The Nomadic Life

About 20 miles from Times Beach (where contaminated soil destroyed a town) is the Weldon Spring Site.  In 1941 the Army, under a state of emergency, acquired 17,232 acres of land here for the production of explosives to use in world War II.  576 citizens were given 45 days to move out of their homes so they could flatten the land and build a TNT production plant.  In 1957 the land was converted to a uranium processing plant for use in the Atom bomb. Then in 1967 the Army decided to use the plant for production of “Agent Orange” for the Vietnam War.


Weldon Spring Disposal Cell





Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center


There is an interpretive center here that does an amazing job of explaining exactly what happened over the years since they forced those people out of their homes for all this.  They say that the amount of radiation coming from this pile is less than what you would receive standing in your own back yard.  Completely safe.  We did walk to the top of the pile, nice view up there.

View from top of the Disposal Cell



Main Street at St. Charles



Next we went to visit the historic town of St. Charles, first Missouri state capitol state historic site.  This is a popular tourist destination.  The old main street goes on for several blocks and is filled with nice shops, restaurants and other historic attractions, many housed in original 18th and 19th century buildings. 

Louis & Clark and their dog, Seaman.

where we are tonite



Inside the museum





St. Louis Gateway to the West





The Metro Lite Rail





Great Hall at Union Station


 We got off the Metro at Union Station and explored that a while.  It is a National Historic Landmark of “unsurpassed beauty and elegance”.  First opened in 1894 it was the largest and busiest passenger rail terminal in the world.


For my Smashed Penny Collection



North another 80 miles today.  Minnesota keeps getting closer and closer.  We’re in Festus, Missouri, tonight.  On the way here we stopped at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.  It is small historic community on the Mississippi River.  We followed the signs to the visitor information center, it took us to the old down town area…oops… not a good idea for a motorhome, with it’s narrow streets, and we couldn’t fit in their small parking lot.  We were lucky enough to find a place to park on a side street.  I’m glad we don’t have a 40′ coach!  We walked around the old main street and looked at some of the old buildings, older than anything in Hutchinson, that’s for sure.  Most were now antique shops or restaurants.  Lots of restaurants.  Someone recommended a place called Stella & Me.  The owner has turned her private home into a small restaurant.  The food was excellent, and not overpriced.


Bolduc House



Low Bridge!

We got back to the RV and checked the map as to how to get out of town.  Can’t go back the way we came in because that was a one way street.  We figured we could go around the block and head up the next street over, so off we go.  We go around the 2nd corner and..oops!  low bridge!  We need 11.5′ clearance and there was only 9′ here.  We can’t back up with the toad (car in tow) in the back, but we managed to get turned around.  It involved some driving on the grass and being scraped by low branches and almost dropping the car into a drainage ditch, but we made it!

Covered Bridge

We’re still in Cape Girardeau, MO.  It has been wet and cold, but the forecast is looking up.

Today, after lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant, we drove outside of town to visit the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site.  There is a nice old covered bridge there as well as an old mill and some other old buildings.  The buildings were all locked up and won’t open until April, but we were able to walk thru the bridge and take some pictures.



birds





Painted Sea Wall





Trail of Tears



Lady Luck Casino

North we go, another 30 miles.  This time we are in Caruthersville, Missouri, a small town on the Mississippi River.  There is a small casino here and we had planned to stay in their RV park, but when we got there we found their park was closed because they are in the middle of building a new sea wall to protect the casino from the river and the construction equipment is in the way.  So..we’re dry camping in the back of their parking lot.  Will only be one night here, as we don’t get any TV signal and, well, we want that.  The building in the picture is actually the restaurant and administration, the actual casino is in an old river boat on the river behind this building.

I put one dollar in a 1 cent slot machine and it was gone in 60 seconds.

Roundhouse Restaurant

Lighthouse Water Tower

Goodbye Memphis.  There are more things to see and do in Memphis, but maybe next year.  This morning we headed 30 miles north to a small town named Blytheville.  We chose this town because it has an RV park that is in the Passport America program and we can stay here for half price.

