Baby Jett!

The last time I wrote was from Philadelphia back in August. Once I returned to Minnesota, we turned our focus on getting back to Philadelphia before the baby was born so that we could deliver some furniture, but most importantly, The Crib. That Honda CRV that we purchased last December to replace our Toyota was pancaked in a 4 car pile-up in Minneapolis on July 28. ^th. We continued to drive it while we waited for the insurance company to tell us where they wanted it repaired. Turns out after some thought they decided to total the car and just give us money so we had to spend some time purchasing a new car and then getting it ready to tow. We found a 2014 Buick Enclave which worked very well because we could use it to tow a trailer full of furniture to Philadelphia.

We stayed at Mississippi Riverwood RV Park until September 13 and then moved the camper to our friend’s house in Excelsior Springs, MO where they let us store it for a few weeks. They had sold their property but we had plenty of time before they closed on that sale on October 20. While all this was going on we attempted to spend time with Greg’s family.

The view at Mississippi Riverwood

Minnessota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Fesitval

Edie at MBOTMA

At Ken and Lori's for pizza on the grill 

Gymnastics 

Fat Chance Jugband at the Boogie at Deer Lake Charlies in Effie

Trailer packed and ready to go

On September 15, we loaded up a U-Haul trailer and headed for Kelly’s. We arrived on September 20. Due date was September 24. We all commenced to wait for the much anticipated arrival of Baby Jett. We had work to do fixing some things around Kelly’s house. She comped us a room at the Time Square Hampton Inn so we took the train from New Jersey into Penn Station and checked out Manhattan for a couple of days. We continued to wait. Finally, on October 5, I said we need to go back to Minnesota. Both Don and I had doctor’s appointments scheduled for the 9th.

The view from our window.

So we headed down the Pennsylvania Turnpike going west. We took off in the afternoon and made it about 240 miles. We texted Kelly at about 7:00 PM. No sign of labor starting. If labor didn’t start on it’s own by 10/8 she was scheduled to be induced. I started figuring out how I could fly back to Philadelphia so I could see this baby. So we were totally amazed on Friday morning to find a picture of a newborn baby
 on my cell phone as we sat down for breakfast. We discussed our options and decided to turn around and head back to Philadelphia so we could spend a couple of hours with the family. So we did that.

Jett was born on October 6 at 7:06 AM. 7 lbs. 9 oz. 19 in. in Philadelphia Hospital. We got there in time to spend a couple of hours with the new family and then returned the way we came through downtown Philly’s rush hour traffic. We managed to make it back to where we started in the morning.  By the time we finished that day, the Turnpike had about $100 in tolls from us. It was hard to leave that baby behind.

Grandma meets Jett

Grandpa meets Jett

Aimless Wandering:

Yesterday, my sister Elaine called and she asked me where I was. Well, I said, “I’m in my camper. Just finished making cole slaw for supper.” She paused for a minute and asked, “Where is your camper?” “Oh,” I said “Jackson, Mississippi.” So you see now I’m home when I’m in the camper wherever it is parked. It just so happens that it is in Jackson now. Tomorrow we will be heading west with plans to be at home in Landry Vineyard in Monroe, Louisiana. We have no plan other than to be at Palmdale on December 1.

The Black Iris for which the farm is named

So here is where we've been. We got back to our camper in Excelsior Springs on October 10 and spent a few days helping Kay and Max finish packing their house. We went over to Don’s sister’s in Ottawa, KS for the weekend and came back to pick up the camper and head out.

After that we did our normal visiting old friends through Missouri and Illinois and I showed everyone my daily pictures of my beautiful new granddaughter Jett, and a few new ones of my beautiful older granddaughter Edie who has started Kindergarten.

