The Great Adventure: The South

The South. A place I had never been before. Some of my perceptions were accurate and some were not! I definitely learned some things while we were down there! The United States is a fascinating place and one thing I am learning this year is the great amount of diversity within the subcultures of each area! What one subculture sees as absurd, another sees as normal.

We travelled down to Mississippi to visit our friends Will and Sarah and their newborn baby girl in June. It was a quick trip, but well worth it. The drive was fascinating, our time as a family was very good, and our time with Will and Sarah was a blessing.

The drive was about 8 hours, but much of it, (about 3 1/2 hours) was spent on country roads through Alabama and Mississippi as there are no interstates near where we went. What this meant was that there were about 50 different ways to get there as country roads cross every which way. We just had to guess which country road was faster. This depended on drivers in front of us, the number of towns the roads went through, and how curvy the road was. For example, the route we took home was shorter in mileage, but about 45 minutes longer.

Driving through Alabama was not what I expected. It was very beautiful! I was thrilled to see the forests filled with pine trees. I do miss the pines and firs so this was a welcome sight! There was also a large logging industry there, which I was unaware of. We saw a lot of logging trucks and logging companies. There were a lot of rolling hills and some beautiful river bottoms and vistas.

A long the way, I saw some very large snakes dead along the road. Yeech. At least they were dead. However, I also kept seeing other reptiley corpses along the road. I kept slowing down to trying to figure out what they were (Please withold your redneck comments.....I was curious). It looked just like an armadillo, but I didn't think they were down there. Finally, one was not as smashed as the others and it was clear: Armadillos were being slaughtered in great numbers by the vehicles that traveled the roads there. It was a tragedy for the armadillo community! However, it was apparent they didn't learn from the mistakes of others. Another reason to study history.

We did see some funny things down there as well. A couple of restaurants that looked appealing: Boar's Butt Restaurant and then another called Smokin Butts Barbecue. Hmmmmmm......apparently you don't throw a steak on the barbecue there. You throw a chunk of butt. We also learned the south likes their tanning salons....only they are very different from the typical tanning salon of the city or California. Anyone ever been to an express video and tanning store? We saw a couple of those. Or how about a floral and tanning shop? There was also another really random one, but I can't remember what it was. The funny thing was, we saw several of these combination shops. "Yeah, I'd like a dozen roses and a tan please." "Honey, go down to the shop and pick out a movie for tonight and while you're there, why don't you bronze yourself?"

We were very blessed to stay in a house on the base which was great. It was so nice to be in a house again! Three bedrooms is nice also! The base was an pilot training base so there were constantly planes going over which the girls really enjoyed. Jess and the girls also got to ride a horse we use to have named Frank which was a blessing.

Enjoy the pictures!
Shane

Kate and Rose in their bedroom. They really liked their little beds.