Winter Travels, Mississippi Snow Day

We were treated to a special occasion, a snow day in Mississippi!

 Early morning visitors.

 

 Time for a drive out.

 This guy was in the highway median - bucket hat, pop can eyes, juice bottle lid nose, wiper blade smile. Cute!

We came upon  some farm families having a lot of fun in a field, pulled in the drive, and enjoyed watching their rare opportunity to play in the snow. Wow, they were going fast around the corners...scared me to watch. One guy lost his grip, went rolling and sliding across the snow but got up laughing and hopped on for another spin. Hopefully no one got hurt.

 Good ol' yella dog, taking it all in.

 A check off my bucket list - seeing a Cardinal in the snow! 

They came in bunches the day it snowed and continued to come, a few at a time, after it warmed up. We bought food and continued to feed them until we left. I saw three kinds of woodpeckers, eastern blue jays, doves, red winged black birds, various finches and sparrows, even a wren or two. And there were no cats around to stalk them. (Bad Joe!) The squirrels shared the food ......

.... but I was not expecting to see a possum in broad daylight! Aakkkk!

He came back several days later, in the evening, and Elle was outside. She took off after it, hair all on end. I was so afraid we were going to have a vet bill. It was snarling and NOT backing down. George managed to get Elle and bring her inside...whew! It waddled off into the trees and I didn't see it again and that did not disappoint me one little bit.

 Just because I thought it was pretty.

 So strange to see the cotton fields covered in a different white....

A beautiful replica of an antebellum home across the river from where we stayed.

Unfortunately, there were no tours that day...closed because of the snow.

So, on to the sawmill where George did a little prep work, getting some equipment ready.

A scenic day, for sure.

Winter Travel, Mississippi Part One

Oh, so beautiful to wake up to sunshine and the Mississippi River, complete with a barge, out my front window!

So began a couple of days with our dear friends in Natchez. Unfortunately, I was so busy enjoying the time together I forgot to take pictures with them.......

Thanks for the "warm" welcome, Bennie and Bobbye!
(Check out that deer above the mantle.)

I just had to take a quick drive past the Turning Angel at the Natchez City Cemetery;

George humored me : )

Here's a little info on the story behind the angel. Read the other two entries and you will have a clue as to why this cemetery nut can hardly stay away.
Some day I would like to take an official tour.

And yes, Jake, the Mississippi River IS wide!

Work awaits, so we had to move on to Macon, MS. George got up the first morning after we had gotten situated in a campground and started out the door thinking, "Well, I won't be seeing any barges this morning." He looked up and this is what he saw.

We had situated ourselves at a campground that is a part of the Tenn-Tom waterway, the Pickensville, AL campground, and were able to see the boats up close and personal as they made use of the opportunities provided. There were the barges, with names like My Pelican, Chippewa, Terah Huckabee, and my favorite, Crimson White. It was thrilling to me to hear that low rumble during the night. I would get up and watch the spotlights sweep the shores, boat all lit up with various colored running lights......the thoughts that went through my head.....

And, there were other boats to watch -

pleasure boats,

fishing boats,

and the best one, the boss's boat!

Mr. Gaunt, in charge of purchasing at the the sawmill, brought his 1948 Century wood boat out to the campground just so he could take us for a ride. His son and family were camping out there for the weekend so he and his wife came on Sunday afternoon and brought the boat. What a beauty. Mr. Gaunt and his (then) eleven year old grandson completely restored it. After the boat ride we were invited to join the family for BBQ beef sandwiches, fresh catfish, fried dill pickles (yum!), and brownies around the campfire.

Backing up a bit, the young man by the boat is Mr. Gaunt's son, John. When introduced to us, here's the conversation that followed:

John       "Mr. George, my Daddy thinks you just might be a 

                Christian."

George  "Well, I try."

John       "Well now, that's not going to do you any good at all!

Me          "It's all about grace, isn't it?"

John       "Yes mam, Miss Jan. It is all about grace!"

Smiles all around and from that point we knew we were with family.

Around the fire that evening we learned that the elder Mr. and Mrs. Gaunt had been missionaries in northern Brazil when their two boys were little. He was a "jungle pilot" for 5 1/2 years, flying other missionaries and supplies into the regions where they were serving. They were stationed far enough into the jungle that they had to order all their own supplies six months in advance, including fuel for the plane. Yikes! Everything was delivered by riverboat. They returned to the States when her father passed away and her mother needed their help.

Needless to say, we had a most blessed evening around the campfire!

Isn't our God great?

Winter Travels

After a time of work in the Northwest and the arrival of grand number eighteen, Elizabeth Joy, we are on the road again. I looked forward to some time in the South, thinking of warmer weather and favorable travel conditions in that part of the country in February. Well, live and learn.

Backing up, though, we left home on January 23rd and traveled to Arcata, CA, for a job where we enjoyed several days of balmy coastal weather, so refreshing after so much cold rain.

 Beach walk

 Trinidad, a favorite place to stop when we are in the area.

 Moving on, slowly, in the Bay Area traffic, on our way to Mom's

 Sunrise in Ripon

Not much I can say about the stop at Mom's other than dementia is ugly but love is beautiful. 

Thank you, Larry, Danny and Ann, for loving Mom.

 Very frosty (inside) morning in Winslow, AZ

 Loved seeing the snow on these red rock formations

 Almost to Albuquerque

 And the fun begins....

 Slush in Fort Worth

 Arlington. Ice under the bridges. Time to hit the brakes and spin off the road.

 Dallas. The road is a sheet of ice and at a standstill. Looked at this for two hours.

 Had to feel sorry for this guy. Well, not really. 

(Read the license plate)

 Good morning, fellow stopped travelers.

 More neighbors

 Even the birds sought refuge :)

Poor iced up motor home. That stuff was everywhere! 

Heard chunks falling off for miles as it warmed up.

Cleaning enough to see out. What a mess.

More of the same when we got back on the road around noon. 

Had to appreciated this sense of humor.

Took an hour to go the first ten miles but the road gradually got better, and we were able to get to our first planned stop! 

Next post- Mississippi : )