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| Was going to relax in the porch swing but would have disturbed this spider which appears to be wearing a Halloween costume. Best I could tell after a bit of online research, this is a spiny-backed orb-weaver. |
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| Halloween flamingos in Addie's yard down the street |
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| This stray (?) has begun stopping by for breakfast and dinner. She hisses and bats at us if we try to touch her. (Assuming it's a "her," because "she" is so pretty. Either Marilyn Monroe or Marilyn Manson. We don't know yet). |
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| So cute, right? But after she stretched and yawned and moved on, my computer was in airplane mode, the CapsLock key was on, and it was talking to me every time I hit a key. Also, no internet! After several hours on the phone with AT&T Uverse (our internet provider), McAfee (our internet security service), and Dell (manufacturer of my laptop), and my own online research on Papa Tom's computer (which was still online), the laptop was reconfigured. Hard lesson learned! Now, when I leave the room, I turn off the laptop and lower the lid! |
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| Due to upstream flooding, the City of Austin water treatment plants were overwhelmed with debris and silt. The City could not clean water fast enough for all of us who wanted about 120 million gallons per day. The City could clean about 105 million gallons daily. We had to bring water to a rolling boil for 3 minutes for it to be safe to consume. Water pressure was an issue too. We showered every other day. |
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| On Friday, we drove from Austin to Shreveport, through equally heavy rain and traffic. We stayed at Margaritaville, where Tom did quite well at the blackjack table. |
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| We had lunch Saturday at Imperial Cathay with Emma and her choir friend Jo, Dad, Martha, Craig, and Martin. |
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| So much rain this fall! On our way home, we passed a flooded farm field on Highway 31 between Corsicana and Waco. |
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| Before. Time to start the transition to silver hair. Probably a 2-year project. My last visit to a hair salon was the day before Fox was born: March 22, 2011. I've been trimming my own hair since then. |
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| During. First attempt at lifting the black from my hair. |
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| After. Shorter and lighter. Next appointment is in six weeks. |
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| Smooth with no frizz. How did Carmen do that? |
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| Goal. I've wanted hair like Storm's for years. We'll see. |
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| We picked Fox up from school on Tuesday, October 9, after she threw up. She was sick through Wednesday but couldn't go back to school on Thursday due to the "24-hour rule." In the meantime, we learned how to make a vinegar and baking soda volcano, thanks to YouTube. |
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| On Friday, October 12, we played with the Howell kids while Sarah and Kirk caught Paul McCartney's performance at ACL. Sure enough, just before they got home, Jim got sick. Something's definitely going around! |
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| One of the best moments was holding this adorable beagle puppy being raised by the owner of the cottage where we stayed. |
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| I have no fear of flying but I am claustrophobic. Wasn't too happy about the United Express from Jackson to Houston. Only one seat on one side of the aisle, and two seats on the other side. |
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| Could this be the very spot of Great-grandpa and Great-grandma Crane's Monterey Landing, on the Black River in Monterery, Louisiana? Monterey is about 28 miles from Natchez, across the Mississippi River. The building burned down nearly 100 years ago. I wonder if the vacant lot remains in the family? |
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| Next to the Monterey Landing site is the family cemetery. Great-grandpa Crane was born in Christmas Day 1861, about 8 months after the Civil War began, and lived to be 93 years old. Great-grandma Crane lived from 1866 to 1950. Oh, the changes they must have seen during their lives! I thanked them for raising Amy Bertha Crane, my grandmother, who was a sweet, thoughtful, loving person. She was the 10th of 12 children. As a child, did she run and play on the very spots where I stood? One of my favorite memories of her occurred when I was in first grade. We were back in the States from Peru for a 2-month vacation and were staying with Grandma and Grandpa Hogan. I started first grade in Coushatta, Louisiana, catching the school bus in front of their house. Every day, after school, she'd welcome me home with a package of M&Ms pulled from the floor freezer in the kitchen. 
Wasn't I cute?
