Taylorland

I now live in my own little Southern mansion! On Saturday, Mom and I drove the last leg of the journey from Texas, through Louisiana, and into Mississippi. We had some yummy Southern barbeque in Alexandria, Louisiana, and Mom even found more of our favorite Southern food item: “Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning” (it’s so good, you’ll give ya mama a slap on the back). After checking in with the ranger friends at Melrose, we went to Routhland to check in with Mrs. Charles Everett Ratcliffe (aka Miss Betty). Miss Betty’s son, Everett, and his wife Catherine showed Mom and me through the apartment where I would be living, which is located directly behind the Routhland mansion (named for the home’s builder: Job Routh; and since they’re into naming homes here, I thought that I might as well follow the Routh tradition and name my apartment Taylorland!). The apartment is really big—and I even have a parlor and French doors! But, it is also really old and had not been lived in and/or cleaned for quite some time. Mom and I were a little shocked and realized that we had quite a job ahead of us to clean the apartment. We stayed up until 2:00 a.m. on Saturday night (Sunday morning) cleaning—and still had a lot left to do the next day! I would not have survived if Mom hadn’t been here with me—she totally saved the day! We were doing pretty good until we got to the stove in the kitchen (the kitchen is the scariest part of the place). Mom pulled the burners off the stove, and there were about three inches of old, burned grease caked up underneath each burner (a few years of Southern deep-frying is not good for kitchen appliances). Then, we found this roasted cockroach amidst the fried grease—maximum grossness!! The roach about did me in, but luckily Mom is much braver than me, so she took care of it. She whipped the stove into shape, and yesterday when Everett and Catherine came to see the apartment, Catherine said: “That stove has never been that clean!” Mom has the magic touch, and she made the entire apartment look really nice and clean. It reminds us of one of the bed and breakfasts in town that people pay a lot of money to stay in each night! Speaking of bed and breakfasts, the apartment has an extra room, so should any of you decide that you would like a little vacation to the Deep South this summer, you can stay here, and I’ll make you breakfast! I have a cool little TV room with windows all around it, and the Routhland grounds are awesome. The estate is in the middle of town, but it includes a lot of wooded acres, so it seems nice and secluded. It’s fun to wake up to all of the birds chirping in the morning. I’m super duper homesick, but I started getting homesick a few months ago when I decided to come to Mississippi for the summer, so I guess that’s not a big surprise. And, I guess that homesickness is just a normal (though extremely unpleasant) emotion to experience. I am excited for the summer, and I am grateful for my nice setup here at Taylorland. Mom flew home yesterday, which was sad for me, but I guess that our fun road trip couldn’t last forever. We had such a great time, and we made many fun (and exciting) memories. I am thankful for the phone and e-mail which help me not feel so far from everyone. Oh, and I found out that my real mailing address is 131-C, Winchester Road, Natchez, MS 39120. Here is a cute picture of Mom and me at Routhland, and I will put up more photos of the house very soon. Today I started back at work and am scheduled to give a tour of Melrose in about 15 minutes. I hope I can remember all of the information—or else maybe it will be a really short tour!