On to Mississippi (06-20-18)

It wasn’t long before we felt the difference between the trailer and the camper.  With temperatures soaring to over 100 degrees every day, our travel days got longer than we anticipated.  It’s hard to justify stopping at 3 pm if you are going to sit in a camper and listen to the AC run as it tries to cool the place down. In that type of weather the trailer is much nicer.

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Hiking is best done as close to sunrise as possible when it’s this hot out. I am not great at getting up and out that early, but I am trying.








We had to re-think our meals for the first few days as well- it was too hot to grill outside, and too hot to cook anything in the oven. In addition to that, we had not done a great job of “downsizing” the fridge and freezer contents.  We have had to try and eat whatever takes up the most space.  With the high heat, and a crammed freezer, the food is not staying frozen.  So, we had soup for dinner. Ugh.

Jackson, Mississippi

Our first stop in Mississippi was Jackson, the state capital. We headed over to the archives and spent a full day and a half looking through books and records.

Although we are researching Porters, when I need a break I look for Kings.

It’s amazing how tiring it is reading books and documents all day. We were happy we found a spot in the local state park so we could relax at the end of the day.

Once we had exhausted the archives, we didn’t want to just run off to our next destination, so we scouted around for hikes and other things to do. There are many museums in Jackson, some of which are free of charge, but we don’t like art museums. We decided that the Agriculture and Forestry Museum would be interesting, so we checked it out.

I am not really a museum person, so I like unusual museums and/or I try to find something of interest to me in a museum.

The Ag museum was billed as a “living history” museum but there were no active demonstrations and it was really quiet when we were there. Still, at $5 per person, we are easily entertained. ( Crank call I made as a teenager: Do you have Prince Albert in a can??? Then let him out.  I had no idea what Prince Albert even was!)

My two takeaways from the museum? Mississippi supplies 62% of all the catfish in this country, and in 1910, when the “horseless carriage” was coming of age, Mississippi only had 10 miles of stone paved roads, so the state resisted the movement.

The State park we were in boasted a “nature trail”. Usually when that term is used, its a short, sometimes not very interesting, walk. But we needed some exercise, so off we went.

This particular trail was pretty good- 3.5 miles into the “bayou”, up and down stairs, it had several platforms for watching wildlife and quite a few plaques explaining what we were seeing.
It made a great outing before we left for our next destination.

Meridian, Mississippi

Meridian is where Paul loses the Porter name, so we knew we would spend a few days at least, combing through whatever records we could find. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much. Paul’s great grandfather was born in Meridian, but it was during the civil war, and General Sherman came through here and destroyed many of the buildings, and therefore, records.

After a frustrating two days, we had nothing.The only positive is that we gave it all we had, and feel like if there was something to find, we would have found it.

One of the websites we use is Findagrave.com. In addition to using it to find burial information that YOU need, you can help other people by taking pictures of graves that they are interested in. Although we didn’t find any graves of Paul’s ancestors, we did find a gravestone that someone else was interested in.

Our research exhausted, we looked for other diversions. I had chosen the RV park we stayed in based on the fact that they have a pool, and I could swim. Unfortunately the pool was being renovated, so it was empty.

That  led us to Bonita Lakes Park for our exercise- a town park that is very close to where we were staying.  We mapped out a 4 mile hike around one of the lakes, and got there as early as we could, to beat the heat and humidity. This trail is what I call a twofer.

It had nice views, and also had exercise equipment along the trail. With the humidity so high, we didn’t bother with the equipment, but it was nice that it was there. This is actually an incredible park, with something for everyone.

While driving around Meridian, Paul had noticed a museum that he was particularly interested in. The Meridian Industrial Heritage Museum is housed in the Soule Steam Works factory.

This family owned factory built steam engines for over 100 years before going out of business in 2002. They were the major employer in Meridian for many years.

I literally laughed when I saw the sink set up in the locker room. It looks very  much like the sinks in the parochial school I attended in first grade.

It wasn’t the best museum or tour we’ve ever taken, but it is a small town.