Category: Driving

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Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Mississippi

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my trek eastward along U.S. 82 and my overnight stay in El Dorado (pronounced “el-duh-RAY-doh”) Arkansas. I also wrote about my wonderful morning visit to the historic (built in 1859) Lakeport Plantation on the Arkansas Delta.

Back on Day 3 of my April retirement road-trip I drove westward across southern Mississippi – mostly along U.S. 98 and U.S. 84. I spent the night in Natchez. This is Day 15 of my trek, and I drove eastward across north-central Mississippi – mostly along U.S. 82.

I crossed the Greenville Bridge – about 140 miles upstream (north) from my crossing westward on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. I actually drove non-stop eastward across Mississippi. There were no stops for food or gas. (I had filled-up with both in Arkansas.)

As I drove eastward away from the Mighty Mississippi and its Delta – the land got more hilly and even mini-mountainous. Elevations in the north-central part of the state exceed 200 meters (over 650 feet) above sea level. It’s a noticeable change compared to the Mississippi Delta region. It’s very scenic. Mississippi is such a beautiful state along the old U.S. highways. I especially loved seeing the several giant white crosses along my trek.

Just west of Starkville – Google Maps recommended that I leave U.S. 82 – and take Mississippi Highway 182 (former U.S. 82) right through the heart of downtown (which seemed very weird to me). But it seems like when I deviate from Google Maps – weird things happen, so I decided to allow Google to be weird on my behalf.

From Highway 182 – Google routed me onto Alternate U.S. 45 southward. Now she wanted me to completely avoid Columbus Mississippi. I went along with it. I then followed Google onto Mississippi Highway 388 eastward for 16 miles – which became State Route 86 at the Alabama State Line. That came up on me suddenly. I wasn’t expecting it, but there she was – Sweet Home Alabama.

Fun Fact: I was born in Sweet Home Alabama exactly 57 years ago as of a few hours ago of this published blog post (late on June 05TH). Happy Birthday to me !

But not so fast on Alabama, for this blog post is about my afternoon crossing Mississippi. Back to Starkville. It’s a young college town with about half of its residents under the age of 25. It’s the home of Mississippi State University (founded in 1878). Go Bulldogs ! I drove right by one of the main entrances. About 25,000 residents live within the city limits of Starkville, and over 50,000 residents live in the metro area (including the city and all of Oktibbeha County).

Mississippi is known as “The Magnolia State” – as well as “The Hospitality State”. There is so much to this state that I haven’t seen – and I want to see. As long as my family lives in North Texas – I’ll be driving through Mississippi to and from there every year. I’d like to spend more time exploring Hattiesburg and Natchez to the south – and museums along the U.S. 82 corridor to the north. And perhaps next time – I won’t bypass Columbus Mississippi. It may even be an overnight stop. I see some intriguing places there that I wish to visit.

Next #TravelThursday – Sweet Home Alabama – where the skies are so blue. Sweet Home Alabama – Lord I’m comin’ home to you ! Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Arkansas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my trek eastward along U.S. 82 across the southern part of Arkansas. It was my first such trip in this part of Arkansas (east of Texarkana) in my life.

As I wrote last week – Arkansas has a nice and well-maintained U.S. 82 that was recently modernized, repaved, and restriped.

I made it to El Dorado (from Wichita Falls Texas) on the afternoon of Day 14 – having driven 366 miles. It was my most-driven day of my 18-day retirement road-trip between South Central Florida and North Texas. I checked-in to my hotel for the night along U.S. 82 Business. (It was the original alignment of U.S. 82 when it went right through the middle of the city up until 1982. U.S. 82 now bypasses the city to the south.)

Some interesting facts about El Dorado: First of all – it’s pronounced “el-duh-RAY-doh”. I was mispronouncing it (en Español) up until the moment a fellow docent at a museum corrected me. El Dorado is a principal city in its television market (which it shares with Monroe Louisiana). I found that out by watching the news. Finally – my new favorite gas station at home and nationwide is Murphy USA, and its corporate headquarters – is in El Dorado.

It’s Day 15 of my retirement road-trip, and I’m heading out of El Dorado along U.S. 82. Before leaving “The Natural State” Arkansas – I made a final pitstop on one of the last turns you can possibly make before reaching the Mighty Mississippi River. That’s Arkansas Highway 142 in Chicot County, and it’s a narrow two-lane road that leads straight to the historic (built in 1859) Lakeport Plantation.

What a hidden treasure this house is. I got there a bit too late for the guided tour that starts on the hour, so I opted for the self-guided tour of the house. I ended-up spending well over an hour slowly touring the house (both floors) and its adjacent grounds, as one of the docents remained in the house on the ground floor near the main entrance. She was there to answer any questions that I had (and I had a few). She was also there for security purposes – to ensure that I didn’t steal anything from the historic house. That is the proper way to manage a museum. When you’re in charge of a museum – you never want to leave it unattended when it’s open for visitors.

I enjoyed a very productive conversation with both of the docents on duty at the time back at the standalone Visitor’s Center / Main Office – which also serves as a sort of museum annex to the main house. (It’s also where you pay admission to tour the house.) We talked docent-to-docents for a little while. I appreciated the time that they spent sharing and talking with me about museum operations and processes.

