March 3, 2022 – March 25, 2022
Early March saw us continuing our trek in the south, and slowly making our way further east. On March 2nd, we managed to make it to Jackson Mississippi. I was napping on the way in – our drive over from Hot Springs AK was 3 or 4 hours, and it was a good time to take a bit of a nap! Mona commented on the fact that the city felt a bit poor – though perhaps that was a function of the roads we were on. We stayed at a place called LeFluers Bluff State Park which was pretty much right in the city. It was a nice place, and right in town, where we even managed to see a few baby gators! We also checked out a civil rights museum, as this is definitely a place with lots of civil rights history.
On Thursday (March 3rd), we went to a “house” referred to as the Auburn House, which is really more of a mansion in Natchez that was owned by a wealthy doctor with many hundreds of slaves. We got a great tour of the house from an older man that clearly had put some work into researching the house and the people of the time. They had a significant number of items in the house from many years ago as well – furniture, paintings, etc. It was crystal clear that it was a time of the “haves” and the “have nots”. There was essentially nothing remaining from the hundreds of blacks that brought so much wealth to people like this mansion owner. But for the wealthy, furniture and other household items still exist, not to mention detailed accounts of their history. After the tour, we didn’t even have to move. We had arranged to stay in their small parking lot, and when the place cleared out after the tour, it was almost like having the place to ourselves. We went for a run, and enjoyed a quiet night – not in the mansion, but next to one! A mansion like this, and touring it, is definitely worth while. It’s a glimpse into what life would have been like, and… not that many years ago in the grand scheme of things.
We continued our stay in Mississippi on Friday and made our way around Natchez – we stayed out at a campground right next to the Mississippi river on the Louisiana side, which gave us a real chance to see the river and just have a bit of time. I mustered up enough energy to run across the bridge over the Mississippi, letting me run “across states” in a pretty remarkable setting. I had the side of the bridge to myself, as there was no foot traffic. We also toured a place in town where slaves were once auctioned away to the highest bidder…. With a muffler shop now right across the street. We certainly experienced a blend of old history that saw lots of pain and suffering. And then modern day life where mufflers have to be changed and autos need to be repaired. Life through the generations keeps on chugging. Sadly, in many cases it’s a step forward and another step backward. As we’re doing this part of our trek, the war in the Ukraine continues to rage, and for reasons that seem marginal at best. The struggles continue.
It was time to head to Lousianna, and our next day found us making our way to Baton Rouge. It was a fairly short drive, and we were lucky enough to find a small town along the way with a farmers market and a nice restaurant to enjoy. A person on the street in Natchez told us we should check out the town, and sure enough, it turned out to be a nice side event. We’ve gotten some good ideas from people as we travel regarding things to see, where to go, what they like, etc. Being friendly with people has helped, and in general, most of the people we’ve engaged with have been welcoming and friendly. One random note – for this time of year, and in areas that can no doubt be quite buggy at times, we have experienced very few bugs! This makes it nice when your outdoors quite a bit of the time. The odds of this continuing are, I suspect, not too good!
Baton Rouge was fairly busy, and we’d decided to stay in a casino parking lot one night to make finding a place to stay easy. We found our way to the river casino, and got our bikes out to go check out the city. We rode to the new capital building (a “mini” version of the Empire State Building is what it reminded us of), and to the old capital building and surrounding area. As always, checking out an area on bike is a great way to see things you just don’t see from a car. When it was getting close to dark, we ventured back to the casino, and went in to see just what a river casino was like. I was expecting windows overlooking the river with some fancy looking furniture and perhaps some music to add to the ambiance. Nope. It was like walking in a building with lines of slot machines and a few tables with people playing poker that probably should not have been giving their money away to the house. We stayed long enough for Mona to win $18 from a blackjack machine, and called it a night. I expect to hear about that $18 for many months. 🙂 Staying in a parking like this is relatively easy for us, with our 200 amp hours of batter, fresh water tank, and grey water tank. We sometimes get some noise, but the van is remarkably quiet when the doors and windows are closed. And, if it’s warm and we have the fans running, that keeps outside noise to a minimum as well. All in all, we can stay pretty comfortable in our small space! It’s tight and requires a bit of constant organization, but in ways that’s a plus – there’s less temptation to just leave things lay and deal with them later, as things quickly get out of control if you do that!
