June 16, 2007
Today was the second day on the road. We had breakfast with our friend Linda this morning and then left Houston, MS, about 8:00 a.m. We had a peaceful drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway to Kosciusko, MS. So peaceful and traffic free, in fact, that Lois practiced her motor home driving skills on the way. She did well but had a nervous tutor in the passenger seat. See picture.
After stopping by the Natchez Trace Visitors’ Center and doing some grocery shopping at Kosciusko’s Super WalMart, we went by Possumneck and had a short visit with my nephew Todd Ingram. We dropped off some screening material for his screened-in porch and left with some home-grown squash that Todd had recently frozen. He said that he wasn’t an expert in food preservation but did everything his mother told him to do.
We left there shortly after noon and drove to Greenwood and Greenville, MS, and then across the “Father of Waters” into Arkansas. The old two-lane bridge at Greenville was much narrower than I remembered, especially when you’re driving a motor home. However, a new bridge appears to be near completion and it’s a beauty. From what I could tell, it looks like a suspension bridge of some sort with cable in the middle of the roadway. I couldn’t concentrate on it too much, because I had to keep my eyes on the road while crossing the bridge.
After we reached Lake Village (which was a much prettier place than I remembered) we stopped at the Arkansas welcome center. After talking to the attendant, we made a telephone reservation for a campsite at DeGray’s Lake State Resort Park outside Arkadelphia, AR.
When we crossed the river, Lois also got to open her goody bag. Emily had sent her a bag in the mail a few days ago and told her that she couldn’t open it until she crossed the Mississippi River. Lois was puzzled but remembered after talking with Emily that this was a tactic that she used with Emily and Elizabeth when they were small children and we traveled from our home in Mississippi to visit relatives in Texas. Lois would prepare a bag of goodies for the girls and, to keep them from opening it as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, would tell them they could open their bag until we crossed the Mississippi River.
Emily was so thoughtful to remember this and to send Mom such a treat.
It’s about a three-hour drive from Lake Village to Arkadelphia, so we had to push it to be here before closing. We made it. It’s a beautiful place, but we didn’t have time to do much after we got here except cook a little supper, clean up, and go to bed. I think we’ll try to take time in the morning to go to church somewhere around here and then put in a short day tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have some scenic drives in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, and we need to take the time to enjoy it. The only time constraint we have is to be in Albuquerque by noon on June 20 to pick up a rent car on the way to Taos. If necessary, we could postpone this a day or two if necessary. We’ve just got to get out of the hard-driving mentality and get used to the fact that we’re retired and really don’t have to be in any particular place on any particular day. However, that’s a hard adjustment to make. It will probably take a lot of practice, I’ll try to stop somewhere that has internet access in the next few days so that I can upload this to my journal. More later.
Today was the second day on the road. We had breakfast with our friend Linda this morning and then left Houston, MS, about 8:00 a.m. We had a peaceful drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway to Kosciusko, MS. So peaceful and traffic free, in fact, that Lois practiced her motor home driving skills on the way. She did well but had a nervous tutor in the passenger seat. See picture.
After stopping by the Natchez Trace Visitors’ Center and doing some grocery shopping at Kosciusko’s Super WalMart, we went by Possumneck and had a short visit with my nephew Todd Ingram. We dropped off some screening material for his screened-in porch and left with some home-grown squash that Todd had recently frozen. He said that he wasn’t an expert in food preservation but did everything his mother told him to do.
We left there shortly after noon and drove to Greenwood and Greenville, MS, and then across the “Father of Waters” into Arkansas. The old two-lane bridge at Greenville was much narrower than I remembered, especially when you’re driving a motor home. However, a new bridge appears to be near completion and it’s a beauty. From what I could tell, it looks like a suspension bridge of some sort with cable in the middle of the roadway. I couldn’t concentrate on it too much, because I had to keep my eyes on the road while crossing the bridge.
After we reached Lake Village (which was a much prettier place than I remembered) we stopped at the Arkansas welcome center. After talking to the attendant, we made a telephone reservation for a campsite at DeGray’s Lake State Resort Park outside Arkadelphia, AR.
When we crossed the river, Lois also got to open her goody bag. Emily had sent her a bag in the mail a few days ago and told her that she couldn’t open it until she crossed the Mississippi River. Lois was puzzled but remembered after talking with Emily that this was a tactic that she used with Emily and Elizabeth when they were small children and we traveled from our home in Mississippi to visit relatives in Texas. Lois would prepare a bag of goodies for the girls and, to keep them from opening it as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, would tell them they could open their bag until we crossed the Mississippi River.
Emily was so thoughtful to remember this and to send Mom such a treat.
It’s about a three-hour drive from Lake Village to Arkadelphia, so we had to push it to be here before closing. We made it. It’s a beautiful place, but we didn’t have time to do much after we got here except cook a little supper, clean up, and go to bed. I think we’ll try to take time in the morning to go to church somewhere around here and then put in a short day tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have some scenic drives in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, and we need to take the time to enjoy it. The only time constraint we have is to be in Albuquerque by noon on June 20 to pick up a rent car on the way to Taos. If necessary, we could postpone this a day or two if necessary. We’ve just got to get out of the hard-driving mentality and get used to the fact that we’re retired and really don’t have to be in any particular place on any particular day. However, that’s a hard adjustment to make. It will probably take a lot of practice, I’ll try to stop somewhere that has internet access in the next few days so that I can upload this to my journal. More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment