Nov 2, 2015 Mississippi to Louisiana

Monday, November 2, 2015
Mississippi to Louisiana

Woke early this morning and it is 70 degrees and humid already.   Very heavy fog.

We stop for a quick breakfast and then hop on I-65 toward Mobile.  I  wanted to take a photo of the bridge into Mobile, but by the time we were off the bridge and could stop, it was swallowed up by the fog.

 Since it is still early (8:00) we head to Magnolia Cemetery, an old Victorian cemetery started in the early 1800s.  It used to be outside of town, but town has grown around it.    There is still fog when we arrive, which gives an interesting aura.

Part of the grounds is a national military cemetery.

We see a few interesting statues

and markers and Greg suggests we stop by the office to see if they have any literature or maps or such.  What a GREAT idea, because there we meet Tighe Marston  ("friends call me Tiger" )whose official title is Municipal Cemeteries Manager for Mobile.  He gives us a map and marks a few things of interest as we chat a bit. He asks if we'll be around Saturday because there is a tour then.  When we say no, he grabs some keys and asks if we'd like to see the most beautiful mausoleum.  He then leads the way in his car and for the next  two hours or so we get a wonderful individualized tour!

 Tiger is incredibly knowledgeable, with stories about many of the folks buried here - cotton merchants, confederate soldiers(including General Bragg), the creators of Mardi Gras (one has a cowbell atop his marker), well-known local families, etc. - but also full of information on Victorian customs and the many symbols used in funerary art...

The inverted torches symbolize end of life.

.angels, Greek gods and goddesses, urns, laurel wreaths, obelisks(originally phallic symbols) both truncated (for lives cut short) and complete (for full lives), hour glasses, egg and dart decorations, the snake eating its' tail, and many many more. He explained how the archeological discoveries in Egypt and Greece influenced the Victorians.

 He took us into a few locked structures which have statues, stained glass and funerary chairs, among other things. I wish we could remember even 10% of the knowledge he spewed!

 Most of the markers and statues are made from white Alabama Marble, which is a little soft - great for carving but some is not holding up so well after 150+ years.

Inside one mausoleum

This one had a gorgeous full size marble statue inside.  No photos allowed.

Tiger explaining a charnal house piece.

view through cutout in metal door to one mausoleum

He even explained the different kinds of trees - live oaks, magnolias because they don't lose leaves so symbolize eternal life; cedar trees for the jewish which symbolize temples. Many trees were lost to hurricanes - at one point he said the cemetery was seven feet under water!

He said he often gives presentations and has begun to use some humor,  of which he gave us a few samples. And what a southern gentleman - he extended his hand to help me whenever there was a rough or uneven patch!  He really was charming and quite entertaining! Who knew cemeteries could be such fun?!

Much of the wrought iron was stolen by vandals during a period when the cemetery wasn't cared for.

After bidding him farewell with a hearty handshake, Greg and I continued to drive and look around for a short time and then headed into town to the Mobile Carnival Museum.

It was located in an old house surrounded by wrought iron fence, gates and trim.  Mobile claims to have started the whole Mardi Gras tradition of parades and music, although the first parades with rakes and cowbells (long story, google it) were at New Year's Eve.

Part of one float

The museum showcased many of the elaborate costumes from Kings and Queens of past years, photos and mementos, as well as some items from floats and parades.  The lady who sold us the tickets was very friendly and knowledgeable too.  We watched a short film and then wandered through the displays.  Did you know that they used to throw CrackerJacks (along with beads and such) but had too many complaints of injuries, so they switched to Moon Pies!

 A fun museum that made us want to return in February to see some of the 30 different parades held over 2 1/2 weeks.

Across from the museum was the Spanish Plaza built to commemorate 30 years of Spanish rule. Cordoba, Spain is their sister city.

We turned westward then, back to I-10, towards home.  The sun had come out briefly but we are back to dense cloud cover.  We found a restaurant called Dempsey's in Baton Rouge for our traditional shrimp Poor Boy (Poboy) sandwiches. These were great and I enjoyed some crab corn soup as well.

Greg drove for another few hours and we stopped for the night at the Atchafalaya Welcome Center near Breaux Bridge, LA.  A little noisy, as it is close to I-10, but, hey that's what earplugs are for!

