Sally and Pepper

Here she is with her daddy, Chris. She's very alert for being only two months old.

Sally and her Uncle Sonny. Look how tiny Pepper is.

I can't get over how well Sally looks. She's a beauty.

Pepper eats about every three hours.

We had a really nice visit. We didn't go over until Sat. afternoon, and it's a good thing we didn't because Pepper got four baby shots Fri. morning. Poor baby, she had a very bad night and was just starting to feel better when we got there. She likes to have people talk to her. She smiles already. We went home and came back Sun. afternoon for more visit. We went out to supper and Pepper was a doll. You know how babies are at dinner time. But she let her mom and dad finish their food and even slept on the way home. We left there so they could get ready for work etc. We left GA this morning and drove to Manchester, TN. We should be at Beverly's on Friday. Then Branson and on home. See ya soon.

The Delta

The last day of our trip we took a small plane ride over the delta. It is vast. But you should have seen us "stuffed" into that little plane. We had the pilot, who must be a body builder because his shoulders were very broad. In the co-pilot seat was little, tiny Marsha. She couldn't even see over the instument panel. And us in the back seat. The plane was a float plane and we took off down a channel and circled back to go the 20 miles on down to the Gulf of Mexico.


The pilot said that you couldn't walk on the "land" down there because it is 12 feet tall reeds and swamp.

We were only 1000 feet in the air.

You can see the wing in this shot. See, it's a tiny plane.

There is everyone waiting for us (and four other planes) to land so they can have their turn. That's the channel we floated down to take off.

This one of the planes.

After we all got a ride, we got back on the bus and drove back up the highway to an old plantation for lunch. This is an old church that they have turned into an event room. They cut the church in two pieces and moved it 14 mile down the road to the spot about 5 years ago. The lunch was great, especially the bread pudding.

This is the main house that is now used as a B and B. This is the house that was used as the logo on the Southern Comfort bottle. Your dad told me that the front side was on the label not the back side. This is the back side. Oh well.

This is the overseer's house. It will be rehabbed next. And the slave quarters as well.

This is Buddy, one of the owners "pets." She is 12 feet long.

This is one of Buddy's babies. This one is only four feet long. Last years hatchlings I think.

This one isn't as long as the last one. But Foster, the owner, said that Buddy has about 100 new hatchlings this year. I wander if he plans to put gator on his menu sometime.


We are in Biloxi, Mississippi today. We got here Sunday after we said our goodbyes to our old and new friends. We've been napping and sleeping in late. That was a very busy tour. But we drove the 1500+ miles from start to finish. I'm glad we did even if I had to endure Elvis for two days. We leave here in the morning to head towards Sally's to see the new baby. I can't wait. Pepper will be past he blob stage and developing a personnality. I'll bet she's cute. From there we are going back toward's Bev's and Branson. Then on home by the 23th. See you all then. I'll try to send pictures of Pepper and Sally while we're there.

New Orleans

The first day we toured New Orleans we went to Mardi Gras World. This place designs and builds floats to go into the 55 or so parades during Mardi Gras. It's as important as the Rose Parade.

The floats start as a design board like this one. This one is going to be Beauty and the Beast.

This is a finished float ready to go to the storage warehouse until next February.

The church of St. Louis facing Jackson Square.

Jackson in the center of Jackson Square a pretty park near the river.

There was a Irish Pub Crawl in the French Quarter the Friday we were there. Boy were they loud.

typical buildings in the French Quarter.

We took a walking tour of the French Quarter. The buildings are right up to the sidewalks, so no yards. But they do have courtyards down the sides of the buildings like this one.

We also went to see the city of the dead. They bury their loved ones about ground. It use to be because of the shallow water table, but now the ground is well drained and it's just tradition.

The graves are in rows and look just like a neighborhood.

That night we went to a cooking school for a demostration. This is Harriet, our teacher. I've not had as good a time as we had that night. She was so funny. She told stories about her family that had us in stitches for two hours. I wanted to take her home with me. And the food was amazing as well. I got the recipes to try when we get home.

That was Friday and we were gone from 9:oo am until 8:00 pm. We were pooped by the time we got back to the rig. But the real kicker was we had to be on the bus again Saturday morning at 7:30. Oh well, we can nap. Right.

Natchez, Mississippi

This is the view from our rig. We were right on the river and could see LA. across the river.


The view from the other direction.

We had a carriage ride through Natchez. There was five carriages in all.

This is one of the many churches in town. Slaves used to enter the balcony through the side of the building.

A big fancy antibellum house that has been turned into a hotel.

Can you tell where this water tower is?

