Today I got to leave a quasi-tornado behind in Natchez and escape up to sunny Vicksburg. Just as we were closing up Melrose this evening, some clouds that were literally black rolled in, and there was some wacky lightning going on. The clouds were moving really fast, and it started to get really windy and rainy. But, I got to head out on Highway 61 and head north, leaving the storm behind me. I could see it in my rear view mirror and was happy to not have to deal with it. It's been nice and sunny up here in the Burg, and the kitties and I had a fun evening watering the garden, watching TV, and drinking chocolate milk. I think that my Benadryl from last night was still wearing off this morning because I was a little dingy at work--or maybe that's just how I always am!
Yesterday I got to work at the Johnson house with Donna (our newest employee). She's the nicest lady ever, and it will be fun to have her here. We had a great time just chatting and getting to know each other better. I was a little loopy from the Benadryl yesterday (which helped my fire ant bites, by the way), and I forgot to write about my fun dinner with the Wesselmans at La Fiesta. They left town for Florida today, and won't be back until after I leave, so we had one last hurrah and went out to eat together. They are such a wonderful family, and I am very, very, very grateful to have them as friends! Well, I'm off to bed now and will try to get a good sleep before driving back to Natchez for work in the morning.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
The Wrath of the Fire Ants
As you can see, I have become quite proficient in the art of taking pictures of myself! Here are some pics from yesterday's adventures in the Mississippi Delta. You can click on a picture to make it bigger. The first picture is of me holding my "Rolling Fork Tragedy" book in front of the actual Rolling Fork water tower (sorry you can't see the writing on the water tower very well). I guess that you could call my stop in Rolling Fork a literary pilgrimage of sorts. The next picture is of me standing in front of one of the biggest Indian mounds at Winterville State Historic Site. I know that the mound doesn't look very big in this picture, but it's probably about 70-90 feet tall. I just can't imagine building that with baskets full of dirt! And of course, the third picture is of me in Onward, Mississippi--home of the teddy bear. Well, it's actually a picture of two of me hunting with Teddy Roosevelt and him telling one of me to let the bear go. (The picture looked lame without a face in the second hole, so I photoshopped myself into the picture again).
Today has been a busy day--I left Vicksburg this morning and came down to work. It's a long drive, but I actually don't mind it. There is some beautiful scenery along the way. I especially love coming out of the big hills around Vicksburg, and you can see the tree tops clear up the Mississippi River. There is usually kind of a low fog or mist hanging over the trees, and it looks sooooooo pretty! I can just see General Grant and his troops marching up from Bruinsburg on their way to attack Vicksburg. Speaking of General Grant, I have been listening to the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant in the car while I've been driving. It's terribly interesting, but I must admit that I'm a little mad at U. S. Grant for how he treated General McClernand (I think I've gone off on this tangent before). It's been fun to listen to the escapades of the Union troops as they covered the same stretch of land along the river that I've been driving the last few days.
I think that some fire ants attacked my feet last night, because I've got some nasty bites that have been itching like crazy. I think they were mad that I was poking around out in the garden. Thank heavens for Benadryl, which I believe is kicking in about now, so I'd best be off to bed.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Down in the Delta
Okay, so I had culture shock when I first got to Natchez, Mississippi last summer, because it seemed like a totally foreign place compared to Utah, but today I went up through the Mississippi Delta, and it seems like a totally foreign place compared to Natchez and Vicksburg! It was like a whole different country up there--different landscape, different living conditions, and even a different dialect. I have finally gotten so I could understand people in Natchez, but today when I ate lunch at the Huddle House (it's like the Waffle House restaurant), the guy at the cash register asked me something, and I couldn't understand a word. I said, "Ummm, sorry, what was that?" So he repeated himself, but I still couldn't even pick out a single word. So I just smiled and acted like I knew what he was asking me and said, "Yeah, I'm from Utah." Then he nodded and asked me something else that I couldn't understand, so I just kept up my own little conversation that I thought we were having and said, "Well, I'm working down in Natchez, so I'm just visiting up here for the day." He seemed happy about the whole conversation, so maybe I guessed right on what we were talking about.
