Six States Six Days

 

Our last day at JAARS ended with the Scripture Celebration but earlier in the day I was able to go into Waxhaw one last time and be a tourist for a bit.  The city has an historic downtown and most of the old buildings have been transformed into antique shops or artisan shops. Unfortunately I ran out of time to explore them all. There might have to be a next time!  

South Carolina 

Before leaving the south, we wanted to try out the southern tradition of BBQ.  The Improper Pig came recommended and off we went.  With all the choices, we settled on charcuterie, a bit of everything.  It was delicious.  I guess it’s about the sauces and this place had about 6 to choose from – some vinegar based, some tomato based, and some soy based.  We bought a bottle of our favorite to take home.  

Georgia

We left first thing in the morning and headed through South Carolina into Georgia.  The first hour or so was on wiggly-waggly country roads, which led us onto the interstate. 

     
  

This is kadzoo.  It's a vine that's very invasive and covers trees, powerlines, everything.  

I don’t imagine there’s ever any good time to go through or around Atlanta.  We’d hoped to get there before rush hour, but…. It took nearly two hours to cover about 20 miles.  

By the time we got to the McKinney campground, not too far from Atlanta, we were ready to sit down. When you get to the most beautiful camping spot, all is forgiven.

Many years ago, Dave was in Cameroon with CESO and was hosted by Jerry.  When I went along in 2010, I also got to know him.  Who would have imagined that we would have a chance to see Jerry in Georgia!  He came up to the campground to join us for breakfast, and then we continued on down the road to meet his family at his home in Dallas, Georgia.  What a wonderful time of reconnecting and visiting.  And to top it off, his daughter cooked up a meal of ndole and fried plantain.  It was so delicious. 

Alabama

We continued on down the road a short distance and found Safe Haven campground in Alabama.  Now it was not anywhere as beautiful as yesterday's campground, but it was by a lake.  There was a restaurant within walking distance that came recommended by the campground hostess.  This was our chance to try some catfish!  Along with that, we had delicious shrimp, fried okra and hushpuppies. 

Sunday morning we stayed for church at the campground. The preacher was an African-American evangelist based out of Augusta and he set up under a shade tree to preach the gospel with all the enthusiasm as one can imagine.  God is good. 

Mississippi

We continued on down the road and found a campground in Roosevelt State Park.  The site we had booked was not very suitable.  In fact, the entire park had very narrow roadways and sites with the ground sloping away very quickly.  Since the campground was half empty, we decided to choose another spot, and found one that was manageable, right along the lakeshore.  It was a very peaceful evening.  

The next morning, we realized we’d been invaded by tiny ants and we packed up quickly and left. We’d been driving past the signs for Waffle House in every second town and so thought this would be the day to try them out for breakfast.  

We stopped in Vicksburg, right on the shores of the Mississippi River.   Vicksburg was an important city in the Civil War.  But what interested us more was its importance and relationship to the Mississippi River.  We toured the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and learned a lot about the efforts to manage the river for navigation and flood control.  If you ever look closely at a map of the river you’ll see it meanders all over the place, and after flooding doesn’t return to its previous beds.  Engineers have tried to straighten its path by creating cut-offs, building locks, and levees.  So many levees were breeched in 1927, causing one of the worst flood disasters in America.  The rebuilding and mitigation efforts worked and the 2011 flood wasn’t as devastating.  After the museum tour, we went to a little coffee shop for lunch. – adult lunchables!  

Vicksburg has some beautiful historic buildings and we probably could have spent another whole day there, but it was time to move on. 

Louisiana

We crossed the Mississippi River into Louisiana and drove almost clear across the whole state before stopping for the night in Shreveport.  It was a good night for a KOA campground, complete with a swimming pool which we took advantage of even before we cooked up supper.  It’s definitely still summer around here.

We left early in the morning, and decided to try out another American institution, the Cracker Barrel.  It’s part gift shop and part restaurant.  We had a very filling breakfast, and didn’t even realize until supper that we’d somehow missed out on lunch.

Texas

After breakfast we were on our way, continuing along the I 20 to Dallas.  This was our goal.  We had hurried our way across the southern states for Dave to join his colleagues in meetings that were already in session.

We arrived at the SIL International Centre without having to battle the rush hour traffic, although keeping up with traffic at full speed, 75 mph limit, is also very stressful.  

Once we set up at the RV Park on the Centre, Dave checked in with his mapping team colleagues and it was off to the races, as it were.  I hope to have an opportunity to do some volunteer work, hopefully in the boutique. We'll see how it all pans out.