It was another first time in the state for both Judy and Doug when we crossed the river to Natchez, Mississippi on January 9, 2020. Our morning log says that we had driven the van over 5,000 miles, with over 3500 on this trip. It was 64 degrees – very reasonable!

The Visitor Center provided good information for our walking tour that day, and also had exhibits discussing cotton growing and production. We learned that the owners of the farms and slaves did not usually live at the plantation – their families lived in the towns.

The cotton gin changed the world and created an economic dilemma. One slave could pick the seeds out of one pound of cotton in a day. After the gin was invented, the amount of cotton being grown could not keep the machines busy, so more sources of cotton were required. The producers looked to the new territories in the west where more cotton could be grown. This pushed the discussion of slavery and slave states rapidly toward the Civil War.

We walked through Natchez and toured Rosalie, a plantation owner’s mansion. It is an elegant home, more what we had expected to see in the south.

In 1716 the French built a fort on the bluffs of Natchez and named it Rosalie in honor of the Countess of Pontchartrain. The mansion was built on a portion of the former fort property, so the name stuck. Today Rosalie is owned and operated by the Mississippi State Society, Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Natchez Bluff Trail includes the Bridge of Sighs and provides panoramic views of the Mississippi River. You can see how high Natchez sits over the river.

We reached the bottom of the hill for a close up view of the river boat and stopped for a late lunch at the Magnolia Grill. The waitstaff there told us about occasional shut downs when the river is high and we saw examples of the sandbags used during flood seasons.

We left Ruston and traveled south by way of the Cane River National Historic Corridor, not knowing what we would see. The first stop was at Oakland Plantation, a French Creole plantation that is managed by the National Park Service. It was converted from a slave plantation to being run by sharecroppers. It served as a community center until the 1960’s, so is pretty well preserved. It was not the “Gone with the Wind Plantation” that we expected to see!

We continued south along the Cane River Corridor, which is beautiful, and hoped to visit another plantation.

Eventually we arrived in Vidalia, Louisiana, on the western bank of the Mississippi River where we had reserved a space at the River View RV Park for two nights. This was our first experience in a park lying between the levee and the river, a vulnerable location. Vidalia is directly across the river from Natchez, Mississippi. Our first evening was spent walking along the nice public riverfront trail in Vidalia.

You can take the woman away from the ocean, but she does not lose her fascination for the water.

Lincoln Parish Park was an amazing find in northern Louisiana. It was created by one person who donated the land and provided the funding for a wonderful facility for local people and campers. There is a swimming beach on this man-made lake with a pavilion for events, and many biking/hiking trails along the perimeter and throughout. We had a nice walk all the way around the lake after we arrived.

The next day, January 7, we took a long walk through the park. Later we went in to explore Ruston, the home of Louisiana Tech University; nearby is Grambling State University. The former is the alma mater of many football, basketball, and baseball greats (e.g., Terry Bradshaw, Karl Malone, Kim Mulkey, George Stone). The latter has a huge stadium named after coach Eddy Robinson, long time football coach, one of the best in college football, who led the Tigers to 408 wins in 55 seasons. In Ruston we had a good southern style lunch of red beans, crawfish, and fried green tomatoes.

Judy would not have known before our visit, but yes, Hot Springs, Arkansas is the boyhood home of President Bill Clinton. That was the response every time I mentioned it! The National Park is a strip of land on which the bath houses, some original and some rebuilt, are located. It’s Bathhouse Row. We did not partake of the hot springs!

It is said that the waters coming to the surface today were rained down on earth 4,000 years ago. Hot Springs was used by the Boston Red Sox and other teams for spring training – imagine Babe Ruth and his cigar in the baths.

Our walk for the day involved climbing up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. Thankfully the tower has an elevator, because just getting there was a steep climb!

We also enjoy some business names that we have seen and jotted down on our travels, which we will share from time to time. For example, Joint Effort Physical Therapy and A Little Off the Top Hair Salon. Okay, they are corny – you can always ignore them!

I’ll get to the ducks . . .

