December 3, 2004

December 3, 2004

Dry Creek Park to Flint Creek Park, Mississippi

DAY 169

 

I couldn't help but notice that I shared my shower stall in the camp ground comfort station this morning with three locusts. Two were greenish brown, and one was bright fluorescent neon green ! Welcome to Mississippi !

Well ... we are in the deep south tonight, at Flint Creek Park at Wiggins, Mississippi. Louisiana is about an hour west of here. Alabama is about an hour east of here. The Gulf Of Mexico is about an hour south of here. The temperatures here are 30 degrees warmer than they were in Missouri ; high 50's to mid 60's.

After perusing the Mississippi maps and tourist information books last night, Joanne decided that today needed to be a day of exploring backwoods Mississippi. Since I ended the day on an empty tank of fuel, that meant we had to back track about 10 miles north on Hwy. 49 to Magee, to fill up with diesel. After fuelling up, we headed back south on Hwy. 49 to the little town of Mount Olive, where we headed east on a little back country road, Hwy. 532. About 14 miles down Hwy. 532 was the little village of Hot Coffee, Mississippi. Joanne wanted to visit the two quaint little general stores in this village. The first one, J & H Harper Grocery hasn't changed much since it opened for business about 75 years ago. While Joanne browsed, I chatted with the store owner, who says that the store was built by her "granddaddy" in 1929, and run by him, then her "daddy" until she took over about 3 years ago. A short distance down the road, we stopped again at McDonald's Store, opened in 1940. The first thing I saw that I wanted to buy, was a couple of moon pies. We had been chatting with Escapee / WorkCamper Julie at YMCA Of The Ozarks, and were laughing about encountering stereotypes in our travels. She said wait until you see people eating moon pies and drinking RC Colas in the deep south. I didn't know what a moon pie is. I do now ! It's like a Wagon Wheel in Manitoba or a Jos. Louis in Eastern Ontario / Quebec. The store owner asked if I wanted help, and I said I needed some of their local foods explained to me. I didn't know what the bucket of pork chitterlings in the freezer section was. I pronounced it as if it rhymes with "bitter things". Turns out it's pronounced "chittlins". DUH ! Northerner ! Chitterlings / chittlins are pig's intestines. While I was chatting with the store owner, Joanne was walking around picking up groceries that we had never seen before, to buy and try. She bought ;

Dirty Rice ( a New Orleans hot, spicy type of "Hamburger Helper" sort of thing )

a frozen package of Collard Greens

a frozen package of chopped turnip greens

a package of "Fish Fri" ( a seasoned corn meal mix for coating cat fish )

a package of hush puppies ( a shaped corn meal thing sort of like "tater tots" )

a couple of Satsumas ( oranges from Louisiana similar to mandarins )

As we were leaving the store, the owner gave us a couple of "stage planks" to munch while driving. They were somewhat like ginger bread cookies.

From this store, we picked up Hwy. 37 south for a few miles to Hwy. 84, then Hwy. 84 west back to Hwy. 49 at Collins. A quick stop for a few more groceries in Collins, then south on Hwy. 49 to Hattiesburg, where signage says we are now in Southern Mississippi. We were going to head west on Hwy. 98 towards Alabama, but it was so late in the day we stayed on Hwy. 49 heading south, to this camp ground at Wiggins. Just before we got here, we stopped at a road side vegetable and fruit stand where we got a sample of something we've seen advertised as available in the last couple of days ; boiled peanuts. They taste like ... well ... peanuts that have been boiled. Soggy, mushy, peanuts. Must be an acquired taste.

Both the park we were at last night, and the one we are at tonight, are administered by the U.S. Department Of The Interior. I'm not sure what that is !

Tonight we had the Dirty Rice and Collard Greens for supper. Well ... at least Teddy liked the Dirty Rice.

DSK