Getting up so early yesterday, I guess my body decided I needed more rest today as it was a little after 6am when I woke up. After starting the coffee I worked on yesterday's blog so I could get it posted today.
At 7 Dean and I walked south a short distance to see if we could tell if the water had dropped or risen over night. Our first thought was it had dropped, but later we determined that it had actually risen as part of the road we drove in on yesterday is now under water. We then walked north, under the bridge, past the hospital and Vidalia Conference & Community Center. Along the way we noticed there is some kind of event going on in a park area near the VCCC that included a car show.
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| Setting up for an event. See another shot below: |
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| Taken a few hours later as we crossed the bridge into Natchez, MS. |
I took a number of pictures on our walk using my camera this time.
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| From the left - Mel/Rhonda, Dean/Cheri, Alvin/Linda, Keith/Drena |
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| Top Photo - flooding in the park. We are to the far right in the front row and water isn't even near us. Bottom Left: I am standing near our sites - see how far away the water is. It will have to raise several feet before it gets close to us. We are in pull-thru sites so it will be easy to leave if needed, and there is no flooding behind us and on the road leaving the park. Bottom Right: This is a closeup of the area at the end of the road to our sites. |
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| Beautiful walkway along the Mississippi RIver |
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| Many areas to sit and enjoy the view along the path. |
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| Marriott hotel - Town Place Suites |
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| Vidalia Hospital - Promise Hospital of Miss Lou |
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| Closeup of Bridge between Vidalia, LA and Natchez, MS |
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| Under the bridge |
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| Barge headed south on the Mississippi |
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| Going under the bridge |
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| I discovered later than Don Jose Vidal is the namesake of Vidalia, LA. |
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| Can't think of a better way to enjoy watching the barges go up and down the Mississippi River. |
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| This barge was interesting due to the fact it was carrying equipment on top of the barges versus what we typically see - enclosed barges where the product is unknown to viewers. |
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| Closeup of the tugboat pushing it upriver. |
When we returned from our walk we ate breakfast and readied ourselves for our outing of the day. We started at the Natchez, MS Visitor Center, where we rode a Hop On, Hop Off City Tour Bus. They have a very impressive Visitor Center. We talked with a delightful woman who explained in detail different things to see and do while we are here. We decided that we would take the tour bus to give us a good lay of the town, and anything we find interesting we can return to see more detail.
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| The Natchez Visitor Center from the road we entered on. It has a nice large parking lot that is free, and can accommodate RV's. It is a wonderful facility. |
The Tour Bus was great and I took a ton of pictures. This has kept me from posting immediately as it takes a lot of time to go through them, decide which ones I want to use, delete the ones that are no good and then crop them to get most of the "junk" out. When you take pictures from a bus you cannot always get the best views so I do the best I can.
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| Our "bus" awaits! |
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| Back row - Linda & Alvin; Mel & Rhonda, Cindy |
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| Back Row - Drena & Keith, Dean & Cheri |
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| To learn more see: William Johnson Home & Visitor Center |
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| Adams County Courthouse in downtown Natchez, MS |
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| Presbyterian Church |
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| An old antebellum home being restored. |
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| This is a Magnolia Tree - reminds me of Bob and Janet Carpenter's tree in Oswego - now owned by Kent Wagner and family. |
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| See the old house - they told us the city is talking to the owners about renovating this house to its former state. |
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| Click here to learn more about Forks in the Road. This was very moving and I'm thankful that slavery was abolished. |
You really need some decent room for duallys. Drena, Keith, Cindy, Dean and I all set at one table and Alvin, Linda, Mel and Rhonda set at another across the room from us. We felt lucky to get seated so quickly as it was a busy place. I cannot believe I forgot to take pictures of the food AGAIN. I even laid my camera out so I would remember. I had the Napa Salad - baby spinach leaves with strawberries, pecans, grilled chicken, mushrooms and blue cheese, with blue cheese dressing. Dean, Keith & Drena had burgers and Cindy had a shrimp po boy. I think everyone enjoyed their meal.
We returned to the Visitor Center to pick up the other vehicles and return to the RV Park. Dean, Cindy and I wanted to visit Rodney, MS and we asked Drena and Keith if they would like to go with us. They did, so we took a few minutes at our rigs and left for Rodney about 15 minutes later.
Why did we want to visit Rodney? The first night we arrived a couple who are workcampers here in the park (from Joplin, MO near where we live) told us how they like to drive the backroads and find unique things to see. They heard about Rodney and decided they would visit. They really enjoyed the trip and what they found. It intrigued Dean and I as we too enjoy backroad drives ourselves. When they told us that Rodney almost became the state's capital by only 3 votes that really intrigued me. Unfortunately, 2-2.5 hours later we never got to see Rodney. What a disappointment it was to all 5 of us. With the current flooding the road was blocked off. We even went another direction so we could come in from the other side of the road, but it was also blocked off - although there was enough room to bypass it. We assume it was only partly blocked to allow farmers or cattlemen to get to their fields or cattle. It wasn't too long though that we were unable to go any further without a chance of being stuck - and we weren't willing to take that chance. So, the mystery of Rodney remained just that for us, but here's a little history about Rodney, MS. If you care to read it here is a blog I found about a trip to Rodney. Both were fascinating to me.
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| Top right: Crystal Springs Hunting Lodge - it was apparent by the number of hunting "lodges" we saw hunting is a big pass time in this area. Top left: Cattle ranch we saw just before we went around the "Road Closed" sign - mostly likely so they or others could have access to some of their fields for feeding. Middle Right: Look closely you can see water the other side of the levy we were sitting on. Random pictures taken in the area. |
It's about 32 miles to Rodney, and the drive home seemed longer. Maybe that was because I was riding in the back and it was about 4:00. I started getting tired and I think I may have dozed off once or twice. I was ready to get out of the truck and move again. After being back at the rig, I realized the prescription I ordered on Thursday probably arrived today, but when we walked to the office it was closed for the day. It's open Sunday (tomorrow) from 12-5, so I'll check then.
Dean and I decided to take a walk to see if there had been any rise in the water level while we were gone. The road we drove on to get to our site Thursday was now under water at the south end. Since they are pull through sites, everyone can drive out. The park and the city are constantly watching and monitoring the water level. It still has quite a ways to go before it reaches our rigs, and from what I see on NOAA's website unless some significant weather event occurs we will be gone before it would get close to our sites. While rain is expected today for most of the morning I'm not sure it will have a big impact on us as it appears most of the heavy rain will be on south of us and east of us.
As we walked along the walkway, we saw several other couples in front of us. We were talking as we walked along and met two of the couples with one of them still a ways from us. As we approached them, I realized it was Alvin and Linda. We had not being paying much attention so were surprised to see them. We visited a bit before they headed back and we walked further on down the walkway to check things out before heading back.
We are doing good with our walking and with all that we did today I had nearly 15,000 steps. Once we returned, I heated up the chili from last night, then I worked on the blog the rest of the evening until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Once I put my computer away, I hung some clothes up to dry overnight in the shower. I've been trying to do a load a day to keep up with our laundry while we are traveling, since we go somewhere almost every day. I can do one in the morning or one at night and the clothes dry during the day or overnight. I can't leave them to dry outside while we are gone since we never leave our awning out when we aren't here, in case the wind comes up. The stand needs to be attached to the awning to keep it from falling over. If the wind is really strong it will even blow the clothes off of the stand - even though there are clips to hold them on. Yes, I know this from experience. Lol!
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain so we will plan to visit some places that will be inside.
What a wonderful day we had and we have more planned for tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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