The Alligator Hunters

The alligators were indeed out again down at St. Catherine's Creek last night! Tim and I saw three gators in the exact same spot where we saw three gators last year (they're probably the same ones). As we were walking along down by the swamp, we heard "Plop! Plop! Plop!" into the water--and then we saw three pairs of the little, beaty eyes poking up out of the water. Then the little guy that you see there at the left started cruising downstream, so we got a better look at him there on the surface of the water (you can click on the picture if you want to see a bigger version of it). I used the zoom on my camera to take that picture, so we really weren't as close to the gators as it appears. Tim wanted to throw rocks at the gators to make them mad and get them to come out of the water for better picture taking, but I told him that since gators have been clocked at running about 15 mph for 30 yards on land (I heard rumors of a 35 mph alligator, but that sounds a little too fast), it probably wasn't the best idea. Thankfully he agreed. It was really pretty down along the swamp--in the old cotton fields. There's quite a bit of water out in the cotton fields right now because every spring they channel the Mississippi River in and flood the entire area, which brings some good nutrients for the soil. There were tons of big birds out there, and it was fun just to be out there and enjoy all of the cool swamp life.

Today was a busy day at Melrose. I had to give three house tours, which after yesterday's four tours, seemed like quite a bit. With Carla gone now, we're really short on people, so I'll need to go in tomorrow afternoon after church to work some overtime. They're in the process of trying to hire a couple of other people right now, but the FBI has to do background checks on the incoming folks, and they're not being too speedy with that. Hopefully we can survive until we get some extra help. Tonight Nathan, Kate, Tim, and I are going to barbecue ribs and have a good ol' Southern feast complete with potatoes, coleslaw, baked beans, and apple pie with ice cream. Mmmm! Then we'll finish watching "Lost" Season 1 on DVD.

Cornish Game Hen

Today Tim and I got the unexpected (yet always hoped for) Friday invitation to have lunch at Routhland with Miss Betty. She has her cook, Miss Big, come every so often on Friday to cook a good ol' Southern feast. Miss Big's menu today consisted of Cornish game hen (which I had never tried before), some awesome stuffing, beans and potatoes, corn on the cob, and some applie pie right out of the oven. Mmmmmm, tasty! It was totally delicious. At first the Cornish hen kind of creeped me out--because it was like eating an entire chicken, but I finally picked my way through the bones and found some good meat. Lunch was a good break to have because today is one of the four-tour days which wear me out. By the end of the day, all of my tours start melting together, and I can't remember what I have/haven't said already. Then sometimes I just totally space out--like on my 2:00 tour today I meant to say, "All of the furniture in this room is original," but instead I said, "All of the furniture in this room is real." Then the people looked at me, I realized what I said, and we all broke out laughing. One of the ladies on that tour was American Idol winner Carrie Underwood's 8th grade history teacher!!

Yesterday afternoon there was a show on the Travel Channel called something like "Investigating the Unexplained." They had a feature about the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana--where Mom and I went for Halloween last October! It is supposedly the most haunted house in America. On the TV show they were talking about all of the ghosts who live there--my favorite of which is Chloe--the slave ghost who steals people's earrings. I was hoping she would steal my earrings when Mom and I were there, but she didn't. It was fun to watch the show after having been through the house.

Today is Ranger Carla's last day with us. :-( She's the one who has been here on a month-long detail from the Selma-Montgomery Trail in Alabama. Melissa from Fort Sumter got extended for another month, which we were hoping would happen with Carla too, but unfortunately she has to return back to work on Sunday. She's been a really big help, and she and her husband are very nice people, so we'll miss them here.

This afternoon Tim wants to go walking down at St. Catherine's Creek to work off some of the Cornish game hen we had for lunch. It should be fun, but the last time I went there with him (last summer), we saw some alligators, which I could do without ever seeing in the wild again. So I'll keep a sharp eye.

County Coroners

So, it's election time here in Natchez, and the little election signs are in everybody's yards everywhere in the city. We've got Ronny Brown running for Sheriff, Bob Dearing for Senator, and others running for typical elected offices. But there are signs for a few positions that I'm not used to seeing--like Tax Collector and County Coroner. :-) County coroner? You have to run for that position? Yikes--it doesn't seem like you'd have people fighting over that job. Also, if you're voting for a tax collector, wouldn't you want to vote for someone you don't like--since people usually don't like tax collectors? So, if you were running for tax collector, would you try to make yourself seem like an unlikable person? Is running for positions like these a Southern thing? Because I certainly don't remember ever voting for an Orem City Tax Collector or a Utah County Coroner.