I headed back to U.S. 82, and I immediately crossed the Greenville Bridge; thus, leaving Arkansas and entering Mississippi. It was about 140 miles upstream (north) from my crossing westward on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge 11 days earlier.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll drive across Mississippi, navigate up and down mini-mountains and around curves, and take some back roads into Sweet Home Alabama – where I was born 57 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Astronomy Blogging Driving Food Geography Travel

Arkansas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about spending 8 days with my family in Wylie Texas and a day with another part of my family in the Wichita Falls Texas area. I got to experience the total solar eclipse in my family’s backyard. I’ll remember that event for the rest of my life. Maybe I’ll be around for a 2ND such event in 2045 when I’m 78.

I’m up to Day 14 now, and it’s time to head back towards the great state of Florida, but first I have another 1,432 miles to go over the next 5 days.

U.S. 82 would be my favored route eastward out of Wichita Falls and across North Texas, South Arkansas, North Mississippi, Central Alabama, and South Georgia.

My first stop on a gloomy and chilly Sunday morning was in Paris Texas. I visited the 65-foot-tall Eiffel Tower, as well as the adjacent Red River Valley Veterans Memorial.

I’ve actually been to the top of the real Eiffel Tower in Paris France. That was in April 1987 when I was living and working in England. Me and some coworker friends visited Paris during Easter Weekend that year.

Following lunch at Whataburger – I continued my trek eastward. I hit Texarkana Texas – and of course – Texarkana Arkansas – once I crossed over State Line Avenue. That ended my 10-day stay in Texas from Day 4 to 14 of my retirement road-trip. I’ll be back in Texas in November.

About 150,000 residents live within the Texarkana metro area, and both Texarkanas are cities that I’d like to explore further on a future road-trip – even a walking trip downtown right along the state line. (I didn’t stop on this trip.)

Fun Fact: I’ve been to 29 U.S. states during my lifetime, and Arkansas was the 29TH state – when I drove into the state from Louisiana via I-49 into Texarkana on a previous road-trip to Wichita Falls Texas in September 2016.

An observation that I quickly noticed was that Arkansas had a nicer and better maintained highway than Texas. Of course – I’m essentially comparing U.S. 82 in Texas with U.S. 82 in Arkansas. The Texas side (much of it concrete rather than asphalt) was a bit rough in sections, and much of it appeared to be untouched in decades. Meanwhile – it looked like the Arkansas side was recently modernized, repaved, and restriped. A lot of Texas roads don’t have striping – other than an abundance of red curbs and lines marking fire lanes. (All of the state’s road-striping money must go towards red paint rather than yellow and white paint.)

The drive across the far-south of Arkansas (“The Natural State”) was rather pleasant and scenic. Just before El Dorado (where I spent the night) – I passed across the future I-69 corridor.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll continue my trek into the Arkansas Delta of the Mighty Mississippi River. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Astronomy Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

North Texas

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my Thursday afternoon in downtown Marshall Texas where I visited the historic Starr Family Home, the Harrison County Historical Museum, and finally – Pazzeria By Pietro’s. After that – I checked-in to my hotel for the night. It was very difficult to find, as it was hidden deep from the main thoroughfare (U.S. 59) behind a lot of road construction in an awkward location alongside I-20 eastbound near the dead end of a frontage road.

But I eventually found it, and it would be my 4TH and final night in a row in a hotel room.

The next morning – I arrived at my destination – my family’s house in Wylie Texas. After 5 days I had driven 1,216 miles northwestward across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. I would not drive again for the next 7 days. My brother or sister-in-law did all of the driving to and from errands, stores, and restaurants. We also went to church on Sunday morning. (I wrote about that on a previous #SundayScripture.)

This is #TravelThursday – not #FamilyBusinessThursday, so everything that we did together for 8 days will stay private; however, I will write about one thing, and that’s the total solar eclipse on Monday April 08TH 2024.

Most people never experience one, as they are so rare at any given location. It was my first (and perhaps last) experience of total darkness during the daytime. It lasted for not quite 4 minutes. I wasn’t planning to look at the sun and the moon together, but my brother and sister-in-law each had special glasses to view the eclipse, so I used one of them to check it out for myself during the minutes leading-up to the big event. Once the moon completely covered the sun – we experienced darkness. It wasn’t like “Midnight darkness”, as it was more like perhaps “an hour after sunset darkness”, and then it was like “an hour before sunrise darkness”. It was like nautical twilight (the scientific term for it). My family lives right behind an elementary school, and I think all of the kids were outside experiencing it, and they were cheering loudly as darkness descended. It was quite eerie to see a few of the planets (especially bright Venus) and the stars out during this darkness. We had our family dog out, and he had no reaction to it. I think the birds flying around were confused. I may have heard some crickets chirping. No roosters though.

And then it appeared as if a bright flashlight were shining down on us from the reemergence of a tiny slither of the sun, and then it slowly got back to normal “two-in-the-afternoon daylight” after that. We had mostly cloudy skies during the event, but there was enough break in the clouds to see the sun and the moon in-between the clouds (with special glasses), and even behind the clouds (carefully – without glasses). What a spectacular event it was. I’m glad that I can now tell everyone that I’ve experienced this once-in-a-lifetime event (for me anyway). If I’m still around on August 12TH 2045 – then maybe I’ll get to see a 2ND total solar eclipse.

I spent Days 5 to 12 of my retirement road-trip with my family in Wylie Texas, and then early on Day 13 – I hit the road again to the Wichita Falls Texas area (about 155 miles away) to visit family there. My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin have lived there since the late-1960s.

There are a few things that I like about Texas. (Food comes to mind.) But my favorite thing about Texas are my family and their pets. As long as family lives in Texas – I’ll keep visiting Texas. But I wouldn’t want to live in Texas. I just love Florida !

Next #TravelThursday – It’s off to Paris. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp