By the numbers:

• 290 miles, from Vicksburg, MS to New Orleans via Natchez– 3920 total miles for the trip.
• highest temp:  93 – Under the idea that it is always good to learn something new every day, we learned something new today.  In response to a comment about the heat and being from Seattle at one of the visitor’s centers we were told we shouldn’t mind the heat here because we would be used to the humidity in Seattle.  I have lived in a few places with high humidity including Iowa and Washington DC, but until today I did not know Seattle was one of them.
• Traveled through 2 states today:  MS and LA, but no new ones.
• License plates for 3 new states today:  Rhode Island and Maine. –  That leaves just Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii, and D.C to spot for the trip.
• Three new national park  stamps today for 2 new parks:  Melrose Mansion and the William Johnson House at Natchez National Park, and The Natchez Trace Parkway.  – 24 total park sites for the trip.
• Elevation number for the day – 11 – more on that below.

The Natchez Trace is another one of those interesting parts of our history about which I knew nothing before.  The Trace is now a parkway which runs all the way from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.  It began as a animal and game path 1000’s of years ago, then became a hunting trail, then a bit of a trading trail, but took a more permanent form in the late 17 and early 18 hundreds.  Farmers and traders from the Ohio and upper Mississippi Valley who wanted to sell their goods to people in the more populated Eastern cities would bring their products down the Mississippi on small wooden boat.  After selling their goods there was no inexpensive way back up the river.  Many sold their boats for the wood and then walked back up to the Ohio Valley.  The primary route followed was the Natchez Trace.  It took as long as 30 to 40 days to walk that trail and for a time thousands of people made that trek every year.

We are now in New Orleans and will explore the area for the next couple of days.  Consider that the main part of the city of New Orleans is at 11 feet elevation.  If you have ever been at an ocean beach in even a mild storm, think about how high some of the waves are that come crashing ashore.  Then imagine living in a city where the street is lower than the top of some of those waves.

Here’s my little tidbit of thought related to elevation today.  As I have said before, Louisiana is very flat.  How flat you ask?  Well consider this.  Back in Seattle, a few years ago, I redid part of my back yard in the form of a chess board patio.  The planning, excavation, building and construction was a fun summer-long project.  One thing I learned is that you should never build a patio or driveway perfectly level.  If you do, you will have water related problems.  The minimum recommended slope for such a project is to have a 1/8th inch rise for every foot of length of you patio.  This in necessary to ensure water will run off and not accumulate in puddles in the middle of you patio. Some math:

1/8th inch per foot  equals 1 inch per 8 feet  which equals  660 inches or 55 feet per mile.

Louisiana is 283 miles long from South to North.  So a this same slope would require an elevation of 15,565 feet at the high end.

The highest elevation in the state is actually 535 feet, so Louisiana is 30 times more level than my Chessboard.

By the numbers:

• 216 miles, from Shreveport LA to Vicksburg MS – 3609 total miles for the trip.
• highest temp:  95 but our weather app said the “real feel” was 105 and it “really felt” that hot.
• One new state, Mississippi, but no new license plates.  10 total states for the trip, plus I think we could see Arkansas from our most northern point today.
• Two new national parks: Poverty Point National Monument and Vicksburg National Military Park  – 20 total park sites for the trip.
• about 12 – the number of different electronic and/or battery powered devices I worried about when a thunderstorm rolled through and knocked the power out at our hotel for a little while.
• 535 feet – the highest elevation above sea level in the entire state of Louisiana, near Shreveport where we started this morning.  That’s about the same height at the top of the hill we live on in Seattle.

Poverty Point was the kind of National Park site I really love.  All about an aspect of our nation’s history that I had never heard about before and all very well presented and preserved.  