Anyway, there's not a whole lot of stuff happening up in the Delta region. When you leave Vicksburg, you drive down a big hill, and then you can definitely tell the difference in the landscape. It's like you've crossed the threshold into a new place. Vicksburg is a wooded city with a lot of green hills and kudzu vine, but when you head into the Delta, it's completely flat, and there are cotton and corn fields as far as you can see. My first stop today was in a little town called Rolling Fork. I have a book about something called the "Rolling Fork Tragedy" about when a big cotton business caught fire back in the 1890s and killed five people. Since reading the book I've been curious to see Rolling Fork, so I drove through town today. There really wasn't much to see there--except the water tower, so I took my picture by the water tower. :-) (I'll put my pictures up tomorrow night.) Then I headed on up to Greenville. The living conditions in the Delta are incredibly poor. In some areas it was almost like what I would imagine a third-world country to look like! All of the businesses in Greenville had bars on the windows, and many of the homes too. There were policemen driving everywhere, so I'm guessing that they have a bit of a crime problem. Luckily I have my handy dandy GPS system in the car, so she helped me get to all of the places I wanted to go. I browsed around a couple of bookstores, then went driving along the Mississippi River. I was driving along at the base of the town's levee, but then I kind of got lost (despite the GPS's best efforts), and ended up on this levee maintenance road. I thought to myself, "Oh great! I'm lost on the levee!" There were all of theses "Maintenance Only! No Public Vehicles Aloud" signs along the road, but I needed to keep driving on it to get off of it, so I decided that if someone pulled me over, since I still had my ranger uniform hanging in the back of the car, I could just tell them that I'm with the National Park Service and I'm just checking up on the levee situation. :-) Luckily no one pulled me over, and I made it safely back to the paved roads of civilization.
After my levee adventures, I went over to the Winterville Mounds State Historic Site. There are a lot of Indian mounds around Mississippi--gigantic hills built by the Indians (using baskets to haul the dirt!) that were used for ceremonial purposes, and often for burials. My favorite part of the archaeology class that I took at BYU in the winter was when we talked about the Natchez Indians and the Indian mounds down near Natchez. I've been to Emerald Mound, along the Natchez Trace, as well as the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in downtown Natchez. So, I thought it would be cool to visit the Winterville Mounds near Greenville. It was cool to walk around out there, and I wanted to climb up the main temple mound so I could have a view of the entire countryside, but the steps going up to the top (which was quite a climb) were totally overgrown with weeds and grasses that were taller than me. I realized that there could be any number of things hanging out in those grasses (snakes, swamp spiders, swamp men, chiggers, etc., etc., so I decided to forgo the journey to the top of the mound. I've been to the top of Emerald Mound, and it's bigger than any of the Winterville Mounds, so I'm good. I was glad I went out there though--it was a cool place. Then I went back into downtown Greenville and did a little antique shopping, then I headed for home. (Side note: Leland, Mississippi, which is about 10 miles from Greenville, is the birthplace of Kermit the Frog!) On my way back to Vicksburg, I went through this tiny speck of a town called Onward. Onward, Mississippi is known as the "Birthplace of the Teddy Bear" because, as legend has it, Teddy Roosevelt was on a hunting expedition in Onward, when he came upon a chained black bear and requested that the bear be freed. Somehow that started the ball rolling for the evolution of the teddy bear, and voila--the teddy bear was born! I stopped at the little Onward Country Store for dinner, and I had some of the best tamales I've ever had! I guess that this particular place is famous for its tamales--it was even featured in Esquire magazine because of its tasty tamales. I also had some sweet potato fries, and, of course, I had to try the bread pudding. I liked the bread pudding, but the sauce was really, really rich. After I was done, the waitress asked me if I liked it. I said I did, and she said, "I made it, and I put a whole half-liter of rum into the sauce!" Oh dear, that explains a lot of things. Luckily alcohol gets burned out of things when it is cooked, or else I may have gotten a DUI on the way back to the Burg! Stopping at the Onward Country Store was one of those fun eating experiences that you always remember--good food at a little po-dunk place out in the middle of nowhere. I think I'm a little bread-puddinged-out though. :-) No more of that for a while.
As I was heading towards Vicksburg, I saw this plane flying around, and it was going really fast, heading straight for the ground. I thought it was going to crash, because it had what appeared to be smoke coming out of the back of it, but then it pulled up, and I realized that it was a crop duster. Now I'm here hanging out with the kitties for the evening. Mosby has warmed up to me, so she is in here at the computer with me. She now insists that anytime she eats, I stand next to her and scratch her back while she's eating. :-) It's been a fun day, and I now feel a lot more knowledgeable about Mississippi--since I have seen a whole new side of the state. A lot of famous writers are from the Delta--Shelby Foote, Richard Wright, Walker Percy, etc. Some big Blues stars are also from the area, so it was a good cultural experience to visit the Delta.
