This is not quite a nonsequitor, well maybe it is, but I’ll go with it as you will see how it fits.
It was cool and threatening when we started up in the Wal Mart Parking lot. We moved back out on to US 278/MS 6 westbound from Oxford to reach the river. At Clarksdale we worked our way over to the Great River Road, MS 1 and turned south. It you pull out a map of the region you will see that the Mississippi snakes its way south like a plate of linguini. There are many threads of water, none of them connected to the main stem. They are remainders (or is that reminders?) of where the river once was and is no longer, for the time being. Actually this paragraph is very much like the area, meandering around the subject without really reaching it. The valley floor is a wide flat plain of very fertile soil and it is mostly agricultural, we saw cotton, rice and wheat fields and I am sure other crops as well that I would have no way of recognizing at this time of year. We did not ever see the river! We saw water that was old ox bows and we saw tributary streams, but the river was always just over the next levee or meandering west as the road went east.
We were intrigued with the name Yazoo City and when we saw a sign for the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) we had to explore, in Gee 2 with the car still in tow. We turned off into the entry road fully expecting to find a visitor center parking lot that would provide a place to stop for lunch and a place turn the rig around. As we got further in we saw hunters heading off into the woods with portable tree stands on their backs. We saw plenty of turnoffs into the woods, but place to stop comfortably and certainly no place to turn. We came to an intersection, deep in the reserve, where all our choices were unpaved. I hailed a passing truck and the driver, in hunting camouflage, assured me that the road ahead had no low hanging or encroaching trees and would, as my mapping software told me, return us to MS 1. We proceeded a short distance and found a spot where we could get off the road for a lunch break, but not reverse our course. There were some trucks in the area and as we were ready to get lunch out a hunter appeared. I engaged him in conversation about hunting in the NWR and he explained that bow hunting only was permitted and only in certain areas. He said that hunting was allowed to the right of the entry trail (from his perspective) and to the left was a closed area. All the really large deer stay in the protected area and don’t venture into the hunting area during the season, that is why they are large, they are, for deer, intelligent.. After eating we continued down the road with no incident and returned to the highway and continued on down to Vicksburg.
We had stayed near Vicksburg a couple of years ago, the year of the snow storm on the Natchez Trace Parkway. At that time we drove into Vicksburg and had dinner at Borellos, an experience that we both remembered fondly. That being the case we left the Magnolia RV Park in the car after cleaning up and drove into town and after wandering around in the gathering dark for an hour we parked in front of Borellos and went in for dinner. The waiter approached and asked for drink orders and I ordered a Beefeater Martini, up with an olive. He looked startled and asked me to repeat which I did. As he left I looked at Carol and realized what I had done. I have not had Beefeater in a martini in over twenty years. Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray for sure, but I had heard the words fall out of my mouth and decided to go with it. It was the best part of the meal. We will not seek out this place again. It wasn’t bad, just not worth coming out for.
As I write we are not sure where we are going today. We could spend the day here, but it is rainy and it being MLK day much is closed. We are thinking of moving on through Natchez and then into LA and across to Natchitoches (pronounced Nakotish). Still no word on the volunteer connection so it appears we will just keep moving and visit the Rainwaters in Austin late in the week.
Stay tuned!
