Nebraska City Nebraska

 We avoided the severe storms around Kansas City by leaving Joplin Missouri at daylight today. The storms last night had plenty of hail, not something we want to be in. This afternoon, we crossed into Iowa then turned left to cross into Nebraska where we are in Nebraska City for the night. Storms are north of Omaha and south at Kansas City and we hope they will stay away from us. Next stop will be Salem South Dakota on Saturday, about 350 miles north.

Iowa State line on I-29.

Nebraska City is located at the white dot.

Joplin Missouri

 We traveled west on I-40 from Little Rock Arkansas then north on I-49 to Joplin Missouri, about 325 miles. There are some large storms north of us around Kansas City so we are holding here tonight and will make our decision to move on in the early morning. If we leave at daylight we may be able to drive far enough north to get past the storms that will form again tomorrow afternoon. We will decide that about 5 am tomorrow morning. We need to make it north of Omaha Nebraska to get past the storms, preferably to Sioux City Iowa. 

I-49 was a nice drive today. It goes straight north, just west of the Ozark Mountains.

Mary was using her iPhone camera.

Red Bay & Little Rock

 Our coolant overflow tank on our Cummins engine needed replacement due to some cracks forming in the tank. We had Bay Diesel do that work. Other than that, no other issues to be repaired in Red Bay, Alabama. We left Red Bay on Sunday and drove the 320 miles to Little Rock Arkansas. We are at the Maumell Corp of Engineers park on the Arkansas River for four days. This is a nice COE park and we had been here on a vacation trip in 2013. Our site electric power is only 30 amps (50 amps is preferred) so staying cool yesterday was a problem in the 95 degree humid weather. Today a storm just went through and cooled thing down in the 70's. 

We visited the Clinton Library on the 2013 trip. It's closed for Covid-19 and due to open July 1st. The photos below were taken in 2013. We will head to Joplin Missouri on Thursday for one night then Nebraska City for another overnight stay. We will be in South Dakota on Satarday.

Crossing the state line on I-65 South, the first thing you see is a NASA rocket standing at the rest park. Huntsville is the home of Redstone Arsenal and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. We pass it on every trip south by I-65.

Tiffin motorhomes waiting for factory service.
This is the only place we go for service.

There are some 200 new motorhomes sitting around that need parts to
finish them. The parts shortage is a big problem for new units and for us
that may need a repair part.

Maumell COE campground on the Arkansas River.

William J. Clinton Library we visited in 2013.

Our hair color has changed since 2013. Bill was not in the oval office that day.

                       

Our West Trip Starts

 We finally left Southeast Indiana to start our summer trip. Our first stop is Nashville TN, not exactly west, yet. We are here for the weekend then heading to Red Bay Alabama for eight days to have a coolant tank replaced on the radiator. The Freightliner shop there works mostly on motorhomes so they know the best way to replace it. The rear engine diesel can be a pain to work on. From there we will be in Little Rock Arkansas for three days, then we head straight north to South Dakota. I will have more posts as we make our way to Glacier National Park.

We fueled up here and these photos show why. Much better than Indiana! Our sixty cents off Kroger points help on the first 35 gallons of diesel. I hope it's this "cheap" when we get to the Kroger store in Little Rock.

Tennessee in March

 We came to Two Rivers Landing in Tennessee when we left Alabama. We did not want to be near the big winter storm in Texas and Mississippi. We will be heading to Indiana on April 1st. Meanwhile, we were asked again to fill in for a work camper that left early. One month for a free stay, easy work. The park has been sold so this is probably the last time we will be work campers here. We may be back for short stays in the future but the daily rate in the spring, summer and fall seasons is quite expensive.

The park's garage and workshop.

Trees are still bare but maples are starting to bloom out.

More pine straw, every spring.
I have done my share over the last three years we have stayed here..

