BACK TO PA

Before leaving Greenville, MS I wanted to take the new bridge across the Mississippi River to Arkansas.

This bridge was just opened in 2010.

The river was fast flowing.

We ate lunch in Arkansas and came back to Mississippi.

We visited the two other Casinos in Greenville that are on the river. We came away $5.00 richer.

On Sunday we drove across Mississippi and back to Red Bay, AL. Monday morning they replaced our mirrors, but the problem is really the length of the mirror's arms so they still vibrate. We were on our way by noon. We went across the top of Alabama and entered Tennessee at Chattanooga.

We stopped for the evening at Sweetwater Valley KOA.

This KOA would be a great place to bring kids for they had a lot for them to do. This is the jumping pillow. The sign said you had to get parent permission to go on it, but the woman said we could and encouraged us to try it.

It really was a work out, but lots of fun. Afterwards we played a game of sand volleyball. I guess the kid in us wanted to get out and play.

Sweetwater was about 30 miles south of Knoxville, so Tuesday morning we got up at 6:30
to start our journey. Since we hit Knoxville at rush hour we took 640 around it and had very little traffic. We were only on 40 for a short while before we got on 81 and headed north through Virginia.

I had my camera ready this time when we passed the tornado damage along 81 above Bristol. All along our drive in Mississippi and Tennessee we went by several areas that had some tornado damage. It would be an area with only a few houses but half of the homes had been destroyed and usually a lot of tree damage.
This area along 81 had a lot of damage.

81 in Virginia is over 350 miles long. Larry wanted to see how far we could get today, so we went through West Virginia ( 81 is only about 20 miles long)

Maryland, for 12 miles,

and into PA.

Well we made it this far so lets make it home. We stayed on 81 to Harrisburg and then dropped down to Lancaster and back to Circle M in Millersville. We were parked by 8, thank heavens for daylight saving time and summer.
It was a long day of driving, over 600 miles, but it sure was nice to be back home in this beautiful weather.

Today we had Brady, our oldest grandchild, come over and help detail the RV.
We all took a break and went and played golf. The humidity is down and it is perfect summer weather. We are glad to be back in PA.

RALLY'S OVER

Jerry Purcell from PA won the "ugly hat" raffle off by Swanee Travelers at the rally. There was $50 on that ugly hat.

Larry was security for the rally so if there was an emergency or a problem he was called. Wednesday morning Cy Holdeen's wife couldn't wake him up so she called. Larry called 911. Cy was taken to the hospital where they got him stable and then transported him to Jacksonville, MS. Some of the other members took Cy's motorhome to Jaskson and we took care of their dog till they got back that evening. Please put Cy and his wife, Ginny, in your prayers.Thursday afternoon was the closing ceremonies. All the officers for next year rally were installed. Larry will be in charge of security.

Lou, Bev and I worked on this puzzle, finishing it at the last minute. We put together three puzzles during the rally - with lots of peoples help.

Thursday night we went into Greenville and saw the Mississippi River. I was impressed with the levees, and luckily they held this year and the town did not get flooded.

We went to the casino for dinner and played the slots for a few hour. We played on the casino's money ($10 each) and came away with $5 of it.

Friday we toured Greenville and the surrounding area. This is Mississippi welcome center.

We took a quick walk around here, so we could get to all of the museums.

We stopped in at the Greenville Museum, it was full of memorabilia. We wanted to see a film about the flood of 1927, so the man there called the flood museum and sent us over there.

The flood of 1927 was the greatest natural disaster in this country until Katrina. We were very amazed at the PBS film we saw about the flood and how the black share croppers were kept almost as prisoners on the levee after it. How badly they were treated for over four months, till finally many of them fled and went to Chicago.

We then went to the Winterville Indian Mounds. The youth group had gone here during the rally. It has a very good educational center that has programs with activities for the children to do.

A topographical map of the mounds.

The largest mound. About 55 feet tall.The steps up the largest mound.

We climbed to the top. We were thankful it was cloudy and not real hot and sunny.
Sure had a good view of the surrounding area.

We drove east a little ways to Leland and went to Jim Henson Museum, the birthplace of Kermit the frog. The building was very small but the lady was very interesting and full of stories and information. We also saw a good movie about Jim Henson and the puppets.Jim Henson lived here along Deer Creek when he was a young boy.

The frog on the right is the first Kermit. Notice the changes in the feet, collar and mouth.

This is the Kermit that was used in the movie. It is in a glass case.

Kermit is talking to Larry.

To end our very full day we went to Doe's Eat Place with John and June.

The restaurant is in a poor section of town. At first the front part of the building was a honky tonk strickly for blacks. the local doctor would go to the back door for a meal between house calls and started bring other white folks along. Big Doe had a restaurant in the back for whites and a honky tonk in the front for blacks. Eventually he closed the honky tonk and had a thriving restaurant business. The family tradition is to greet the costumers in the front kitchen, so you walk through the kitchen to sit down.

This room only held about 30 people. You had to make a reservation. There was no menu and the steaks started at 14 oz and then went up to 4 pounds. After the waitress told us what else they had she ended with "and none of it is cheap." The steak stated at $40. You could share a meal. We had gumbo that was only $10 and was very tasty. But some people from the rally had gone here and said the steak was the best they ever had.

Larry had fries ($4) along with his Gumbo.

ROLLIN' ON THE RIVER

The 46th annual NCT rally is at the Washington County Convention Center in Greenville, MS. This is the building where we hold all our events - even the parades. Up to today the weather has been hot ( upper 90's), humid, and very windy. Today it was rainy and it is to rain for the next few days.

Our rigs are rather spread out. Can you find us? There are only about 100 rigs here this year.

Sure nice to see our Florida chapter. Larry is the wagon master and I am secretary for the Blue Herons next year. We will enjoy catching up with the rest of the members who weren't here at the National rally when we return to Florida in November.

You can always find the youth in these purple shirts. They are looking at a cotton plant.

A cotton plant with flowers and cotton balls.

John Groves was MC for the opening ceremonies.

Sunday evening the youth group enjoyed dancing to the singing of Gary Kattawan. He was a good entertainer. He sure was full of energy, and his show was lots of fun.

The next evening Elvis was in the building for our entertainment.

Bill Brooks was Elvis and I enjoyed his songs and all the funny stories he told.

Cindi and Herb ran the bean bag baseball game. Joan Groves was on my team. We lost :( 11 to 10, a close game.

I also played washer board and golf ball gymnastics. I won one game each, then lost the next game, but it was lots of fun.

This was a tour reunion luncheon. John ran his first tour to Nova Scotia in 2005 and we have traveled with him since 2008. We formed Masonic RV Tours in January 2010. It is nice seeing all the people we have traveled with in Alaska, Nova Scotia, and the Blue Ridge. John is leaving after the rally to run an Alaska tour and then a Western Parks tour. We ar headed back to PA