Friday was to be the nicest weather day so we took the Beemer out of the garage and toured the countryside for a few hours. Rode through lots of farmland - mostly cotton fields which have all been picked. Found a levee holding in the Mississippi and drove along it (legal in daylight) for quite a few miles. Sometimes you can't even see the river from the top of the levee...did the river move since the levee was built (or did they intentionally build it far away due to land ownership, land configuration???
Stopped for lunch at a very small grocery store/deli. Wasn't sure I wanted to eat there but choices were slim to none (this or none - lol). Went in to the back by the meat counter and ordered philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Chatted with Kitty who made them, and found she had been there 5 years after working up north (near Tunica) at the casinos. The store is owned by Chinese people. (Was surprised by this as I didn't expect to find Chinese here, but in talking with a man later in the day said that they are very common in MS. They don't speak English including the young man in the cage up front where you pay for your food. The sandwiches were very good and filled the need and very reasonable - $3.79.
Later in the afternoon we passed by a cotton gin and Jerry turned around and went in. His curiosity was getting him and he has always wanted to see one in action. Found the manager of the co-op, Bill Taylor who has been doing this for 20 yrs. Very nice man and very smart and knowledgeable. He explained the whole process. Cotton is picked (beginning about the end of August)and bundled in huge rectangles and covered with tarp over the top and about a foot or two over the sides and ends. When ginning begins, the bundles are brought to the gin by a truck which resembles a dump truck, but the back end is open and they back up and under the bundle a little. Rollers grab the bundle and move it into the truck. When the truck gets to the gin, it backs up to a loading dock and the rollers reverse to push it onto the dock.
Then the huge bundle moves into the gin. It is dried and then put through the gin which combs out all the sticks, seeds and debris. The sticks and debris is shot out to a huge pile in back, the seeds are shot with air through a tube to another building and sold for cottonseed oil processing. The lint (the cleaned cotton fibers) are scrunched and bundled into a 500 lb (abt) rectangle and put into plastic bags for shipping to cotton manufacturers to spin and weave. All this is automated. He said they are late this year and should have been done by Thanksgiving, as December begins the wet season here, and wet is the enemy of ginning as it is more difficult to dry the cotton and if not dry, it sticks to the huge combing machine's tines. Once while we were talking to him from the office area (not allowed into the gin area but could see several huge machines operating from the window in the door) a terrific loud screech occurred and he said it was a gin getting stuck due to a damp clump of cotton. In the office area there, a lady who comes from TX each year to work for the ginning season, sits watching the finished bundles come off the machine and logs the weight of each bundle on a sheet.
It was all very interesting. Thanked Bill and headed for home as the sun was starting down and it was beginning to get chilly. Glad for leftover turkey dinner fixings for supper.
Saturday we worked around the rig a little, did a bit of shopping and ate dinner at Ground Zero where we are parked. Jerry enjoyed his ribs and I had the catfish, two of their specialties.
Thought we had the leading slide problem solved at Pontiac RV when they did some caulking around the rear of the slide. However, have had the water wick onto the carpet twice now on our trip when it rained. Can't find where it is coming from....will have to pull the slide in when it is going to rain until we get somewhere to have it looked at. Oh, and we had another flat tire- on Dusty (the truck) - our own fault, though. After shopping we were driving around Clarksdale a bit and J took a short cut through a parking lot. Who was to know that apparently there had been a structure there and the bolts were still embedded in the cement...you guessed it - we heard it pop when we drove over one, and it immediately went down. Luckily we were in a good part of town and had an old gas station cover and cement which was still dry to change it in as it started to rain... Got the job done and went 1-1/2 blocks to Firestone station to get a new tire.
Learned from locals why we are seeing so many fire-ravaged homes. They have an uncaught arsonist who has torched 90 some homes in the last 3 months. So very sad as this is such a depressed area with so many boarded up buildings and rundown houses that people call home. Sure does help you stop to thank God for the blessings we have! Sure hope they catch the culprit!
Planning to move on today - Greenville, then west. Wind predicted (22 mpr) for Monday west of Texarkana so will avoid that!
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