Joe Wheeler State Park, AL
It was as if a switch was thrown and we went from cool days, always chasing a storm, to the hot days of summer. We woke to birds singing their hearts out, almost ridiculous with the amount of noise they were making. I think they too were thrilled that summer had finally arrived.
Ned and I were up past midnight playing backgammon (yes, we've become addicts) so it felt good to just take our time getting up, enjoy the bright summer day and have this heavily wooded campground to ourselves.
Our first stop of the day was the small Mississippi town of Holly Springs. As far as small towns go, this one was somewhat thriving. The ubiquitous court house in the town square was humming, there were cars parked everywhere and the shops around the square were definitely open. Nice. After driving thru so many Texas and Oklahoma towns where the town square was nearly vacant and the shops boarded up this felt hopeful. After a quick visit to the Chamber of Commerce, we picked up a map of the antebellum homes in the town and decided to do a bike tour of them rather than the driving tour. This town was occupied fairly early in the Civil War and it's amazing how many of the homes survived. It's not a particularly affluent town, but the huge magnolia and mimosa trees lining all the streets really added to the ambience of Southern charm. One antebellum house that particularly struck me was occupied by General Grant and his family for a year during the War. Just think of that, "Hey, honey I'm going to war. Pack up the household, servants and kids and join me." One of the brochures made a point that General Grant brought with him his slaves. I'm definitely going to do some research on that to see what that was all about.
After our antebellum biking jaunt, we continued to take highway 4 across Mississippi driving through one sleepy Southern town to another. We eventually hooked up with the Natchez Trace for awhile. Several years ago we took the Natchez Trace for several hundred miles. I'm still in awe of the beauty and history of this stretch of land. Just imaging first buffalo, then Indians, then trappers walking this trail.
Crossing into Alabama our next little adventure was visiting the birthplace and childhood home of Helen Keller. We've seen some pretty cheesy "birthplace" spots before (Judy Garland in Grand Rapids I'm looking at you), but this spot was amazing!
Besides being able to tour the home, cottage and see the original pump where Helen Keller made the connection to water, the photographs and documents were quite interesting. Some really fascinating facts I learned: The basic system of sign language was first developed by Spanish monks to communicate without breaking their vow of silence; Braille was created in 1825 by 16 yr. old Louis Braille for night reading by the French army; Alexander Bell met Helen when she was a child and helped make the connection between Helen and her lifelong friend and teacher, Annie Sullivan.
Our final destination is Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is the best campsite of the trip so far. We are camped right on a lake and as I write this blog Ned is cooking up some brats and yams on the grill. We are talking about doing a bike ride tonight to check out this expansive State Park. Goodness knows I need to get in some saddle time so we can keep up with Owen and Brian (my great-newphes) when we visit them in a few weeks!
