The Mississippi Trip
Day 1 - September 20th, 1999
We got up at 5:45am and picked up the pastor and our friend at 7am. We
drove up to Waco, TX, then to Corsicana, TX (Stopped at the Collin Street Bakery
<G>). We passed through Athens and Tyler, and stopped for lunch in Tyler. We ate at
Luby's Cafeteria. The food was very good. It was the first time I'd ever seen grits served
in Luby's before <G>. Then we went through Shreveport, LA. We drove all the way
across LA to Monroe, then came to the town of Vicksburg, MS. We crossed the big
Mississippi river around 5pm or so. It was the first time I had ever seen it, and was it
ever spectacular! There was a lot of sand on both sides, but there was still plenty of
water. We stopped for a bit to look around right by the river. There was a giant casino
right on the river's edge. Actually it was IN the water, but had bridges connecting it to
land. I think it was like that because gambling is illegal in MS. I am not sure of that,
but that's what I heard. (!) I guess if the building is over the water, then it's
technically not IN the state of MS. ::shrug:: I have no idea. We tried to rent a moving
van in Vicksburg, only to find they didn't have any on that town, BUT they could reserve
us one in Jackson, MS, about 40 miles down the road. We drove all the way to Jackson and
arrived about 6:30pm. We got the truck and ate dinner at Grady's restaurant.
After dinner we drove northwest to Yazoo
City, MS. Got to the house there by about 8pm. It's a big, beautiful house! It had lots of
rooms to explore, plus a basement that no one went down into because it had mold
practically covering the floor. You wouldn't believe how bad that much mold smelled like!
Phew! I'm glad no one had an asthma attack or anything. We gathered some things in the
house for moving into the truck, and then collapsed into bed. We all got to have our own
bedrooms, which was nice too!
Day 2 - September 21st, 1999
We slept in this morning and after getting McDonald's "hockey
pucks" for breakfast, we started the loading! We had Mississippi-style barbecue
sandwiches for lunch. Let me tell you, it's nothing like TX barbecue! They even put
coleslaw ON the sandwiches. It would take me a long time to get used to that ;-) It took
us all day to load the truck. We pretty much cleaned the house out, and by the time the
truck was full, it was 7:30pm or so. We debated whether or not to do an all-nighter and
drive straight home, or stop at a hotel for the night in Jackson or Monroe. The two men
decided they could drive all night, so they took off about 8:30pm. <gasp!> We drove
100 miles west back to Monroe, LA, before we couldn't stand it anymore and stopped at a
hotel. I don't know what sort of refineries or anything that they had around there, but it
stank like you wouldn't believe.....smelled like old, cooked cauliflower! I am guessing it
was sulphur or something like that. I never smelled oil that smelled that bad!
Day 3 - September 22nd, 1999
My Birthday! Got up to beautiful blue skies and pleasant temperatures.
Had another McDonald's breakfast and headed west back into TX. We got back here about
6:15pm, and went straight to the pastor's house to help him unload. Oh, I was so tired! We
stayed there until about 8:30pm, and then came home for the first time in 3 days.
It was a great trip, no one got sick or hurt, and the scenery was great! It was so much fun to see all those magnolia trees, and hear the local accents ;-) (and I think the locals enjoyed our Texas accents as well <G>)