We need to slow down or we’re going to be in the northern winter cold.  The high here was 51 and it’s cloudy and windy.  Hopefully the next few days will improve.  We did drive by a few farm fields that were flooded.   But we’re not worried about the spring floods here just yet.

We had to be out of the RV park by 11am so we moved it to a Walmart parking lot and took the car back into the city, returning to Beale Street.  There is a dry goods shop there that we were told was a “must see”.  We saw it, but were a little disappointed in it.  This time we had our lunch at Blues City Cafe, which is across the street from B. B. King’s restaurant.

Peabody Place



A few blocks up the street is the historic Peabody Hotel.  Attached to the hotel is Peabody Place, which is a shopping mall.  So sad, nearly all the shops inside are out of business.  We saw only one clothing store inside, that’s it, and the second level was roped off so we couldn’t even walk it.

Ducks entering the fountain

In the fountain for 6 hours



View from the top of the Peabody



Where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed.



Sun Studio

Time to move on.  North to Memphis.  It was only about 30 miles, but it was time for for a change.  One of the first things we saw when we got into Memphis was Sun Studio, the studio that launched Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, B. B. King, and many more.

Beale Street

Silky O’Sullivan’s



B. B. King’s Restaurant and Blues Club





B. B. King





Elvis Presley





We are still in Tunica, staying another few more days.  It’s nice here and we’re not ready to go to Minnesota yet.

We haven’t been doing much the last few days.  It rained some, and it’s been cold. 

The river is rising.  We returned to the Mississippi River Museum to see how much the water level has changed since a few days ago.  We could tell it was up a few feet.  The road to the museum is very close to being under water.  We could only walk a portion of the nature trail there as it was closed for being under water.  The tour boat was not giving tours today, but we watched for a while as a new driver was being trained.  He was practicing launching and docking over and over again.

After that we went to another casino and walked around inside.  I lost $1 in about 20 seconds in a 1 cent slot machine.  Maybe next time.

We have decided to stay in this area for another two days. 
This morning we went in to town for breakfast at a restaurant we had heard has high ratings, The historic Blue & White Restaurant.  We like to check out the local places when we travel.  Originally this was a Pure Oil gas station built in 1937.  Sorry, no picture.


Downtown Tunica Park

 After that we drove around the old downtown area of Tunica.  They had put a nice two-blocks long park in the center of the business area, with a military memorial and a blues marker.  those white blooming trees in the picture are pear trees.  The Mississippi Blues Trail begins on Highway 61 (The great Mississippi River Road).  The blues trail has markers honoring people and places.  We are only 28 miles from Graceland but we won’t be going to visit Elvis as we saw him last year.

One thing we have been aware of the whole time we have been in the state of Mississippi is that they are very very bad at marking street names.  So many times we don’t even know what street we are driving on and have missed turns because of the lack of signs or signs so small and poorly placed.   We just figured it was because this is a very poor state and they probably don’t have the budget for it.  But apparently they do have enough in their budget for a squirrel crossing sign.  It just struck me funny.


How high will the gas prices go??

As I said before, there are 9 casinos along the river here.  We went into another one today just to have a look around.  I did put $1 in a 1-cent machine and it vanished in 30 seconds.   Ok, maybe I didn’t give it a fair chance, so I put a $5 into a nickle machine and it vanished in about 15 seconds.  I just know the big win is just around the corner!  ya right.

After our little outing this morning we returned to the RV park just in time for the rain to begin.  It is forecast 2-3 inches and thunderstorms.  fun fun

That would be a very big tractor!

Can you see all the jet trails?





Watching a barge go upstream

The Miss. River is a major source of transportation for barge traffic.  We must have seen a hundred barges since we left the Gulf of Mexico area.  While we were at the museum we did see one barge make its way slowly up stream.

For any relatives reading this….We received a phone call from Bernie’s brother.  His wife, Ruth, finally got her kidney transplant yesterday afternoon.  She’s doing ok, will know more in the next few days.