We tend to learn in school about the early middle eastern cultures, like the Egyptians that we think of as early precursors to our modern culture.  Here in Louisiana, at about the same time as the Egyptian pyramid builders there was a mound building culture that was probably the precursor to many of the later Native American cultures on this continent.  The Mounds they build were as high as 750 feet and huge.  The major mound was in the shape of a bird though you can only tell that from aerial photography today.  Yet these folks planned and build this and very intricate other patterns of mounds on which they both lived and grew crops without any way to see their work from above.  Some sophisticated math was involved.  The mound was built by carrying  baskets full of soil from nearby areas up the mounds and building the structure layer by layer.  With baskets of soil weighing about 50 pounds each the estimate is that it took about 15 million baskets full to build just the one mound.

Also, the culture involved major networks of trade up and down the Mississippi, with rocks found in this area known to have originated as far away as Iowa, Illinois and even above the Great Lakes region in Canada.  All of this occurred 2000 years B.C.  I had no idea.  Later generations of this same mound building culture built the Effigy Mounds in Eastern Iowa.

You can tell you are in the Civil War History part of the country when your hotel has a canon as a lawn decoration.

We will see more of Vicksburg tomorrow, but one last tidbit related to elevation.  All across Louisiana the entire state seemed very flat.  Suddenly we cross the Mississippi and on the this side of the river the city of Vicksburg is quite hilly.  In fact the cliffs by the river are about 300 feet high, one of the reasons Vicksburg was the last stronghold on the Mississippi for the South in the Civil War.

By the numbers:

• 110 miles, from Natchitoches to Shreveport LA via the Oakley Plantation– 3393 total miles for the trip.
• highest temp:  97 and over 90% humidity for part of the day.
• no new states and no new license plates.
• One new national park:  Cane River Creole National Historic Park – 18 total park sites for the trip.
• One World War II Museum – The former Eighth Air Force Museum, now the Global Power Museum on Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport. – 4th for the trip

Visiting military bases is always an interesting experience.  After living in Washington DC for 2 years we got used to the reality that security at every place is going to be different.  At Lackland AFB we almost didn’t get in.  They usually required advance approval but a phone call to staff at the on-base museum and a 30 minute wait got us in.  Here at Barksdale AFB, the guard met us at the gate asked for our driver’s licenses and then said to follow him in our car as he walked around the corner and pointed to an adjacent parking lot.  He said we could park there, right next to the museum and he would keep our licenses until we were done.  He was quite cheerful and noted that he was also from Seattle and promised us he would take special care of our licenses.  It all worked out.

The Cane River Creole Historic Area around Natchitoches covers a lot of history but mostly a large number of old plantation sites in this area.  We visited one specific site at the Oakley Plantation.  This part of our country’s history is so sad.  I have a hard time understanding the attraction that some people have to this era.  Being here while so many conversations are going on about he confederate flag is very odd.  The argument I have heard on news shows several times in the past week is that the Confederate flag is not about racism, it is about states’ rights.  But I have to ask when I hear that phrase, “States’ rights to do what?”  The civil war wasn’t fought over states’ rights to build roads, the right to provide schools or hospitals for citizens, or about how a state generally chooses to tax or spend its money.  It was specifically over the “states’ right” to continue a system of support for one group of people to enslave another group of people and treat them as property.  I don’t know if the confederate flag defenders don’t get that or if they don’t want to get that.  The confederate flag is part of history but I have a hard time seeing how it should be the official part of any level of government anywhere in the currrent day United States.

One other item we learned today was that there is a special food item we should look for while in this area:  a Nactchitoches Meat Pie.  The key thing to understand is that these meat pies are like Grape Nuts – They aren’t pies and they aren’t (usually) filled with meat.  They are what we would call an empanada and are usually filled with crayfish.  If we run across one I will report.

The sky was beautiful today as we just managed to finish our day before a thunder storm rolled through the area.

As we got close to our hotel I asked “Do you suppose they have any Texas roadhouses in Louisiana?” The next instance right in front of our hotel was this sign.  We had a great dinner and I told the waitress I had only one complaint.  Their prime rib is so good I can never bring myself to try anything else on the menu.

