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.

 

Grizzly Country! (Grand Teton National Park) 06-15-12

    Knowing we were entering bear country, I started reading up on the subject of Grizzly bears VS Black bears, and how to handle ourselves while hiking in Grizzly country.  I found out that bear spray is more effective as a Grizzly deterrent than a bullet.  That’s good to know, since it’s easier to buy the bear spray- which we did.  Apparently, even if your hands don’t shake too much to actually hit the bear with a bullet, it could take 3 shots to bring a Grizzly down.  No thanks.  Of course, your best bet is to not get in a Grizzly’s face to begin with.  People hike with “bear bells” that are supposed to warn the bear that there are people in the area, but experts say the sound doesn’t carry far enough, and some say the Grizzlies just think they sound like the dinner bell.

 

The distance at which a hiker typically encounters a grizzly is when they are a mere 15 feet apart.  Most people do not make enough noise, and they look down at the trail too much, not looking to see what’s around them. As surprised as I would feel, I’d hate to think how surprised the bear would be. A startled Grizzly is a dangerous Grizzly.  Rather than bells, they suggest you hike in groups of 4 or more, the theory being that you will be talking, and your voices will carry enough to send the bear in a different direction.  With that in mind, we took our friends Avril and Dave along as our bear bait.

Along the way we discussed the “rules to live by” of a bear encounter.  Don’t Run is rule #1.  Don’t climb a tree to escape a bear unless a) you climb very quickly, and b) you can climb higher than 31 ft up the tree, because bears can climb 30 feet. Don’t drop your backpack- for two reasons.  First, if the bear does get a chance to swipe at you, the pack will protect your back, and second, if the bear gets it and the pack has food in it, the bear has just learned that if he attacks someone, he will get food. If bear spray doesn’t work as a deterrent ( or if you were silly enough to go hiking without it) laying down flat and playing dead, with your hands on the back of your neck to protect it is your best bet, as long as you don’t move until the bear is long gone, because any movement will be perceived as aggression by the bear.

Using our friends as bait must have worked because we did encounter a Grizzly on one of our hikes.  He was quite far away, so the picture isn’t that good, and we were lucky that Dave happened to look back and see him, because we had already passed him.  Of course, after that, we all spent a lot of time looking over our shoulders.

The hike we were on that day was a trail around Two Ocean Lake, with a side trip up  to “Grand View”.  Turns out we couldn’t go all the way around the lake because the trail was closed (we found out later it was due to nesting Bald Eagles) so we had to turn around and go back the way we came.  All in all it was about 8 miles.  We enjoyed the walk but I liked the hike we had done the day before better. 

Our first hike with Avril and Dave was into to Cascade Canyon, via Observation Point.  To get to the trailhead we took a boat across Jenny Lake. Once we got past the short climb to Observation Point, the number of hikers on the trail thinned out

and the 8 mile hike was really enjoyable.

Although there were quite a few snow patches along the way, the air temperature was perfect and the scenery was great.  With the snow melt from the nearby Tetons, there were plenty of waterfalls.

Just about everywhere we went, the Tetons stood in the background. What makes them different from most mountains is that they have no foothills.  They very abruptly rise up from the relatively flat ground that surrounds them.

I would love to go boating with that backdrop!

Of course, one of our primary interests in the Tetons, in addition to hiking, was the wildlife. We headed to the visitor center to learn about the park, and find out where the best wildlife viewing spots are. I really enjoyed one of the of the exhibits- patches of actual animal fur, so I could feel what wolf and bear fur feel like. Throughout our visit, we did see a fair amount of wildlife-in addition to Pronghorn Antelope and Bison, we saw quite a few moose:





Well, I took that picture before we actually saw real moose:

While driving down Moose Wilson Road, we came across a moose jam.  It seemed like cars were strewn everywhere as their occupants tried to get their own pictures of Bullwinkle.

Along the road to our campground turned out to be the best spot for finding moose, and many times when we drove by, they were in the area: 

Yesterday we took a very long drive down a  dirt road along the river, and managed to spot a Bald Eagle flying above the water,  but I didn’t have much time to get the camera set up, so the picture isn’t the best.  Hopefully we’ll see more in Yellowstone.

Naturally, Dozer wanted to see his share of wildlife. Squirrels, mice and other small creatures were abundant in the campground and it wasn’t long before Dozer had a baby squirrel in his mouth, making a beeline for the trailer.  We did get him to drop it, but he immediately went back on the hunt.   A small mouse managed to get into the trailer one night, and Dozer did his job as a mouser and took care of it for us.

Today we spent gearing up for our 3 week stay in Yellowstone.  We did laundry, bought food, and washed the truck. We ate lunch in the small town of Jackson Hole at an excellent restaurant, and wandered the very expensive shops without buying anything.