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| Only the exterior of Longwood, begun in 1860, was finished before the Civil War (there's an oxymoron). The family lived on the basement of the home until about 1970, when the home was donated to the Pilgrimage Garden Club. In 1971, the home was designated a National Historic Landmark. |
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| View of the interior of the unfinished dome, from the second floor. The dome reaches a height of 217 feet, including three floors of living space. Only eight of 32 rooms were finished. |
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| Baby's cradle on the porch |
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| Living in Austin, I miss the magnificent moss-draped oaks of New Orleans. If I lived in Natchez, I would sit on the bench under this oak, with a good book, passing the time and remembering the slaves who suffered and died here. This oak is at Melrose, a plantation home preserved by the National Park Service. My emotions are conflicted: appreciation for the charm and beauty of Melrose is outweighed by the horror and immorality of human slavery used to support the planter's lifestyle. |
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| We had excellent "homemade" chicken pot pie at Mammy's Cupboard. How small town is Natchez? The restaurant only takes cash and checks. If all you have is a credit card, they'll refuse payment and ask you to mail a check to them when you get back home. Luckily, I had enough cash to cover lunch. |
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| Biscuits and Blues features fluffy biscuits and live music. We were so full from lunch that we only had biscuits and locally brewed Bluff City Blonde beer for dinner. (One of Natchez's nicknames is The Bluff City due to its location on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi). |
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| Oh my! Gotta wonder if the bathroom at Fat Mama's Tamales is meant to enhance the experience of one of their Knock You Naked margaritas. |
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| The Mighty Mississippi is about a mile wide at Natchez. A Natchez native proudly pointed out to me that Natchez is the oldest city on the river, having been founded by the French in 1716, some two years before New Orleans was founded. Natchez calls itself "the Little Easy" in a nod to the Big Easy. |
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| Sunset on the river as seen from Natchez Under the Hill. The main part of the city is built on a bluff 200 feet above the river. Back in the day, Under the Hill was where riverboat gamblers and ne'er-do-wells hung out at saloons, etc. In 1827, Jim Bowie used his (now famous) knife to kill the Rapides Parish sheriff in the Sandbar Fight in the river. What began as a duel between two other men deteriorated into a melee in which Bowie, who had been shot and stabbed, killed the sheriff. In 1830, he moved from Louisiana to Texas and became a Mexican citizen. He died heroically in 1836, defending the Alamo. |
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| Our home away from home was The Chicken Coop. Just us chicks, no chickens. |
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| Some 800 years ago, ancestors of the Natchez tribe built an 8-acre mound that was about 60 feet high at the top. Atop the mound were temples, burial sites, and ceremonial structures used for nearly 300 years. I stood at the highest point of what is now a high, grassy mound close to the Mississippi River. |
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| Between Jackson and Natchez, along the Natchez Trace Parkway, is the ghost town of Rodney. This must have been a church. I like the arched shutters above the window. |
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| Many churches we saw had cupolas rather than steeples. An architectural style popular in the mid-1800s? |
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| My Pepa Meek, who farmed cotton, had a similar gas pump outside his house for filling tractors and probably trucks too. You could see the gasoline (diesel?) level in the glass container on top. |
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| I wonder who last sat in those chairs, and why they left them behind. |
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| Squint or make the photo larger to see the cannonball lodged above the middle window on the second floor. In 1863, the pastor--a Union sympathizer--invited the captain and 18 men from the Rattler, a Union gunboat, to attend a service at the Presbyterian church. Confederates showed up and took the Union soldiers prisoner. Word got back to the Rattler, moored on the Mississippi, and cannons were fired upon the church. The Confederate leader threatened to hang the Union prisoners if the barrage continued; it stopped. But a cannonball remains lodged in the church wall as a reminder of that long ago day. |
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| My little phone camera didn't do justice to these 45-foot high columns from the Windsor mansion. The 23-room mansion was completed in 1861 for a cotton planter who owned 21,000 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Mississippi River was visible from a cupola on the mansion. Thanks to a dropped cigar, the mansion burned in 1890, leaving only the columns and some ironwork. You used to be able to walk among the ruins; too dangerous now. |
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| Cheryl and I flew into Jackson, MS, on October 4 and took the Natchez Trace Parkway south to Natchez. Just off the road is a portion of the Old Trace, a 500-mile trail from what is now Natchez to what is now Nashville. The trail was blazed by Native Americans, then used in the 1800s by boatmen walking home after delivering goods downriver and by settlers headed south and west from Appalachia. They faced heat, mosquitoes, swollen rivers, sucking swamps, and bandits. A broken arm or leg could spell death for a lone traveler. |
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| I've been a Led Zeppelin fan since high school. We had to catch Robert Plant in concert. That voice! He played three sold-out shows in Austin. |
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| He played some old favorites like "Whole Lotta Love" and what are bound to be new favorites from his current album "Carry Fire." |
