorrow and head to Natches, MS. We want to drive up the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway which will take us to Vicksburg. It will all take a couple of days, but after that, the next sight we’ll see is going to be home. 

A trip like this might seem extravagant or even foolish to some, but we plan to take one long road trip a year for as long as we’re able. We prepared for this by selling our big house and buying a much smaller one so we could afford to purchase SeeYa who is now sweet sixteen. Like most people, we worked hard for many years. Sometimes retirement age seemed a long way off. Sadly, we often wished we could get older faster. Kip commuted eighty miles one way for the last several years before he could retire. He counted how many more miles he had to drive rather than birthdays.

Like all families, we have our crosses to bear/bare, but time on the road renews our spirit. It strengthens our appreciation of life and the beauty in this world God created for us.

We are grateful that for a couple of months each year, we can live our dream.

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Below is what is sure to be an award winning photograph that will eventually make me millions. I took it quite by accident. I think the camera was in selfie mode, and when I took the picture through the window, I got this reflection which I know must be one of a kind…pure art!

 

It could have been so much worse. We could have broken down on the freeway, but we didn’t. Old SeeYa has been a real trooper, and very cognizant of the extended warranty.

Many cities have rv mechanics that will come to you. Kip called around for recommendations and found a guy who came right out to the KOA and diagnosed SeeYa. The problem was a high pressure oil leak. Steve the mechanic ordered the part he needs to fix it and it’s supposed to be here tomorrow morning. With any luck we’ll be on our way tomorrow afternoon or Saturday. 

After Steve left, we had the rest of the day to run some errands. We loaded up the dogs and drove the ten miles to Meridian, MS. 

It was supposed to be ten miles.

We got Miss GPS on the phone after we turned the wrong way coming out of the rv park and had gone a couple of miles before figuring that much out. 

It will be easier to explain the experience this way.

Miss GPS: You are on the fastest route. You should arrive at your destination at 11:22. Continue on this road for 1.5 miles.

Kip: why is it going to take us an hour and 22 minutes to go ten miles. It’s only 10:00 o’clock?

Me: We’re using my phone and I haven’t synced it with my Garmen Connect yet so I’m still on Eastern time.

Kip: Do you mean Miss GPS doesn’t even have her own time?

Me: No, she’s using my time.

Kip: Maybe we should get her a watch for Christmas.

Miss GPS: Turn right on Toomsa Lane in .5 miles…which we did.

Me: I think she is taking us the long way.

Kip: The wrong way?

Me: No the long way

Miss GPS: I don’t understand what that means, the long way, the wrong way!

Kip and I were cracking up…I had accidently pushed the little microphone that puts us on speaker. (Miss GPS over eavesdrops.)

Kip: Just put in I 20 and see if she can get us back to the highway.

It took us about an hour to get ten miles, but it wasn’t over yet. We both wanted to get a haircut. The streets of Meridian go weird ways. Even with Miss GPS we missed the turn three times. We had almost given up when we accidently found the place.

So we both got bad haircuts at SportClips, picked up a few things at Walmart, ate lunch, got the car washed, and made it home about 5:00. The dogs were exhausted and they didn’t even do anything except eat half of my buttermilk battered chicken fingers.

I snapped a few in Meridian

I hope Miss GPS gets some rest. She got a little crabby when we stopped someplace we hadn’t told her about. She must have directed us to make a u-turn fifty times today.

Yes…it could have been much worse.

We have been in eleven states so far this trip. Seven of them were on purpose.

Last night we were in a secluded little rv park somewhere west of Atlanta. If you had witnessed us struggling to figure out where we were going to set up for the night, you would most likely scratch your head in disbelief. Have we not learned anything in the last three years? Shouldn’t we be seasoned rv travelers by now? 

Come on, readers, don’t be so hard on us. Everyone goofs up once in a while.

Kip didn’t think we would make it as far as we did yesterday so we were playing it by ear. We were navigating heavy traffic in downtown Atlanta, Georgia at four o’clock in the afternoon when we decided we should start looking for a spot.

I quickly found a Good Sam’s approved park a few miles west of Atlanta and we headed that way. The minute we pulled in, we knew we weren’t going to stay there. It looked scary. You can’t always tell by the online pictures what a park really looks like, which is why we try to look for KOA’s and Good Sam approved parks. I should write a review on the Good Sam park. It didn’t even look safe.

I found another park that looked better, so I called and reserved a spot. By the time we got there and got set up it was going on seven. It was a little farther out than we like to be when we’re only parked for one night, but at $20.00, the price was right. Darn…too many trees for the satellite.

But they have goats…

Do I like goats? Do goats like me?

Fall is here!

Pattie is smelling the flowers…or a critter.

If I fall asleep, will those goats get me?

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Look what I saw yesterday…

A Murdo orange water tower in Carey, Georgia. Looks like I need to clean my windows. It’s starting to show spots on my drive-by pics.

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It’s now Wednesday night. Since I didn’t manage to finish my thoughts yesterday, I will continue with the latest.

We covered some ground today and we’re spending the night at a KOA near Meridian, Mississippi. We like our spot and the dish is working great. The park has a nice laundry room and it was empty so I washed everything including the bedspread tonight.

We have a leak. The lady owner of the park we stayed at last night followed us all the way to I 20. She was trying to get our attention. She wanted to tell us we left a trail of oil or something from our camping  spot all the way out to the highway. That was really a nice thing for her to do. 

Kip checked all the fluids and nothing was low so we kept going. It was leaking, (what Kip thinks might be diesel fuel), again tonight. We’ll be taking it somewhere tomorrow to find out what the problem is. My mind just went back to Rapid City and our ten days at the Motel 6. 

Oh well…I’m not going to borrow trouble. Nobody gets all perfect days, but Kipper and I have had a string of them that have come pretty close…while on this epic journey.

We can’t complain about an oil leak. We didn’t hit this graceful little deer and that would have been a real tragedy.

Our time in North Carolina is coming to an end. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. I hope as you have traveled along with us through the blog, you have been able to picture it.

I think the reason this trip has been so exceptional is because all of the family and friends we have stopped to see, have made time for us. We were able to have one on one visits that enabled us to get to know each other better, and as far as Kip and I are concerned, it was a time in our lives we will always treasure. We wouldn’t trade it for all the “tea in China”…uhoh…

I’ve been hanging around James too long. He is on a mission to find the origination and meaning of the idioms we all use such as, “the whole ball of wax,” or, “the whole nine yards.”…Now I find myself doing it. What does, “that’s how the cow ate the cabbage,” mean?

 “It’s raining cats and dogs,” and, “I’m feeling under the weather,” don’t make, “a lick if sense.”

It’s time for me to change the subject, so I’ll tell you about today (Monday). Kip and I went grocery shopping this morning, and Janet took me thrift store shopping this afternoon. 

In one of the stores, I was busily looking through some Halloween costumes when I heard Janet yell, “Look at this crown!”

The bejeweled crown is mine now. Thanks for spotting it, Janet. It sure made my day.

I don’t have a winter crown. This will work don’t you think? Can you picture it with my denim jacket?

We wanted to reciprocate James and Janet’s warm hospitality, so we invited them for a picnic at our house tonight. It was fun to spend our last night here eating and watching television outside. Yes, I said outside. I’ve always felt cheated because I couldn’t watch tv outside. (You can’t see it in the pictures so you will have to picture it, but there is a television in a compartment that pulls out from the rv. FYI…our satellite doesn’t work unless the front of the rv has southern exposure. No trees can be in the way in the back or the front, so we can only watch sattelite tv if we don’t have any shade…picture it.

We couldn’t get the Cowboy game so Kip kept track of the score through a play by play he found on his cellphone. He couldn’t get the video so he had to close his eyes and picture it. Unfortunately he fell asleep and missed the last quarter.

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It’s now Tuesday morning and we’re getting ready to take our house down the road. It’s a beautiful day here in Hendersonville, so we’ll enjoy our long walk with the dogs just before we pull out.

Later:

We’re ready to hit the road and high-tail it out of here. Hope you have a great day, and if you do or see anything you want to remember, take a picture. It makes it easier to picture it later.

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Kip and I were beginning to feel like heathens. It had been a while since we had been to church, so we looked forward to going with James and Janet to their church this morning.

It turned out to be a joyful service. I found myself feeling better and more inspired when I left then when I got there, which is always good.

The music was great, and the sermon was really thought provoking. In fact, I have been thinking about it all day. 

The preacher talked about not being able to keep plants alive, which is something I can relate to. She said every day there would always be dead leaves on the floor that had to be scooped up and thrown away. In order to live, a leaf has to stay attached to the vine. In order to keep faith alive, you have to stay close to the one that gives it life.

When I thought about this, it made sense. In order to keep a dream, goal, love, or anything that’s important to me alive and growing, I have to stay close to whatever gives it life.

A friend recently told me about a book she read called, “Don’t give up your Daydream.” She referred to it several times in our conversations and it sounds like it has a theme similar to that of the sermon. Don’t neglect to nurture what you love.

The things I enjoy and feel most productive doing, I’ve only identified in the past few years.

You may not have wanted a sermon from me today, but you should know by now, good or bad, I always write my thoughts.

This whole day was better than great. We went out for breakfast after church and I gave everybody the day off from taking pictures of their food. 

We went to an apple orchard where I bought fried apple pies, apple donuts, sweet potatoes and a delicious apple slush.

Kip looks just like he’s really driving the truck and Janet and I are his punkin passengers.

There’s James. I just stayed there until they were all done taking pictures…too hard to get up!

“Look James, there’s a witch!”

It was a gorgeous day. There was a maze for the kids to try and navigate in the cornfield to the right.

That there is some big cabbage

We had a blast with these two.

Next, we went to a street festival.

James caught me trying to take a picture of his food😜

This post sure went downhill fast!

Men are so competitive!! Laura Avant wants to know which one of these ladies is the witch.

A pretty fall tree on a beautiful fall day…Now there is only one thing left to do…eat pizza!!