Foscue Creek COE, Demopolis Alabama

 After leaving Mississippi, we crossed over into Alabama on US 80. Foscue Creek is a Corp of Engineers Park. This is the best COE park we have stayed at. Plenty of space between large paved sites, full utility hookup, paved roads and water inlet from the Tombigbee River. A few sites are on the river edge where barge traffic is seen every day. The Lock and Dam is part of the COE property.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demopolis,_Alabama

We planned to stay eight days but cut it short after four days. On Sunday, we were going to drive to Selma, Alabama and the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge where Bloody Sunday occurred in 1965. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma,_Alabama

The ice storm and very cold temperatures were forecast for Mississippi, about 60 miles west. We left on Sunday morning for a 400 mile drive back to Tennessee where the forecast was much better. It's cold here in Tennessee at 25 degrees, much better than 0 or lower in Mississippi. We will be in Tennessee through March, then head to Indiana for about three months. We plan on going west in June, barring any problems.

The campground was not empty at all at least until we left early.

The entire park was large and had many Cypress trees with the usual moss.

The Coast Guard has a station located in the inlet off of the Tombigbee river.

https://www.alabamascenicrivertrail.com/rivers/lower-tombigbee-river/

Natchez Mississippi

 We are now back in Alabama as of yesterday. We were in Natchez for eight days, staying at the Rivers View RV Park in Vidalia, Louisiana. The rv park is on the Mississippi River across from Natchez. We had a good view of the river and the many huge barges that travel the river day and night. The river at that point is about .6 miles wide. There was no flooding while we were there.

I was interested in Natchez due to a series of books I have been reading. The books are fiction mixed with many things that actually happened in the 1960's. The author Greg Iles lives in Natchez. As they say, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. There were plenty of not so innocent people in the area. The books loosely tell the stories of scandal's, civil rights and race issues of the 1960's. 

Here is a link to some of the stories, researched by Stanley Nelson, editor of the Vidalia newspaper. Vidalia is the town across from Natchez. The book referred to is one of the series by author Greg Iles.

Story behind the book Natchez Burning

Natchez was a major slave trading point.

This is where most the slave trading companies were located,
a junction where two major roads came together.
http://mshistorynow.mdathe-forks-of-the-road-slave-market-at-natchez

These leg and neck shackles are embedded in concrete at the
Forks of the Road. These were actually used on the slaves.

This is the national military cemetery.

The new section with military graves for those that served in war.

The City Cemetery is huge and quite old. If you look close you will see these headstones say Unknown Soldier. These were from the Civil War.
There are many more like this in the cemetery.

This is called the Turning Angel, mentioned several times in Greg Iles books.
http://www.natchez.ms.us/278/Turning-Angel

Family plots at the cemetery were fenced in with wrought iron.
Many of these are very old. Some are buried, some above ground.

The bridge over the Mississippi is about 1.2 miles end to end.

Lots of Crepe Myrtle trees allover Natchez. They bloom every spring. I know
Crepe Myrtles because I trimmed many of them while working at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort.

Many mansions in the area. Some were closed due to Covid-19. We did not take any tours. This one is part of the National Park Service, called the Melrose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_(Natchez,_Mississippi)

Cypress trees at the Melrose.

The book author's house.

The Rosalie, tours are available.

No river front would be without a casino. We did not give them any money.

This was the Jerry Lee Lewis museum in Ferriday, Louisiana. It was closed. 

Now here is a house with a history. This was a brothel until 1990.
Take a look at this link for the entire story.
Nellie Jackson Mississippi Madam

This street goes down to Natchez Under the Hill.
River boat casinos were docked here but no longer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez_Bluffs_and_Under-the-Hill_Historic_District

This is a real restaurant south of Natchez. It still open for lunch,
closed when I took this photo.
https://www.mammyscupboard.com/

We took a city tour with Rev (masks on). He knows the history.

Standing where the river boat casinos once docked.
I had my glasses off because they fog up with the mask on.