Now back to the blog:  No pictures today.  We left the park we were in and drove north to Tunica, Mississippi.  There are about nine casinos along the Mississippi River here.  We are staying in one of the casino RV parks for dirt cheap!!  Tomorrow we will do some exploring and check out the casinos.

There are flood advisories out for this area.  We will keep an eye on the weather reports, but we feel pretty safe where we are.  There is a really big levee here too.

Purple Fields

We will be taking the Mississippi Great River Road  Scenic Byway from where we are now all the way to Minnesota for the rest of our trip. 

Tonight we are in Greenville, Mississippi.  On the way up here we noticed several farmer’s fields filled with purple.  It was beautiful, but in reality it is a weed.  It is one of the first signs of spring.

Another sign of spring for us is to see motorcycles.  Today we were passed by a heard of bikers. 

We stopped at a little town of Leland, MS, for lunch and just happened to park by a Jim Henson, (the creator of Kirmit the Frog and the Muppets) small museum so we had to go inside and check it out. it was free.  Jim Henson was born in Leland and lived there until he was 12 years old.  It was a fun and informative little stop.

The River Road Queen

It was a windy night and a bit of rain, but nothing serious.  It’s still windy this morning so we decided to stay put for one more day.  After a while the clouds went away and the sun came out.  There are five casinos in Vicksburg and we decided to do a little casino hopping just for something to do.  We had lunch at one casino and just looked around the other ones.  We’re not big gamblers and only gambled away $2.  We took a few pictures and went back to the RV to watch TV.

Alligator!

This barge was parked near one of the casinos.

Heavy Metal Band

Ugh… 83 degrees and windy, I think a storm is brewing.  It may be a bumpy night.

Old Court House (1858-1860)

We hung around the RV park today and visited with some of our fellow RVers.  Then we decided to pop in to town and see the Old Court House Museum.  There were two floors of pieces of history to see as well as the old courtroom.  Much of it was Civil War artifacts and lots of other antiques.  Then back to the RV and try to keep cool.

Natchez Trace Parkway again

We left Natchez and started driving up the Natchez Trace Parkway.  There was about 50 miles of it that we had not completed last month.  We won’t take it all the way north this time as it will take us too far east.

Sunken Trace

Catfish Sculpture

Folk Art Structure

We drove out to see Margaret’s Grocery.  Margaret’s husband promised her years ago, “If you marry me, I’ll turn your store into a palace.”  It was listed as an attraction in the visitor’s guide.  I think it has seen better days, as it was closed and falling apart.  Interesting anyway.

As we were driving we passed this little road side stand and stopped for a snack and a picture.



The Vine That Ate the South





Pretty Flowers



Camellia

Tiffany



Pig Out Inn BBQ where we ate lunch today.

 

Kinda small for a duplex in my opinion.

Art House?  There was no sign of it being a shop.

 

Natchez Under The Hill–what remains of where the gaming halls and dens of vice where the lawless villainy gathered, as well as bustling wharves, cluttered warehouses, shops and boisterous saloons used to be in early 1900’s. “The Most Notorious Spot on the Mississippi River”



Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America.  This mansion was designed in 1859 for wealthy cotton planter Haller Nutt.  A great octagonal rotunda is open to the entire 6 stories.  When the civil war began in 1861 the craftsmen dropped their tools and fled North.  The basement level was finished as living quarters, but the rest of the inside of the mansion remains unfinished.

Floor plan of Longwood

Unfinished rotunda looking up to the top.

Melrose

Inside Melrose

Gas is going up!

Barge going under the Mississippi River Bridge.

http://www.gopetfriendly.com/

 This morning we noticed an RV parked near us that had decals and advertising all over it.  It had a web address http://www.gopetfriendly.com/ on it.  So I looked into it.  They are a couple and their two dogs who are traveling around the country and blogging their experiences, noting pet friendly restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, etc. and giving dog training tips.  We were unable to talk to them but the web site is interesting for anyone who travels with pets.

Mississippi River Bridge

The RV Park by the Bridge

Hurricane Evacuation Route