Cotton and Catfish

Cvstar told me something to help me remember throught out the day all the things I want to write in the blog. She said that she makes a mnemonic by creating a saying with the first letters of her thoughts. So I tried it today..I can remember all the letters (BCCHFFDWR) and the saying, but I'm so tired I can't recall what all the letters stand for!!

But first, I forgot to mention that when we left the Trace yesterday and started westward in Mississppi, we could see what looked like foamy ponds in the distance. Turns out they were cotton fields. That was sort of reassuring to know that we still produce cotton! Further along the roads we coulds see what looked like snow; it was all the cotton scattered along the edge of the highway like organic litter! As we drove through Leland MS this morning we saw the home of the little green frog - Kermit! Actually, Leland claims Jim Henson as its 'son' so of course they get to claim all the other Muppets as well. We didn't stop at the Kermit museum (of course not - this is a drive-by trip) but it looked like fun!

Another interesting site in Mississipi yesterday and Arkansas today were the catfish ponds. They were everywhere, large rectangular ponds with an aerator strategically placed along one side. Some ponds had permanent aerators, others had mobile ones on the back of trailers. The aerators looked like a series of little paddlewheels. In addition to the ponds were large indusrial plants for catfish processing. One place in Arkansas was a low 1-story white cement block building which ran for about a block and was surrounded by catfish ponds. It had wooden handpainted signs along the roadway that read 'Seafood' (and I'm thinking --this is Arkansas, folks, not the coast), the next sign said 'frog legs', and the third sign read 'gulf shrimp'. Hmmm, do catfish and frog legs count as seafood?

Today we followed Rt 82 across the Mississippi River. Rt 82 has turned out to be an everything road. Sometimes it is a 2 lane highway, sometimes a 4 lane divided highway, sometimes a highway with real exits and sometimes it is the mainstreet of the little (pop.2100) towns we ride through. It can be all of these in the span of 2 miles! It has been a good ride today; the road was in pretty good condition, there was very little traffic (especially this overcast morning -Sunday) and there were times we had the road all to ourselves. Sometimes the pavement would be so black and so hot that you could just feel the heat burning up through your boots. We were pleased to see that parts of it allowed 70mph - a real boon to our progress across Texas. We had a delightful little rain in Blossom TX which cooled us off and gave us the oomph we needed to push on past Paris all the way to Gainesville. The town names are interesting; one sign I saw had Paris, Bogata and Detroit. It amused me, but perhaps the riding has made me simple minded already!

(I'm adding a belated note here as I remembered the miles and miles of unused new FEMA trailers housed next to the Red Stone or Red River base. We drove by miles and miles of trailers. A sad site that says they were not effectively used for people who needed housing after Katrina.)

Animals we saw today are buffalo, armadillo, dogs, cats, bulls, cattle, goats, geese, ducks and deer. Some of those were roadkill, which reminds me that I also saw alot of taxidermy places, one named 'Roadkill Taxidermy'.

As we were riding along the edge of the Mississippi River or some of its waters, we saw herons perched in the top of the cypress trees along the bank. Later we would see herons again enjoying fishing over the catfish ponds.

If you are curious, I can tell you that yes --there is a WalMart store everywhere! Even these little towns that appear to have nothing have a WalMart and a Family Dollar store. I am amazed and saddened. AND, even more importantly for those of you expecting postcards from us, we can't find any. None of these towns have postcards. I know it makes sense if you look at the map and see that we are really not going through any touristy areas (yet), but still we were surprised to not find any (and we ask everywhere we stop!!)

After 435 miles today, we are tired but pleased with our trip across Texas so far. I had expected less engaging scenery and much more blistering heat. I hope we do as well tomorrow!

(PS - Hey there Gamma Phis --look for the pink cap--its riding along on this trip to keep Joanne in my thoughts and prayers!!)