Anyway, today is a nice sunny day here in Natchez. This morning I finished taking pictures of and cataloging all of the undergarments in the historic clothing collection. I didn't know that there were so many types of undergarments!! Now it's onto the men's clothes, the ball gowns, work dresses, and accessories.

Today someone almost kicked the bucket in the visitor center. I had a momentary flood of panic when this older gentleman looked like he was going to kill over, but thankfully he recovered. I think it was maybe just a little too warm for him, and he was sitting down and stood up a little too fast. Or, it could have been that he was talking too much on my tour right before that--just kidding (although he did have plenty to say). The camp kids are up at Vicksburg today, so we're enjoying the peace and quiet here while it lasts.

Wigs and Wheelchairs

How do you think I look with long, brown hair? And the 1860s-style velvet jacket? It complements my ranger uniform pretty well, if you ask me. As you can see, yesterday afternoon I had a good time working on the historic clothing collection.

Right now I'm taking pictures of and cataloging the undergarments, so I've been dealing with a lot of chemises, petticoats, corded petticoats, cage crinolines, drawers (or pantalettes), and covered crinolines. I didn't know what any of these terms meant before I started working on this project!

Yesterday afternoon we had some crazy thunderstorms blow through! There was this constant thunder rumbling, and lightning everywhere. I told the rangers about my close calls with lightning in the past, and they decided that maybe it's best to not be anywhere near me during a thunderstorm. After my 3:00 tour, some visitors and I were standing out on the back balcony at Melrose while I was wrapping things up, and then there was this flash of lightning that was so close that it seemed like you could kind of feel the heat from it. Needless to say, the tour ended right then and there as the visitors ran to their cars and I tore off to the visitor center. Elder and Sister Hansen, a couple from Orem who are serving their mission here in Natchez, stopped by Melrose yesterday and went on my 3:00 tour, so that was fun. The rangers are very intrigued by the Mormon missionaries.

Today was a nice sunny day--a good break from the scary storms. I was at the William Johnson House all day, as were the Junior Rangers, so it was pretty wild down there. This funny little girl named Jessica has fallen madly in love with Ranger Nathan. She is, by nature, an affectionate child (she kept holding my hand the other day), but today she drew Nathan the cutest little picture of the two of them holding hands above a heart with the word "love" written in the middle. It said, "To Ranger Nathan, I love you. Love, Jessica." One of the Junior Rangers, Allyson, has a Pomeranian named Tiffany, so she loved that my name is Tiffany too. She was taking pictures of me and everything! She then whipped out some pictures of Tiffany the dog, and Angie and I decided that the Pomeranian has a lot more hair than I do.

For lunch today, since Ranger Melissa (she's our temporary museum curator who came over here for a couple of months from Fort Sumter) and I were both at the Johnson House and felt like eating some salad, we decided to go to this new restaurant over on Main Street called Breauds (pronounced "Brodes"). Melissa was given a per diem allowance of $39/day for food while she's on her temporary assignment here, but since she's staying at her mom's house (which is about an hour from Natchez), she hasn't been using the money. Her boss called from South Carolina the other day and told her that she needs to start using the per diem money, so Melissa bought lunch today with her government credit card. :-) We got appetizers, big yummy salads, and, of course, dessert. She had some tasty turtle cheesecake, and I went with the key lime pie, which was totally delicious. Melissa is a really cool lady, and we had a good time chatting and watching the funny people of Natchez go about their daily affairs.

This afternoon, Melissa got a crisis call from Melrose--someone ran over the original oilcloths in the home with their electric wheelchair, damaging the floor!!! Whoever was in the chair must have been cruising through the house at pretty high speeds to have missed the carpet and torn up the oilcloth! Tim is in a little bit of trouble because he let the electric wheelchair person go inside the house--when really we're supposed to have people switch to our non-electric wheelchair if they want to go on a house tour. Hopefully the damage isn't too extensive though. At other parks, a crisis would be something like having a person fall off a cliff, get attacked by a bear, fall off a boat, etc., but here in Natchez it's someone going too fast in their electric wheelchair! :-)

Git 'Er Done

Yuck! The lovely little quasi-tornado that blew through yesterday left many downed branches in its wake and, worst of all, 93% humidity! When you walk outside it feels like someone has thrown a hot, wet towel over you. It isn't as hot today as it's been, but it certainly feels like it is. It's weird how much difference the humidity makes.