Finally cooling down after reaching 80 today and the rain seems to have moved east. Tomorrow we will head home, about another 6-7 hours.

Alabama/Mobile

Sunday, November 1

Sweet Home Alabama

Greg rises early and manages to get a small fire going – how, with wet wood I’ll never know!  We walk a bit and then have oatmeal and bananas for breakfast.

We thought of staying here longer, but then the rain begins again, so we decide to move on.  We talk with the camp host as to best route and his directions are great – at every stop sign take a left till you get to route 78, then go right.  My kind of directions!   No phone or internet out here in the boonies!

On the way out we see a sign for the Shoal Creek Missionary Church, which was mentioned in the park information, so detour down a skinny, leaf-lined dirt road for about a mile to this hand-hewn log church, built between 1885-1890. Only used occasionally now - a sign advertised a hymn sing on Labor day.

Lock? on door

 Simple but hallowed-feeling.  Greg notices a small nearby graveyard and we walk through it.  Most of the graves are marked only with a rough natural stone at the head and foot. No identification.

  This one had identification, probably from a Civil War organization, since it belongs to a man who served in the Confederate army.

The few that had a date were from late 1800’s or very early 1900’s.  

The Trek is running fine and we are definitely off the interstates.  Winding through rural Alabama, we pass farms and pastures with cattle, horses and goats interspersed with fields of cotton, some glowing white and some already picked and packed in huge bales.

  Tiny towns with old general stores, occasional areas of kudzu, large chicken farms, and houses ranging from shacks to trailer homes to neat clapboards to large beautiful brick homes.   An occasional confederate flag or coondog.

The Trek turns 100,000 miles near the tiny town of Cottage Grove. It had 12,000 miles when we bought it from a couple in Florida.

Next stop, Jim ‘n’ Nick’s in Prattville for lunch and a sampling of Alabama barbque. A father-son team who used to run a dry cleaning business, they now have several restaurants in the area. We have heard about Alabama's "famous" white bbq sauce but are told here that it is generally used for chicken or turkey.

 We start with pulled pork nachos, recommended by our server.  Then I have southern fried chicken with white bbq sauce, while Greg goes for a brisket sandwich.  The nachos are good.  The white bbq sauce too spicy for my taste, and we agree that the brisket is good but tastes more like it was slow cooked in a crock-pot rather than a pit.  Don't want to be an obnoxious Texan, but they really don't know bbq.

Our RV Parky app tells us about a casino down the road, Wind Creek, run by the Creek Indians.  The review says that is “RV friendly”, so we decide to pay them a visit and spend the night there.  Still raining lightly.  We go inside for a bit and it is fairly small with just lots of slots.  Greg leaves Beth at the penny slots, where she burns through her allotted monies quickly :( and then they find a nice  quiet spot far out in the spacious parking lot. 

The security folks pass by and wave.  We are still full from lunch, so just have fruit for dinner, and then catch up on reading, blogging and such.  I finished The Midwife's Revolt which is about a friend and neighbor of Abigail Adams who is a midwife (and revolutionary) during the Revolution.

 Warm evening and we open windows when the rain stops (optimistically using "stops" instead of "pauses").  We are about an hour from Mobile, where we plan to spend some time tomorrow.

Oct 31, 2015 Alabama

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween from Alabama

45 degrees this morning.

After a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts,  we drove through nearby Chicamaugua National Military Park.   The Civil War battlefield was dotted with canons, wooden fences, and quite a few browsing deer.

We are heading to Little River Falls Nature Preserve which is farther still down Lookout Mountain.  Cloudy but dry, we stop at DeSoto State Park for a map and some information, then head to Little River Falls where we park and walk a bit.

Nice falls.  This area is where the Cherokees crossed the Little River on their Trail of Tears westward march to Oklahoma.

The Little River creates a 550’ canyon, one of the largest east of the Mississippi and Rim Trail Parkway has been created to travel alongside, with multiple scenic pull-outs.  We stop at most of them, along with a few other vehicles.

Mushroom rock, in the center of the Rim Trail Road

From here we are headed further south to Talladega National Forest and a campground there called Coleman Lake.  No one would ever accidentally stumble across this place, as it is quite remote!  But we eventually find it and find a beautiful campsite, lightly populated, with electricity, water and hot showers – all for a $10 a night.  Bingo! 