On January 2, 2020, we left Durant, Oklahoma to continue east. As recommended by Judy’s friend Patty from the YMCA Abs Class, each morning we try to remember to record the temperature, the number of miles traveled on our trip meter, and the odometer reading on the van. Today was 53 degrees, 2864 miles and 4357 on the odometer. We are breaking in the van!

It is definitely lumber and paper country – we passed the IP Valliant Paper Mill on Route 70 in Oklahoma and Weyerhaeuser Lumber Technology plants in Idabel, OK and in western Arkansas. We would see many more mills and forestry tracts as we continued east and south.

We spent two nights at a very nice campground in Daisy State Park on “Beautiful Lake Greeson” in Kirby, Arkansas. The first night we were alone.

The sun came out on the second day, which we spent relaxing and hiking around the park.

Doug built our first campfire, which was quite a feat considering that everything was wet and we did not have lighter fluid or much kindling. We had delicious peppermint cocoa contributed by Seb and Peggy. Later in the evening our new neighbors, three young men in a tent, came by looking for lighter fluid. They couldn’t get their fire going!

A new state for us for the start of a new year! We drove from Dallas to Ardmore, Oklahoma to spend New Year’s Eve in a Marriott Courtyard due to our late arrival. On New Year’s Day 2020 we headed east around Lake Texoma (another one of those combined names) and Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, which seemed mostly a muddy shallow lake.

Any Questions?

We spent the night of January 1 at the Durant/Choctaw Casino KOA in Oklahoma. Our winnings at the casino were sufficient only to pay for dinner. The campground was very, very nice – beautiful shower and laundry facilities!

On New Year’s Eve we drove into Dallas, less traffic, but lots of tourists. Doug found the recommended urban walking tour that includes all the John F Kennedy history and memorials.

We especially enjoyed the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture. It is interesting and nicely laid out and definitely gives you the sense that there is much more to Dallas than what happened in 1963 in Dealey Plaza. It covers the founding of Dallas and its cultural and social development.

We saw Pegasus and the steel longhorns during our walk, and ate lunch at the Dallas Farmers Market that was fun to visit. Our reservation for touring the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza was late in the afternoon. It is a thorough examination of events leading up to the assassination of President Kennedy, the event, and the aftermath. The exhibition is factual and balanced, and we do recommend a visit. If that description implies our skepticism before we went, so be it!

For the afternoon of December 30 we went to the Stockyards, walking through the entire area and checking out all the local store goods.

Doug tried on another hat, a red cap, but he wasn’t pleased with the logo, so did not buy it . . .

We are always keeping in mind my sister’s wardrobe.

The best part of the day was preparation for the longhorn steer drive that goes through town every day, twice a day. We talked with the cowboys and cowgirls who run this famous event and gained appreciation for the steers, the horses and the people.

It takes some effort to get these guys moving. As our cowgirl said, their 401(k) is pretty nice – hang out, get fed, and run through town twice a day!

While at the nice Dallas/Arlington KOA we had RV Rescue come over to the RV park to wash the van – very nice guy! We paid quite a lot – since then, especially in Florida, it’s been a lot less! Learn as you go. The food in the area was excellent, and cheap! Especially the taquerias!

We spent December 30, 2019, in Fort Worth. In the morning we enjoyed the downtown with its very small town feel. The Sid Richardson Museum has wonderful collections of Frederic Remington paintings and sculptures, and also paintings of a Remington contemporary named Charles M. Russell, which Judy liked even better than the Remingtons. There is the old west Tarrant County Courthouse and the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The latter are extensive and impressive with flowing water, heavy and light, and reflecting surfaces everywhere.

Cotton Bowl day started with pouring rain, but the van is the perfect vehicle – we drove to the parking lot outside the stadium when parking opened up and found a prime spot. We then were able to have our coffee and hang out until the festivities began. Rain didn’t dampen the crowd, of course.

AT&T Stadium is immense and beautiful. Everything was well organized and everyone was friendly and helpful. There is a huge Jumbotron in the middle of the stadium – often that view, shown on TV, was more clear than trying to watch the field. Oops!

And Doug was happy!