Thunder, lightning, rain, and sunny skies....

Our Location: Magic River RV Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

(all photos taken with my phone)

The weather has been fantastic for warmth and until today for sunshine as well. Today however was a mixed bag with a few rain drops around 4 am, then nothing until about 11 am. While the temps were still very warm and the air was humid the sky turned dark and very threatening. We had thunder, lightning, rain and then it drizzled, stopped, drizzled, stopped, then this evening it cleared up to be a warm, humid nice evening. Temps were in the 80's today, 26 -30 C for my Canucky family and friends reading this. I will say that there is still some dripping going on as the slightest breeze is making the drops fall from the trees over head, however the frogs are once again making their nightly voices sing, and the night sounds are wafting thru the humid southern air. All is right in the neighbourhood!!

Half a blow up Chicken - taken from half a block away with my phone

The last few days have been good days but nothing exciting so I just didn't bother to write about nothing. Believe me I've saved you from lots of boredom. ~laugh~ We've walked, we've shopped, we've enjoyed evening campfires, we've read, we've napped, and just enjoyed our days here. Nothing pressing but enjoyably simple and relaxing. We've been slowly getting things accumulated to take home to Canada with us and I can tell ya that we're almost full. ~laugh~ 

Temps yesterday, top one is outside, bottom one is inside..

Morning fires have been the same crowd with the addition of Bobby, a fella from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Don from Vermont. Bobby is doing some local contracting work and will be here for some time but Don & wife, I think her name is Rose but maybe not, arrived two nights ago and left today after the big rain. Three new units have arrived in the past day or two which once again brings the campground to almost full. 

I walked by myself today as Riley didn't feel like going today. I only managed 2 laps before the thunder started rumbling and so I headed for the Dogsled before the lightning and/or the rain started. The rain drops started about 10 minutes after I left the walking path which means I would have been at the furthest point from the Dogsled at the time. I think I did the wise thing. ~laugh~ 

Looks like the bark from a cedar tree, doesn't it?

At home we loaded up the Dogsled with our dirty laundry and headed off to the Wash & Save coin laundry place on Railroad Street and N. Burke Ave. While we were there the skies grew very dark, very threatening and the rain came down hard for a while but then slowed, finally stopping and the skies brightened significantly. A little drizzle was falling by the time we left 2 hours later. While at the laundry Donna & Malcom from Collingwood, Ontario all came in carrying laundry bags. 

Home around 1 pm we managed to get all the laundry inside and didn't find too much stuff misplaced due to weather, although a number of inch - inch and a half thick branches were down just where the Dogsled usually sits, so I'm happy we were out at the time. A number of smaller pieces of dead wood, small leafy branches, etc were down around the place but nothing major. Water however is laying around in most low areas. 

Can you see the spindly little green needles that are just starting to come out? Same tree as the above pic

Reading this afternoon was an excellent way to pass the time. Too wet outside to do much and I'm too lazy by afternoon to do anything anyway. ~laugh~ I did however mention to Billy & Charlene when I met them on their way out that if they got into trouble Billy wasn't to call me for bail money. ~laugh~ 

Mac dropped by around 6:45 pm to see about a fire but I declined, it's too damp for me tonight. However Mac and I have been doing the morning fires around 5:30 am but those will be stopping shortly as Mac will be heading out soon, and so shall we. Mac will be 79 years old tomorrow, March 31. Happy Birthday Mac!!

Sky while I was out walking this morning..

Magic the camp cat has been hanging around getting lots of attention from most of the fire dwellers. She has figured out that by sitting on a chair one of two things happens, someone either just leaves her alone and she gets the chair or they pick her up and she gets to settle in their lap, either way it's a win/win for her. ~laugh~ She's truly enjoying the attention and often times will just tease us by wandering around our feet but ending up sitting on the picnic table just out of reach. ~laugh~ She's a diva!!!!

A Canada goose is nesting in one of the ponds, not sure when the eggs will hatch but I'm willing to bet that this pair of geese have given up their Canadian citizenship and are full time residents down here. I don't think the travel ban has  bothered them one bit. ~laugh~ 

Pretty dark  up in those tree tops huh?