Beautiful new granddaughter - Jett

Beautiful older granddaughter Edie - Kindergarten

Cotton…

Bumper crop

Pickin cotton

When we got to Blytheville, Arkansas, we were impressed with the enormous colorful bales of cotton laying around the fields and the abundance of unpicked cotton. We drove to see Johnny Cash’s boyhood home in Dyess which is town that was settled during the depression. About 500 families were given 40 acres each of swampland and enough to build a house. The families then were able to drain the swampland and grow cotton along with food for
themselves. Johnny Cash’s family was one of the lucky families that had this opportunity. We arrived just as the caretaker of the place was closing up the house and talked to him briefly. He did point us towards the cotton gin about a half a mile down the road and said they might even give us a tour. It wouldn’t hurt to ask so we headed over to Rabbit Ridge Gin and Warehouse. We drove in not far behind a truck hauling a load of cotton onto the scale. Off to the side was another truck backing up to the gin preparing to unload. The gravel driveway and weeds around the edges were gathering wisps of cotton that was blowing around in the wind. Back behind all of the buildings were stacks of huge bales and loads of cotton that were gathered the old way. We could hear the roar of heavy equipment coming from buildings where the cotton was being unloaded. We entered the office without much hope but asked at the desk about a possible tour.

Citton seed - how the gin makes a profit

Unloading bales behind the gin

The young woman said she would ask and soon we were approached by a man, about 50 years old. He said sure and led us to a diagram which showed the steps that go to separating the seeds from the cotton. We had picked a handful of cotton from the field we stopped at to get a picture of the cotton picker and I knew that getting the seed out was not an easy thing to do. He described all the steps and we weren’t sure if that was all but he invited us to follow him to the gin and spent about an hour with us walking around the gin showing us all the steps that involved fluffing up the cotton drying it out and cutting the seeds out and then adding moisture back in the cotton so that it could be packed into bales for shipping. So we walked around immense pieces of noisy machinery as he explained what was happening in each step. Workers were busy monitoring the equipment and in the end filling the bags that contained the finished bales. We saw the building that housed the cotton seeds which are what provides cottonseed oil and animal feed which gives the gin their profit margin. Then the warehouse which is stacked high with bales of cotton to be shipped, much of it overseas. When we finished watching a truck deliver and label another 4 giant bales of cotton, we returned to the owner’s office where he had some pictures and samples of how cotton was picked in the old days. I was surprised when he said that they were still picking cotton by hand as recently as 1964. He told of how workers migrated to the area from the hills in the Ozarks to help pick cotton in the fall and then went home.  I thought of the town that we drove through over by the river where it appeared mostly African American people lived in small rundown houses and shacks. We saw a large American Greetings plant and other large manufacturing plants nearby so the economy is transitioning. I recently saw an article why cotton is bad for backpacking and hiking. Fortunately for us we have survived major backpacking trips wearing cotton but not anymore. Our gin owner showed us on a board he has posted in the office where the number of bales that they gin every year has been dropping steadily from a high of 26,000 bales 6 years ago compared to 9200 last year.

Mississippi

Mississippi State Capit0l

Martin Luther King's last motel
stay in Memphis.

Here in Jackson, I toured Eurdora Welty’s home and found her book on my Nook and started reading it again taking my time to just enjoy the people and places she describes so deliciously. We toured the new capitol, the old capitol and the Governor’s Mansion. A woman at the tourist information center suggested that we ask about the ghost in the Governor’s mansion. She said that no one would bring it up. So we did that. Our tour guide was appalled that someone had suggested that and she told us briefly that there have been stories about Governor Bilbo’s ghost which is said to hang out in the bathroom. But she said not to ever bring it up because they were not supposed to talk about it. I looked up Governor Bilbo on my Google and figured out that he wasn’t just controversial as she said but he was an appalling human being and I can understand why the tour guides do not bring up that shameful piece of Mississippi history.

Jett - 1 month old

Aug. 11-13 -  El Rancho Manana, MBOTMA Festival
Aug. 14 - Sep. 13, Mississippi Riverwoods RV Park, Osceola, MN
Sep. 14- Oct 15 Black Iris Farms, Excelsior Springs, MO
           Sep. 15-Oct. 9 - Minnesota - Philadelphia by car
Oct. 16-17 – Mark Twain Caves Campground, Hannibal MO

Oct. 18-22 – Illinois State Fairgrounds Campground, Springfield, IL

Oct. 23 –  Walmart, Festus, MO

Oct. 24-25 – Cape Camping and RV Park, Cape Girardeau, MO

Oct. 26- 28 – Grizzly’s RV Park, Blytheville, AR

Oct. 28-29 Memphis South RV Park and Campground, Coldwater, MS

Oct. 30 – Wal Mart, Ridgeland, MS

Oct. 31-Nov.  – Timberlake Campground, Brandon, MS