Day 61

Some bookmarks from Alisha at Evergreen Library.

Into Montgomery, the Capital of Alabama.

..and to the Rosa Parks Museum. A bus with video screens recreates the scene as you’d you have seen as a bystander.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Martin Luther King was a pastor from 1954-1960 and the site of mass meetings to organise the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott.

We seem to be following Jefferson Davis. On Day 53, the monument to him. Yesterday his Presidential Library and today his “White House.”

Day 60

The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library in Biloxi. You’ll remember Jefferson Davis, I’m sure, from Day 53. “Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.”

Below his death mask, and the Confederate Battle Flag.

He lived in the house on the Beauvoir Estate.

…and the gift shop. Erm.

We pulled over for a rest and Suzanne (sorry, if my memory failed me) gave us useful information for Mobile (and also a nice couple of Alabama pins.)

Of course we had to go to Florida for the full set, but had no great wish to go so we just popped over the state line. I think we got the everything Florida has to offer with this couple of nice yellow shopping carts.

GPS evidence that we (just) went into Florida.

Day 53

Passing through the bottom bit of Illinois to get to Kentucky Jane saw an abandoned hotel in McClure so we did a u-turn and found a way to get to it.

Then a short drive to “Steamboats on the Mississippi River”. From the sign:

In 1817 the Zebulon M. Pike reached St. Louis, the northern-most steamboat port on the Mississippi River. The western steamboat of later years was a credit to the frontier American mechanic who drew upon experience to build a large craft (eventually over 300 by 40 feet) which would carry heavy cargoes in shallow water against the strong Mississippi current. Owners boasted that steamboats could run on heavy dew but in fact seasonal variations in river depth limited their use - medium sized steamboats needed at least four feet of water. The influence of the steamboat spread far and wide in the Mississippi Valley and hastened the development of the region.

Snags, explosions, collisions and fires sank many steamboats. An 1867 investigation recorded 133 sunken hulks in the Mississippi between Cairo and St. Louis, a stretch rivermen called the 'Graveyard.'

Even as the north-south river trade flourished in the 1850's, transportation lines running east and west developed. Railroads which followed a more direct route than winding rivers began to haul freight to and from the Mississippi Valley. Steamboats aided the north in the Civil War, but the reorientation of civilian commerce foreshadowed their decline. Although they continued to churn the Mississippi for the best of the nineteenth century, they were eventually replaced by strings of barges guided by a single steamboat or later by a diesel boat which transported the cargoes individual steamboats had once carried.

As well pulled into the town of Olive Branch to get some lunch I thought I could hear the echo of an angry dog, but in a tent across the road was a “tent revival”. The preacher seemed to be very angry about whatever he was saying which might explain the yellow “Caution” tape around the tent.

..and then we got to Cairo.

For the most part, Cairo, Illinois, sits abandoned as of 2023. Because of the severe floods, racial tensions, financial disparage, and lack of viable population: Cairo was doomed well before the 2011 flood. Today, the town sits silent, often reminding those in surrounding areas of what it once was.

Into state twenty-two. Kentucky.

Jane saw a large obelisk in Hopkinsville so we pulled over to take a look. It was the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site. Jefferson F. Davis was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.

It seemed as though we’d gotten to Hopkinsville just as the Amish (or, perhaps, Mennonite) rush hour started as there were a flurry of buggies. We later saw some on the interstate (or dual carriageway at least) which didn’t seem that safe.

Normally we toast a new state with some whiskey, but being in Kentucky we thought it should be some bourbon. We couldn’t find any. I’m sure we’ll get some when we get to the distillery in Lynchburg.

Dinner at Cracker Barrel (which I assume is mocked my Americans for its faux rustic decor.)

We got back to the the hotel, turned on the television, and we were watching ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ and they were talking about Franklin, the town we’re staying in. “Tennessee Neo-Nazis Show Up to Support Far-Right Franklin Mayoral Candidate.”