By the numbers:

• 251 miles, from outside Houston TX to Natchitoches LA – 3283 total miles for the trip.
• highest temp:  90 and over 90% humidity for part of the day.
• elevation: rose to all of about 130 feet above sea level.  Not going to report on this again until after we are out of Florida.
• 2 states: Texas and Louisisana: up to 9 total states for the trip.
• New licence plates spotted: none
• One new national park: Big Thicket National Preserve.
  – 16 total park sites for the trip.

Even though it was hot and humid we were comfortable most of the day traveling in our air-conditioned car.  This part of the country is so lush and green.  It is really quite beautiful.  We learned at the Big Thicket that for many years the Thicket was home to relatively few people, but that they could live a pretty reasonable life totally in the woods.  The area is full of such a diverse range of plants, trees, birds, insects and animals that resourceful people could live a very self-sustained life just from the resources around them.  In addition to using natural items for food and clothing and shelter, many medicines could be obtained from the Thicket.

It was interesting to be in this area at the same time as we were finishing listening to David McCullough’s excellent book on The Wright Brothers.  Wilbur and Orville were a pretty amazing pair, truly scientifically genius, incredibly industrious, honest, and creative.  They deserve every credit as the inventors of the first heavier than air flying machine.  While they eventually did make a fair amount of money from their invention and work, becoming rich was never their goal.  They lived very consistently with their father’s maxim that “All the money anyone needs is just enough to prevent one from being a burden on others.”

My thought about the people living in the Big Thicket was that many of us today might look upon such an existence as a pretty low level hard scrabble way of life, but they definitely lived according to Milton Wrights advice.  Not needing or expecting support or help from anyone else.  Of course we do not live in a world where everyone ascribes to that approach.  At the point at which it was realized that the Big Thicket contained Big Timber and Big Oil, then Big Money stepped in, booted out many of the people living there and just about destroyed this most amazingly diverse and intricately intertwined and balanced environment.  Luckily before that happened, people with a longer view stepped in and set aside a small part of the original Thicket as a preserve.

The story of the Big Thicket can also be seen as a allegory more generally for other issues in our modern world.  See GracedMoment blog for today.

The best part of travels to new places, whether it be physical travels to National Parks, or intellectual travels to other places and times like 1903 at Kitty Hawk, is when we can use those new experiences to reflect on ourselves and what we can do to make our work a better place.

Tomorrow we will visit a part of the Cane River Creole National Historic Park and another museum in Shreveport LA.

By the numbers:

• 306 miles, all in Texas from San Antonio to Galveston and back to Houston – 3032 total miles for the trip – about one quarter done
• highest temp:  93 at about 3:00 then 71 at 3:30 and back to 89 by 4:00.  Drove through a major rainstorm in between of the type we never see in Seattle.
• elevation low point of the day – just few feet about sea level at Galveston
• still at 8 total states for the trip.
• Licence plates spotted: New York and New Jersey – only 8 more to have seen all 50.
• Two new National Park sites:  San Antonio Missions and El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro or the Spanish Colonial Royal Road.
  – 15 total park sites for the trip.
• One other Museum – The Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston.

Just a few tidbits for today:

When I find I have sort of overdone the number of museums I have gone to in a short period of time if feels like my brain is full and can’t hang onto anything more.  That was me today at the San Antonio Missions.  It seemed really interesting at the time but after the fact if you ask me what I learned it would be like the parents talking on a Charlie Brown cartoon. “Wa, wa, wa, blah, blah, blah. ”  Hopefully I can reset and get ready for the rest of the trip.

Another event which was the result of loss of concentration was when driving and getting directions from our Android GPS, whom we lovingly refer to as Miss Gypsy.  I wasn’t paying attention to closely when I realized the last thing Gypsy had said contained these 4 words, Left, East, South, and Cross.  My brain’s reaction was to try to figure out which of those I should do:  Go left, go east, go south, or go cross the road.  The answer was that I was supposed to “Turn Left on East South-Cross Road.”