This is George our driver and Roger our steed. George was a great guide. He told us some of the houses were built in 17 and 92. His accent was wonderful. To keep the streets cleaner, the horse has a large black bag just behind his tail. Well, Roger took a dump and we had to smell the aroma for the rest of our tour. Ugh.

The last carriage to return to the start.

This is the bridge taht crosses the river back to LA from our coach. It was a beautiful sight.

Memphis

We spent four days in Memphis. It seems that the biggest thing there is Graceland. We spent acouple of hours there and I must say I'm Elvised out. I didn't even take any pictures although you dad did. I can't get over how over the top the mansion is. Of course it's still decorated from the 70's. Graceland is small in comparison to estates now-a-days. But the worst thing was we had to listen to Elvis music being played over loud ( and I do mean loud) speakers all over the property. It was almost like he was a deity now. Our tour guide from the next day met him when she was a girl and I think she is still in LOVE with him. She took us where he used to live ( three places) and showed us where he liked to eat etc. We went to the Peabody Hotel to watch the ducks parade in to the fountain. Now that was cute. It seems that the whole thing started as a joke back in the 30's. After we left there we had lunch at the Arcade. It's a very old resturant. It started in 1919. And guess what? Elvis use to eat there. We also went to St. Jude's and looked around.

The last day we carpooled to the Mud Island Museum down on the river. It was great. We rode a hanging cable car across the river. The museum was well down. I enjoyed it a lot after the school field trip left the building. I took a few pictures that day, but none were very good.

I'm not sending any photos with the blog today. The pictures from the trip blog has the ones I took. So if you want to go there to view and don't remember the address, here it is. http://www.avcgrr2011.blogspot.com/ More later from Vicksburg.

St. Louis

This is the first stop of our tour of St. Louis. It's the huge Basilica of St. Louis. The inside is covered with mosaics. They are everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. Beautiful

I started to show more, but decided you might get bored and close the site.

This pool is a left over from the 1904 World's Fair in Forrest Park. The park is four times bigger that Central Park in New York. It has a zoo (free) two ar three museums and miles of walking trails all in the center of the city.

We toured Bush Statium three days before the play off game with Brewers. This from the broadcast booth. See the arch mowed in the grass.

The Card's dugout.

We got to go down on the field as long as we didn't step on the grass.

The next day we went out to Grant's Farm to see the Clydesdales. This is U.S. Grants house when he first married.

This building is a beer garden and some stables for the big guys. It looks very German and old.

Here are the two newest additions to the Clydsdale family. They are about four months old.

This is downtown St. Louis near the Gateway Arch. If you look at the glass building on the left you can see the reflextion of the Arch.

This is how you get into the visitors center under the arch. Your dad took the tram up to the top and looked over the city. It's over 600 feet tall. I stayed down below with about seven others of our group and watched a movie about Lewis and Clark.

We had two very busy days being driven around town. So on our free day, we did laundry and went to visit with Aunt Beverly and Uncle Marvin. We had a nice afternoon, and we got to see Kim and Bo and their three kids. I can't get over how big they have gotten.

We're in Memphis at the moment. I editted the pictures. I had twice that many chosen. I decided not to torcher you because I love you. So I blog later about our whirl wind tour in Elvis country.

Hannibal

We took a tour of Hannibal the first morning we were there. The town is tiny and only there because Mark Twain lived there until he was 18. All the other industry is gone by now.

This is a statue of Huck and Tom at the staircase up to a lighthouse that has no purpose. The garden is pretty though.

This is the trolley we rode around town.

Downtown It's pretty clean.

This is Samuel Clemmens' statue in the park in town.

The view of the Mississippi from the statue.

The other direction

Becky Thatcher met us back in camp after our tour. This girl is in eighth grade at the middle school. She had to try out for the part. The process takes almost a year. She is one of five Beckys, and there are five Tom Sawyers. They take turns doing stuff like this for a year.

This is "lovers leap",and as the legend goes a couple of indians that could not marry lept fom there.

The view of Hannibal from "lover's leap."

The Mark Twain

We got on board and got ready for our dinner. Nothing to write home about.

That is Illinois across the Mississippi.

The evening's entertainment.

The next night we had dinner at a BBQ and walked across the street to see this man's one man show. He did it all take tickets, serve some cookies and tea, and played the part of Mark Twain.

We were in Davenport, Iowa for a couple of days before the Mark Twain tour. I didn't take pictures, but your dad did. We toured John Deere, toured an arsenal and had the tour guide from Hell the first day . We got to see Hoover's library the next day. When I have the time, I'll write about St. Louis. We have two very busy days to come in Memphis.