After Baton Rouge, it was time to head to New Orleans. We had originally planned on going to Madi Gras in New Orleans, but our late start in January led us to getting there about a week after it was over. As it turned out, that was likely for the best. With the intense crowds (post Covid pandemic) and Covid still winding down, the idea of being in throngs of people yelling and carrying on – would likely not have been our cup of tea. And speaking of the pandemic, we still have to deal with it a bit by way of wearing masks and having people check our vaccination cards, but… it certainly feels like even that is starting to wind down. There will no doubt be new strains and new outbreaks, but for now at least, there’s a sense of getting back to a bit more normalcy as compared to 2020 and 2021.
We knew we wanted to look around the city (Bourbon Street, the street cars, etc.), and we also knew that it was a town known for its restaurants. What turned out to be a treat for us was where we stayed as well – We had found a bed and breakfast close to downtown that looked like it would have great access to the city, but also the charm of an old New Orleans mansion that would be another nice break from being in the van. It turned out to be a very interesting place to stay – one of the few B&B’s run by a black man and his wife. He was nice enough to tell us about some of his history in the town, and his involvment in the civil rights movement – which made the history of the town, and the civil rights era, seem that much more real. We went to Bourbon Street one day, and honestly we were a bit disappointed – perhaps it was partly because the big party of Madi Gras was just over, but the Street and all that goes with it had a bit of a “tired and old” feeling to it without much of the charm and energy one would have hoped for. That said, we did find some excellent restaurants where we celebrated Mona’s birthday on multiple occasions! 🙂 We had southern food, but also had other things that were very good as well. The street cars made it easy to get around, and the weather was pleasant for us (compared to some of the cold temps of weeks not too far past). It was also nice to have a short break from driving the van in a big city, and we had the mansion largely to ourselves, with most of the crowds gone with the end of Madi gras.
After staying in New Orleans about 3 days, it was time to make our way to Biloxi, and on our way there we did go to one more plantation (Whitney) that was presented from a slaves perspective. As you would expect, the lives of slaves were rough to say the least. Most dogs today are treated much better today than slaves of the past, and much could be written about slavery, but I’ll leave it at that.
Biloxi is a bit of a blur to me. We didn’t stay long, and had to catch up with some of our everyday tasks as well. After leaving Biloxi we fairly quickly made our way over to Mobile Alabama, where we ended up spending some time in the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach area.
Alabama was nice, and for at least the part we were in, it wasn’t really what we expected. The sea shore was nice (endless sand), and the campgroud we stayed in was well kept and… huge! Certainly the biggest campground I have ever stayed in with hundreds (and hundreds) of camp sites, a pool, laundry, etc., etc. That said, Alabama was busy! Perhaps it was spring break, but our time there involved lots of traffic, very busy restaurants, etc. We had one rainy day were we ended up going to a yoga class, and also had good enough weather to ride our bikes on the many bike trails that are in that area (all paved and geared to people just cruising around, as opposed to off-road / mountain bike type trails). We enjoyed our time in Gulf Shores, and would potentially even consider going back and spending a bit more time there. However, the crowds are a detractor, and the options to do various water spots seemed somewhat limited. If you’re looking for a place to lay in the sun that’s not Florida, Alabama was actually surprisingly nice for that!
From the Mobile area it was time to head to Montgomery. As luck would have it, we found a very nice spot on some BLM land to camp on – great views, good internet, very secluded, and we had it all to ourselves. After dealing with some intense crowds down in the Mobile area, it was a welcome change of pace to have a remote place all to ourselves. We did a little biking, but really didn’t have a lot of time to hang out and do more. We did manage to make our way over to Selma, Alabama to cross the bridge that made civil rights history. The history is there, but unfortunately the town has largely been left behind when it comes to economic prosperity and taking steps forward. It felt a bit like going back in time, with the town going through a slow motion death for the sins committed by it’s ancestors… It was good to walk across the bridge and experience just what that much have been like all those years ago, but beyond that, you drive away with a bit of melancholy.
