GERTIE !!!!

     Gertie 11, Gertie 11, Gertie 11!!!  I don't know what I'm going to do with you!
     I left my nice campsite about 10, went into Waynesboro, as you know, to do my blogging.  To help me get out of town, I set Gertie for Natchez, MS, where I intended to get to.  She got me back to 84 where I had planned to take to go straight west again right into Natchez but Gertie told me to go a different way and since my old Gertie was usually right, I decided to follow her and didn't stop to look at the map to see where exactly which route she had chosen.  Until about 70 miles later and I was arriving in Meridian, MS which I knew was not where I wanted to be.  So I did stop and look at the map and I was due north from where I'd been instead of due west where I should have been.  Oh heavens Gertie, what had you done!  After much contemplation, I decided to go back the 70 miles via a slightly different route, an interstate and then go west on 84 as I should have done originally.   Oh well, as my sign in Rhoda says "The journey is the reward" by Steve Jobs.

     As they say, something good comes out of something bad - the good was that I found a produce stand with freshly picked MS peaches

         The ones on the right are called donut peaches because they're flat and white on the inside & suppose to be very sweet.  I'll let you know.  The regular ones on the left are sweet - I had one for dinner.

      Some reflections on this area of MS:

• there's a museum to Jimmy Rogers - who's he?
• the sheriffs even drive pick-up trucks
• how'd you like to live in the town of Soso?  Almost as bad as Opp, AL
• as I guessed - water parks are just water recreation areas on reservoirs and there were several on route 84 - even an Atwood water park
• hard to find an NPR station for 2 days now that stays in range for more than 20 miles

     On the radio they were talking about that a year ago at this time was the tornado in Joplin and at this time I had completed my circuit and was heading back east and decided to skip MO because of the tornado threat.

     Found a campground in the Homochitto National Forest - the Clear Springs Recreation Area.  It was a real gem!  Very private, right in the woods AND with electric & water and a nice bathroom.

                                                                     Site 22

                                      Site 19 where had I looked further, I should have parked

DATA:

mileage:  260                       camp:  $3.00 (included a 50 cent tip)     gas:  $53 & $68

temp:  mid 80s, very quiet & still not humid