"The sky is falling!"

It really did look like the sky was falling this afternoon, or like Natchez was going to get sucked up into a black hole. We've been getting some pretty nasty afternoon thundershowers, but I don't know that I've seen blacker clouds than the ones that blew through today. We were having a Jr. Ranger camp meeting with all of the rangers up in the visitor center today, and then all of a sudden there was this huge flash of lightning. It must have hit somewhere on the property because it was SO loud! It scared us all to death. Last night, when I took this photo, I saw some crazy lightning. It had been raining all afternoon, but then it let up a little bit about the time the sun was setting, so I thought I'd drive down to the bluff to see the sunset. It was really pretty, but at one point there was this gigantic flash of lightning that went horizontally clear across the sky. It was crazy! At that point I decided I'd better vacate the area because, as my family knows, I tend to attract lightning bolts.

I usually give about 40 minute tours of Melrose, but the two tours I gave this morning went for over an hour! The people had a lot of questions, and I had some doll experts on my first tour today, so they spent about 30 minutes just at the grandkids room where we have a couple of old dolls. I was pretty pooped after the two tours, but then I got to tend the visitor center for the afternoon, which was a good break. By the time the storm rolled in, we didn't get any more visitors, so it was a quiet afternoon (except for the thunder and lightning). Ranger Nathan had this guy on his tour this afternoon who Tim and I decided must be a member of the KKK or something. He started talking about "color issues" and was going off about how "Abe Lincoln messed up the whole system!" Tim asked him what he meant, and the guy said, "With emancipation--freein' the slaves! He ruined the lifestyle we could have all had!" Yikes with a capital "Y"! There are definitely some crazies out there.

Catherine and Everett have gone on another fishing trip. I hope they don't catch any more fish because there is zero room left in my freezer!