At this point, it was time for us to make our way up to Atlanta for a flight to NYC on Sunday, March 20th. Atlanta was hopping! Driving around in the van was not easy, but we did manage to go see the Jimmy Carter memorial library on Saturday, and got some chores (ie., laundry) done prior to our flight the next day. Atlanta is a big place – we barely scratched the surface in terms of really looking around, but in the van, it was a bit difficult to get around. We were also a bit “distracted” both by having covered a lot of ground in March, and our upcoming Trip to NYC.
We had to set our alarms for an early departure on Sunday – something we’re not used to! Morning came early, but the shuttle was ready for us, and we made it to the Atlanta airport with plenty of time to spare. Ramona managed to get us upgraded to first class, which is always a nice way to fly (especially for those of us with long legs!). We made it to New York without problems, but did bump into a very slow ride from La Guardia to our hotel in mid-town. It was the running of the New York half marathon, and many streets were closed. It took us several hours to make it to our hotel, in what would normally be a 40 minute ride (or less)! Next time we may end up choosing public transportation, but… it was all good.
We made it to the hotel and had dinner with Grant, Vivianna, and Heidi. We also went to a show starring Sona Jobarteh – she was a singer from Africa, and along with her band, put on a good show. It was a fairly small venue, which made it nice… As with Atlanta, New York was busy! There wasn’t much sign of Covid remaining. We stayed in a Residence Inn that we really enjoyed. It was a great location, with a subway stop just yards away, lots of nearby restaurants, and an easy walk to Times Square.
We managed to do a few enjoyable things on Monday – Mona and Heidi went to the museum of modern art, and I walked around Times Square a bit and just took in the sights of New York City. Grant and Vivianna were busy with making sure all the final details were set for his surgery on Tuesday. I also managed to run the perimeter of Central Park – it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and is right at a 6 mile run, so it’s a nice length. The sidewalks were busy with pedestrians and street vendors, but it was still a very enjoyable run, with close to ideal temps. Mona ran inside the park where people more traditionally run, and she really enjoyed that. It’s very nice to have someone to do things like this with – even if we’re not right together every minute, it’s much more motivating and fun to get out together.
Tuesday came quickly – Grant was scheduled for a long surgery when factoring in preop and post op time, so we all made our way down to Wall Street to check out the sights. It was a nice outing, with the new(ish) subway apps making it easy to find our way around. Grants surgery went well, leaving all of us relieved and hopefull for a quick recovery on his part!
The next day we ventured out to Roosevelt Island to see the city from a different perspective. You can take a tram out to the island, and once reaching it, it’s a remarkably peaceful place amongst all the bustle of being right in town. We had lunch, and then went back to the hospital, which interestingly enough was right on the East river across from where we were on Roosevelt Island, where you could literally see exactly where Grant’s hospital room was. The girls went to visit Grant while I waited outside – visitation is still limited with the whole Covid situation.
We also had a chance to meet up with my cousin Karen and her husband Booker. We had a very nice dinner at a restaurant very close to Radio City Music Hall, and it was good to both meet Booker, and to spend a little time catching up with Karen after many years of not seeing one another! Karen has adapted well to living in a big city (over on the Jersey side), and keeps busy with work, church, etc. Booker has been busy as a pastor as well, and they were both in good spirits. It would be a very different place to live as compared to somewhere more rural, but people readily adapt, and Booker does have most of his family in the area, which is a nice plus.
As Grant started his road to recovery, we continued to spend some time looking around the city, and even made it to a downtown REI to pick up another duffle bag to replace one that was stolen in Portland months ago. We walked by the Empire State Building and just got some “roaming around” time in while the weather was nice. Our time in NYC ended quickly, with both of us feeling like we could have stayed another day or two to just enjoy the city. Grant was making good progress with walking and dealing with the pain of his surgery, and so we got on a plane back to Atlanta to pick up our van. We didn’t get upgraded on our flight back, but it was still a smooth, uneventful flight, which is always a good thing. The shuttle was there to pick us up, and thankfully our van was all in good order when we made it back.