Anyway, there's not a whole lot of stuff happening up in the Delta region. When you leave Vicksburg, you drive down a big hill, and then you can definitely tell the difference in the landscape. It's like you've crossed the threshold into a new place. Vicksburg is a wooded city with a lot of green hills and kudzu vine, but when you head into the Delta, it's completely flat, and there are cotton and corn fields as far as you can see. My first stop today was in a little town called Rolling Fork. I have a book about something called the "Rolling Fork Tragedy" about when a big cotton business caught fire back in the 1890s and killed five people. Since reading the book I've been curious to see Rolling Fork, so I drove through town today. There really wasn't much to see there--except the water tower, so I took my picture by the water tower. :-) (I'll put my pictures up tomorrow night.) Then I headed on up to Greenville. The living conditions in the Delta are incredibly poor. In some areas it was almost like what I would imagine a third-world country to look like! All of the businesses in Greenville had bars on the windows, and many of the homes too. There were policemen driving everywhere, so I'm guessing that they have a bit of a crime problem. Luckily I have my handy dandy GPS system in the car, so she helped me get to all of the places I wanted to go. I browsed around a couple of bookstores, then went driving along the Mississippi River. I was driving along at the base of the town's levee, but then I kind of got lost (despite the GPS's best efforts), and ended up on this levee maintenance road. I thought to myself, "Oh great! I'm lost on the levee!" There were all of theses "Maintenance Only! No Public Vehicles Aloud" signs along the road, but I needed to keep driving on it to get off of it, so I decided that if someone pulled me over, since I still had my ranger uniform hanging in the back of the car, I could just tell them that I'm with the National Park Service and I'm just checking up on the levee situation. :-) Luckily no one pulled me over, and I made it safely back to the paved roads of civilization.
After my levee adventures, I went over to the Winterville Mounds State Historic Site. There are a lot of Indian mounds around Mississippi--gigantic hills built by the Indians (using baskets to haul the dirt!) that were used for ceremonial purposes, and often for burials. My favorite part of the archaeology class that I took at BYU in the winter was when we talked about the Natchez Indians and the Indian mounds down near Natchez. I've been to Emerald Mound, along the Natchez Trace, as well as the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in downtown Natchez. So, I thought it would be cool to visit the Winterville Mounds near Greenville. It was cool to walk around out there, and I wanted to climb up the main temple mound so I could have a view of the entire countryside, but the steps going up to the top (which was quite a climb) were totally overgrown with weeds and grasses that were taller than me. I realized that there could be any number of things hanging out in those grasses (snakes, swamp spiders, swamp men, chiggers, etc., etc., so I decided to forgo the journey to the top of the mound. I've been to the top of Emerald Mound, and it's bigger than any of the Winterville Mounds, so I'm good. I was glad I went out there though--it was a cool place. Then I went back into downtown Greenville and did a little antique shopping, then I headed for home. (Side note: Leland, Mississippi, which is about 10 miles from Greenville, is the birthplace of Kermit the Frog!) On my way back to Vicksburg, I went through this tiny speck of a town called Onward. Onward, Mississippi is known as the "Birthplace of the Teddy Bear" because, as legend has it, Teddy Roosevelt was on a hunting expedition in Onward, when he came upon a chained black bear and requested that the bear be freed. Somehow that started the ball rolling for the evolution of the teddy bear, and voila--the teddy bear was born! I stopped at the little Onward Country Store for dinner, and I had some of the best tamales I've ever had! I guess that this particular place is famous for its tamales--it was even featured in Esquire magazine because of its tasty tamales. I also had some sweet potato fries, and, of course, I had to try the bread pudding. I liked the bread pudding, but the sauce was really, really rich. After I was done, the waitress asked me if I liked it. I said I did, and she said, "I made it, and I put a whole half-liter of rum into the sauce!" Oh dear, that explains a lot of things. Luckily alcohol gets burned out of things when it is cooked, or else I may have gotten a DUI on the way back to the Burg! Stopping at the Onward Country Store was one of those fun eating experiences that you always remember--good food at a little po-dunk place out in the middle of nowhere. I think I'm a little bread-puddinged-out though. :-) No more of that for a while.