The camp hosts stop by – wonderful friendly local folks who fill us in on a few items, like the weather siren that will sound in case of dangerous weather (not expected).  We collect wood and Greg chops and splits it.  After showers, we take the walk around the lake, about 2 miles. The lake is placid, with a small beach and picnic area, no doubt popular in Summer, but deserted today.

Greg gets the fire going and we wait a while till there are good coals to toss in some foil-wrapped potatoes. Some of the wood we gathered puts off a green flame...will have to research to find out what this means, as we haven't seen it before.  We mess with some sparklers in the fire, looking for but not finding interesting photo ops.

Dinner is pulled-pork stuffed potatoes and is quite good! We sit and enjoy the fire till about 8:00 when it begins to rain.  Glad we had the whole day to enjoy outdoors!  We break out the Cribbage board for a bit before reading and saying good-night.

Friday, October 30

Smokies to Chattanooga

Woke early to  cool 39 degrees, but warm sunshine!

We decided to drive a part of the Cades Cove Loop, which yesterday was bumper to bumper, then take a little used  12-mile dirt road over Rich Mountain.  (The ranger said we shouldn’t have a problem.)

The loop was busy but not crazy.  Lots of low morning clouds reinforced why these mountains are called the Smokies. 

Saw a few deer and a flock of turkeys before we reached the turnoff.

The sign for Rich Mt. Road warned that it was a primitive, undeveloped  dirt road and indeed it was.  Also, thankfully, one-way! The narrow, leaf-paved road began to climb through colorful trees.  Much more color here than down in the park.

About half way up the mountain there was a break in the trees and a view of the valley below filled with soft billowy clouds.  A wow moment!

  Most of the trees on this route were shades of yellow, orange and gold, with a few red and occasional evergreen. With the warm, bright morning sun,  at times it was like driving through a stained glass forest! A wow ride. We stopped several times to look around and take photos, and we didn't see another soul the whole ride.

 Eventually back to asphalt, we turned south again toward Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.

We finished listening to Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson, about two divers who discover and seek to identify a sunken WWII German U-boat about 65 miles off the New Jersey coast. Interesting!

We  follow our directions through part of Chattanooga and up Lookout Mountain, where we arrive at the entrance to Ruby Falls.  Ruby Falls is a 145’ underground  waterfalls that is located 1120 feet below Lookout Mountain.  We first took an elevator down 260',  and then walked about a half mile through limestone tunnels to the waterfalls. 

We stopped to watch a couple of videos and listen to our tour guide, Tommy Carlson.  Passed some interesting formations – stalagtites, stalagmites, flows, curtains, columns, etc.   Though there was only one formation we were invited to touch, many people in our group and throughout the years have touched (and killed) formations.  Still, it was an interesting walk. 

The cave where the falls is located is dark when we arrive, then dramatically lighted.  Quite beautiful! 

The cave is rather small so it is impossible to capture the entire falls on one photo, even with a wide angle.  We retraced our steps and headed up some stairs to a view of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River.

Next on the agenda is Rock City, Georgia, just a few miles away.  Anyone who has traveled within several hundred miles of Chattanooga has no doubt seen the signs, often painted on the roofs of barns, saying See Rock City.   A successful advertising campaign! This is also on Lookout Mountain which is a very large, long mountain extending well into Georgia.

We started with lunch in their parking lot (thanks, Mom, for the Lebanon Bologna).  Today is partly cloudy but dry.  We follow a designated trail through hundreds of huge and interesting boulders,  including grottos, narrow passageways (Fat Man's Squeeze), swinging bridges, Lover’s Leap (a Cherokee legend of star-crossed lovers) lookouts, a herd of fallow deer and the interesting Fairyland display with scenes from familiar fairy tales in individual caves and caverns. 

Seven states visible from here...

Note the coral ceiling

Also, cafes and gift shops… rather too commercialized for our taste, it was still an interesting walk and was no doubt an amazing discovery back when it was natural.

From here we drove about 15 miles to Oglethorpe Walmart, which had good reviews as being quiet and away from the city.  Rotissarie chicken and potatoe salad for dinner and made plans for tomorrow.