This morning I had these three older ladies on my 10:00 tour, and when they were in the visitor center beforehand, one of them said, "Git 'er done!" All of us rangers looked at each other and, when the ladies walked out, broke into laughter. "Git 'er done" is known as kind of a "redneck" saying. It usually doesn't have a very good connotation. I thought that the ladies must be from the South, but later I found out they were from Maryland. Maybe they were just trying out some sayings that they heard around here--kind of like when little kids will repeat a bad word they hear just to see what effect is has.

I have cookies coming out my ears here at the house! I had bought some Oreos the other day because Oreos and milk sounded good to me, and I still had some Chips Ahoy white chocolate fudge cookies left as well. Then, Abby Wesselman baked me chocolate cookies for taking care of their animals while they were gone, and yesterday Mary made me some chocolate chip cookies. It's like being in heaven! Does anyone want to come eat cookies with me?

When It Rains, It Pours

As you can see from the picture I took of myself earlier today at the House on Ellicott Hill, it started out as a nice day. I stopped at Ellicott Hill, hoping to go on a tour, but they weren't open today. It was here that, in 1797, Major Andrew Ellicott, on orders from George Washington, defied Spanish authority and raised the American flag for the first time in the lower Mississippi Valley. It's a cool place with a nice view of the river. I went to Ellicott Hill to relax after a crazy morning at Junior Ranger camp. The kids this week are a little out-of-control. When they were doing the scavenger hunt, they were running all over the place and didn't really know what they were doing. At one point, they were supposed to follow a clue to the privy (or outhouse). The clue talked about the slaves getting sick and having dysentery. I explained that dysentery was like a bad case of the stomach flu. I said, "Where would you go if you had the stomach flu?" They all said in unison, "The bookstore!" What on earth??? What do they teach these kids at school? This other girl kept asking over and over again, "What are we fixin' to do next?" It should definitely be an interesting week.

After camp was over this morning, I went and had lunch at Uptown Grocery. They have a fun little cafe there, and I got some really delicious pizza. Then, came the storm clouds. Check out this picture I took from the Wal Mart parking lot! It was all clear right over my head, but I could see these black clouds coming towards me really fast. So I jumped in my car and drove over to a copy place to make some copies. These looked like threatening clouds, and boy did it ever start to storm! The wind was blowing like crazy, there was thunder and lightning everywhere, and the rain started pouring down. I was glad to be in a public place rather than by myself back at Routhland during the storm because the other night I had this really realistic, scary dream about a tornado, and it kind of freaked me out about the big storms that blow through here. I get kind of jumpy when the black clouds pop up. It's supposed to rain more tonight, but hopefully it won't be as bad. Other than all of that, I've had a good day--getting laundry and stuff done around here. I wish I could be at home for Camden's birthday party tonight, but I hope she has a wonderful time with everyone there!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Dad, the grandpas, brothers-in-law, and all other fathers! Last Father's Day, Mom and Dad were here with me in Mississippi! I hope that everyone has had a wonderful day today. At church this morning, the Relief Society president Sister Parks handed out Father's Day snack bags to all of the dads. She had an extra one, so she gave me a Father's Day bag. :-) After church, I took a little nap, whipped up some Mexican rice, and went over to Nathan and Kate's for our Sunday dinner with Tim. Kate made this really good chicken that we put on tortillas. I also helped her make this really tasty fruit and pudding dessert. Before and after dinner, we watched a few episodes of "Lost." We're almost done with Season 1! It's kind of an addictive show--like "24"--but just not quite as intense. This morning there was this weird tropical-looking spider thing stuck onto one of my car windows. As I was driving to church I was hoping that it would blow off, but it didn't. Luckily it was gone when I got out of church. Maybe it was one of those spiders like the one that bit Peter Parker on "Spiderman!" The mean momma bird that tried to get me yesterday seems to have moved away for now--thank goodness.

Last night Mary, Ben, and I had a fun time seeing "Pirates of the Caribbean." We went to dinner at this Chinese restaurant at the mall called The Wok. It is such a funny place! We were intrigued by their new decorating style we decided to call Chinese-Retro. The area where the restaurant is obviously used to be a diner-type place because it has these retro, sparkly, 50s-looking tables and chairs, but then it has all of these Chinese dragons and soldiers on the walls. Definitely a unique interior design style. Let's face it--everything about Mississippi is rather unique.