A pretty uneventful day of driving up the Trace. Green, green, green. No flowers, no flowering trees, no foliage yet. Few wildlife either—a doe and her fawn, some turkeys, some turkey vultures, a few crows. Lots of lovely yellow butterflies. In the first fifty to seventy miles there was lots of Spanish moss but by Jackson it had pretty much disappeared. The reservoir for Jackson was beautiful as always under an almost cloudless sky. The cypress swamp went by in a blur and I chose not to take pictures of the 2011 damage by tornado of a large swath of the bordering forests. I probably should have to show how the undergrowth is taking over the damaged area and how it will soon be grown over with little evidence of the broken toothpick-like trunks of the destroyed trees.
We stopped at French Camp, which I’ve always wanted to explore but which is always swarming with people when we pass through. Today it was almost empty. It is basically the site of a boys and girls school for children from poor or broken homes. It covers grades 1-12. It is religiously affiliated with one of the Protestant sects though I’m not sure which. We ate in the café and had a huge and delicious BLT called the Big Willy. More sweet tea, of course.
Our waiter was a literally beautiful young man with bright red curly hair and sapphire blue eyes; I’d say he was about 16-17. Told him I always wanted a red-haired son and asked if I could adopt him and take him north with me. He asked how far north. I said Vermont. Oh, no, ma’am , he said with a huge smile, that’s frozen tundra land, I can’t go north of the Mason – Dixon line. What a sweetie. He thought Vt had only those tall pine and spruce trees—I told him southern Maine for pines and northern Maine for fir and spruce but that Vt had lots of hardwoods and softwoods—along with white and red pine—beech, birch, maple, oak,poplar etc. He was surprised. But I said we DO have snow from Nov-Apr and he should visit at some other season but Vt winter.
After lunch we continued on to Tupelo and settled in for the night. Have to research Nashville hotels for tomorrow night and then TV. Goodnight from the Sweet Tea Swilling Sweet Sisters, Kathy and Barb
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