As I was heading towards Vicksburg, I saw this plane flying around, and it was going really fast, heading straight for the ground. I thought it was going to crash, because it had what appeared to be smoke coming out of the back of it, but then it pulled up, and I realized that it was a crop duster. Now I'm here hanging out with the kitties for the evening. Mosby has warmed up to me, so she is in here at the computer with me. She now insists that anytime she eats, I stand next to her and scratch her back while she's eating. :-) It's been a fun day, and I now feel a lot more knowledgeable about Mississippi--since I have seen a whole new side of the state. A lot of famous writers are from the Delta--Shelby Foote, Richard Wright, Walker Percy, etc. Some big Blues stars are also from the area, so it was a good cultural experience to visit the Delta.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Life in Vicksburg
Greetings from Vicksburg! Tonight I am staying up at Matt and Angie's to take care of the kitties and the garden. Angie has been having some garden trouble, which makes her very sad because she ordered some heirloom seeds from Thomas Jefferson's garden, but the plants haven't been doing very well. So, my self-given mission while Matt and Angie are gone is to save the garden. :-) Since Angie drives one-and-a-half hours to and from work every day, she doesn't exactly have time to go pull all of the grass out of the garden, so I'm going to do a bit of weeding while I'm here, and we'll see if we can't get things perking up a bit.
Today has been a really fun day. I drove up Highway 61 and stopped in Port Gibson to eat lunch at Grant's Place again--that funny little "home cookin'" restaurant. The food today was great!! I had sirloin tips in gravy over rice, along with some greens and some fried okra. It was some seriously tasty Southern cookin'. Then I continued on up to Vicksburg and fed the kitties, then headed downtown. I love downtown Vicksburg--it's a very charming place. I went to this cool antique store that I discovered here last October, then I went to the Old Courthouse Museum, then I went to a bookstore next to the Coca-Cola museum (which I think I'll visit next week), then I went and had BBQ ribs at a downtown BBQ joint that some people from Memphis opened up. The ribs were great!!! Then I walked along the river and decided to drive through the Vicksburg National Military Park. I was excited that the gates were still open when I got there, and I was hoping to have a nice, leisurely drive through the park while the sun was setting, but when I got out of the car at the Illinois monument, a Park Ranger pulled up and told me that they were going to close the gates. :-( So, I started driving away, and then he started honking at me. I thought he was mad at me, so I was super scared, but then he pulled up and asked which park I work at. I then realized that I had my uniform hanging up in the back seat (since I'll be going straight from here to work on Friday), so I told him I work in Natchez. Luckily he wasn't mad at me, but I think he thought I was a little doofy because I kept getting lost trying to get out of the park. :-) It's got a lot of little roads, and this was only my second time actually driving through the park, so you have to give me a break! It was really nice out this evening, and there was even a little breeze blowing so it wasn't tooooo hot.
Now I'm just hanging out with the kitties here at the house. They are quite distraught that their mom and dad are gone, and they're not too sure if they like me or not, but since I do give them food, they at least tolerate me for now. :-) I think they will start warming up to me after a few hours. The newest kitty, Cali, is at the vet for the week getting de-clawed, so the other kitties are quite content. They still don't like Cali very much--especially Samantha, so she seems very relieved to get a vacation from Cali. Pitty-Pat has always liked me the best of the kitties, and Mosby has always been the most shy, so we'll see if they all decide to come out and chill with me. Tomorrow I'm planning to do a little weeding in the garden in the morning, then I'll head up to Rolling Fork and on up to Greenville, so it should be another great day!
Today has been a really fun day. I drove up Highway 61 and stopped in Port Gibson to eat lunch at Grant's Place again--that funny little "home cookin'" restaurant. The food today was great!! I had sirloin tips in gravy over rice, along with some greens and some fried okra. It was some seriously tasty Southern cookin'. Then I continued on up to Vicksburg and fed the kitties, then headed downtown. I love downtown Vicksburg--it's a very charming place. I went to this cool antique store that I discovered here last October, then I went to the Old Courthouse Museum, then I went to a bookstore next to the Coca-Cola museum (which I think I'll visit next week), then I went and had BBQ ribs at a downtown BBQ joint that some people from Memphis opened up. The ribs were great!!! Then I walked along the river and decided to drive through the Vicksburg National Military Park. I was excited that the gates were still open when I got there, and I was hoping to have a nice, leisurely drive through the park while the sun was setting, but when I got out of the car at the Illinois monument, a Park Ranger pulled up and told me that they were going to close the gates. :-( So, I started driving away, and then he started honking at me. I thought he was mad at me, so I was super scared, but then he pulled up and asked which park I work at. I then realized that I had my uniform hanging up in the back seat (since I'll be going straight from here to work on Friday), so I told him I work in Natchez. Luckily he wasn't mad at me, but I think he thought I was a little doofy because I kept getting lost trying to get out of the park. :-) It's got a lot of little roads, and this was only my second time actually driving through the park, so you have to give me a break! It was really nice out this evening, and there was even a little breeze blowing so it wasn't tooooo hot.