One more brain freeze event was at the hotel when I discovered that in addition to being red-green color blind, (to see if you are take this online test) I am also apparently HCAI (Hotel card arrow impaired).  I could not get the room card to work no matter how I tried (we even had the hotel clerk make us new cards).  I decided to try the card each of the 4 possible ways it could go in the slot only to be told on the last try that there was an arrow on the corner of the card to help guide you on how to insert it in the slot.  When inserted with the arrow first it of course worked correctly.

We were at a Huge truck stop, respite, service station, food, trinket, kind of place today with literally 100’s of cars and trucks all stopped around lunch time.  Over the load speaker someone said, “would the owner of the red truck please return their vehicle.”  My thought was: “Oh yeah, I am sure there’s only going to be one of those here.”

At the museum in Galveston, I pointed in one direction and asked for a suggestion on a viewpoint to see the Gulf of Mexico.  I was informed that the direction I was pointing was not toward the Gulf.  I got directions, which were actually helpful, but when back to the car confirmed my thought that we were actually on an Island at the time and technically any direction was toward the Gulf.

After driving through the above mentioned rainstorm we spent some time at the seawall and beach area in Galveston.  The scene reminding me of my first time ever visiting any ocean beach.  At Christmas 1974 my cousins, Pete and Mark, took me with them to spend the holiday with their parents, my uncle and aunt Al and Edna, at their winter home in Brownsville, Texas.  They taught me how to body surf in the Gulf on Christmas day.  (The locals dressed in their winter coats thought we were crazy, but for us, coming from 20 below temps in Iowa, the water was warm.)  I was later able to use my body surfing “skills” in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  Thanks cousins for that memory.

Onto a new state tomorrow, Louisiana.

By the numbers:

• 126 miles, all in Texas from Fredericksburg to San Antonio – 2726 total miles for the trip.
• highest temp:  93.
• elevation continues to drop:  down to 650 feet in San Antonio.
• still at 8 total states for the trip.
• Licence plates spotted: Alabama, West Virginia, and Minnesota – 40 total for the trip plus 3 Canadian provinces.
• One new National Park:  2 sites – LBJ National Historic Sites at both Stonewall and Johnson City, Texas.  The Stonewall site includes President Johnson’s birthplace and ranch.  The Johnson City site is a Museum covering an overview of his presidency. – 13 total park sites for the trip.
• One other Museum – The Airman Heritage Museum on base at Lackland Airforce Base.

To my surprise I real enjoyed our time in the Hill Country region of Texas.  Very pretty, reasonable weather, and many interesting places to go.

I was very affected going to the LBJ national park sites.  I always enjoy traveling to places where my ancestors lived because it gives me a feel for the what it might have been like for them to live in a particular place.  Similarly there was something quite affecting about seeing and walking about on the same land and in the same house as this great historical figure.   I know many people associate him only with the Vietnam War, but my connection to him has always been Civil Rights.  Reviewing the many accomplishments of his presidency stands in sharp contrast to the past 15 to 20 years in our country’s leadership.  His presidency was a time when the focus was on identifying problems and actually doing something to try to improve the situation.  There were over 200 major national pieces of legislation put into law during his time, affecting civil rights, poverty, education, health care, the arts, the environment and much more.  The author, Taylor Branch, whose 3 part series on American in the 50’s and 60’s is essential reading for any history buff has said that 3 pieces of legislation personally pushed through by Johnson made more of a change in our society than any other legislation in the past century:  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (marking the beginning of the end of official segregation in the South), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (outlawing many of the practices used to keep Blacks in the south from exercising their fundamental right  to vote), and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (which abolished the old explicitly racial quota system of legal immigration into this country).

The first of those laws, as it applies to our nations schools and colleges, is what I spent the entire 34 years of my federal government employment working to implement and enforce.  For me that law and subsequent additions which strive to ensure that everyone in this country has an equal assess to educational opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, or disability, are foundational to what is unique and great about our country.  Obviously, I could go on but let me just repeat how moved I was to visit such well created and presented memorials to this man.