Now I'm just hanging out with the kitties here at the house. They are quite distraught that their mom and dad are gone, and they're not too sure if they like me or not, but since I do give them food, they at least tolerate me for now. :-) I think they will start warming up to me after a few hours. The newest kitty, Cali, is at the vet for the week getting de-clawed, so the other kitties are quite content. They still don't like Cali very much--especially Samantha, so she seems very relieved to get a vacation from Cali. Pitty-Pat has always liked me the best of the kitties, and Mosby has always been the most shy, so we'll see if they all decide to come out and chill with me. Tomorrow I'm planning to do a little weeding in the garden in the morning, then I'll head up to Rolling Fork and on up to Greenville, so it should be another great day!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Happy Pioneer Day!
Happy Pioneer Day everyone! I told them at work that we should be getting holiday pay today, but they didn't believe me :-) Here are some pictures of my last fun couple of days (you can click on them to make them bigger). There on the left is my second family: the Wesselmans. They are so nice, and I love them a lot! Next you'll see my kids--Abby and Bailey--and me. Tonight Bailey was asking his dad why I was going to move to Charleston, Illinois, and his dad was telling him that I'm going to go to school there. He was sad (as was I) but thought it would be fun if I come back to visit, which I surely will. The Wesselmans will be leaving for Florida on Saturday and won't return until after I leave, so we've been trying to enjoy our last bit of time together. Next we have a picture of me on the bridge at the Ratcliffe farm yesterday--isn't it pretty and green there?! And finally we have the cool old Ratcliffe Farms truck that Tim and I found out in the woods. Notice the bullet holes in the windshield! :-) Probably from hunting season. Don't you think that the truck looks kind of like the tow truck on the movie "Cars"?
Today was a really fun day. We have another new employee at the park. Her name is Donna, and she is really, really nice. She is working on her master's degree at Alcorn State University, and we had a good time today chatting about her family, her grandkids, and life in general. It will be fun to get to know her better over the next couple of weeks. I was trying to explain to everyone at work what Pioneer Day is, and they thought that it sounded like a fun holiday. Sharon said, "Sometime I need to have you tell me more about Mormonism." So today when it was just the two of us in the visitor center, I was giving her the scoop on what Mormonism is. We started at the beginning, and were in the middle of the First Vision when this loud group of people came into the VC--talk about bad timing! But we were able to resume our conversation after they left. She thought that it sounds like a pretty cool religion. She thought it was especially neat that we believe that people get to be with their families and friends after they die. She said that she hopes to eat cheesecake in heaven with me someday. :-)
Then this afternoon we had Abby Wesselman's big 13th birthday party! First we went bowling, which was super fun. It was Brother and Sister Wesselman, Abby, Bailey, Bishop and Sister Breland, Sister McClure, and me. I beat Bishop Breland in one game, but he beat me in the next two. I was going to show off my mad bowling skills, but I just didn't quite have my A-game on this evening. Then we went to the Wesselman's house and had chicken pot pie--made from the Mammy's Cupboard recipe! We also had some tasty birthday cake that Sister McClure made. Abby loves horses (a girl after my own heart), and so the birthday cake had this cool horse on it. We had a really fun evening together!
Today is my Friday night (even thought it's only Tuesday), so for my days off I will be going up to Vicksburg. Matt and Angie left on their trip today, so I'll go take care of the kitties and do some sightseeing. Tomorrow I'm planning to hang out in Vicksburg, visit the National Park there, visit the Old Courthouse Museum, and do some skulking around downtown. Then on Thursday I will be driving up to Greenville, Mississippi, so that I can experience the Mississippi Delta. There are supposedly some fun places to see up that way, so I am looking forward to it.
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