So as you can see, nothing exciting, but it's been interesting all the same. We are enjoying our last few days here and the weather is fantastic temperature wise. The storm that was worrying everyone didn't really have any effect on us here except for rain and dark skies. Thunder rolled and the odd bit of lightning flashed but it was nothing like the predictions were guessing at. So we're all very happy about that down here in Southern Mississippi. 

One of the things we managed over the past couple of days was a to Ocean Springs to find the Fred's Super Pharmacy to pick up a few things. Glad we found one in Mississippi. Our last chore will be to get my dad a couple of bottles of Bacardi's Rum before we head out. Other than that we have pretty much finished getting everything we hoped to purchase down here. Hope the Dogsled can pull it home. ~laugh~ 

Rain falling while at the Laundromat today....

So on that note, thanks for dropping by, hope you had a great day. Until next time...be safe, take care...

Cool morning, warmer afternoon, sight seeing in Ocean Springs....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

This morning was very cool 39F/3.8C at 6:15 a.m. when I headed up to the fire. I can tell you I had my gloves and two heavy sweaters on, one with a hood. I didn't find it as damp as usual this morning and I have no idea why, but I'll take it!!

Gets about 10 miles to the gallon towing...does well except in the mountains

The morning fire was different without Ken this morning, no long slow southern drawl which I always enjoy hearing. Buzz, Mac, Ron and I were all kind of just shooting the breeze and discussing Buzz's big win last night. Lisa wandered up, eventually Pete, then Jeannie, and I think Chuck too. Butch stopped by, Robert also put in an appearance and one of the new guys (passenger in this car) who's name I don't remember. Linda also showed up at some point. It was an interesting fire this morning!

Dogsled in the background...

Home before 8:15 a.m. for breakfast but before eating I grabbed my camera, headed out to take some pictures of a vintage car and trailer which was pulling out today. The car was 1964 Ford Falcon and the trailer was a 1962 but I forget what kind. After eating we read for an hour to let the outdoor temps warm up before we headed out to walk. The walking path is a mile circuit and usually Riley does 2 laps and I do 3 or sometimes we're ambitious and each do 3 laps but this morning she stopped at 3 and I went one more. I had reasons for one more since we didn't walk yesterday and the day ahead promised to be 'filling'. ~laugh~ 

The Vietnam Memorial in Ocean Springs....

From the sports complex we headed out to Ocean Springs to do some sight seeing. Cruising along I-10 we finally reached the exit for the National Sea Shore Park, just past that was our destination The Vietnam Memorial. It is two long three sided pieces of cement that form a 'room' in between them. On the inside of the walls are pictures and names of those that served in the war from Mississippi . There were at least 45 rows on each side and the list of names/pictures was 5 per row.  The statistics say:

649 Killed-in-Action
10 Missing-in-Action
8 Prisoner-of-War
for a total of 667 Mississippi Casualties of the Vietnam War. 

That's a lot of casualties from just one state! It was a very moving tribute that allows you to put names and faces together. Many young men, a few mature men, African-American, Caucasian too but the loss was all male, not a single female in the bunch. The names were southern names such as Willie James, Donny Ray, Bobby Ray, Jimmy Earl, and the list goes on and on. Some of the pictures were taken at various times in the lives of these young hero's from childhood to high school football and on to military service. Flags and flowers were wedged into the cracks that joined the concrete as a simple tribute to a lost loved one. Also on display was a Medivac Helicopter on a pedestal, the mast from a ship and numerous flags. A walking path equaling 1/3 of a mile surrounds the whole park. It is well done and very tasteful. A must see if you are ever in the area. 

Rows and rows of pictures

Rows and rows of names

 From here we headed out to find some lunch. We once visited a Chinese Restaurant with my Dad, and his sister/husband when we were here once a few years ago. We wanted to find that place but couldn't remember the name. I had a rough idea where it was and eventually we found it. It's called Beijing Chinese something. ~laugh~ I still don't know the street and one would think I would have logged it into the GPS right? Well one would have been wrong in such thinking and should have reminded me before we left the area. ~laugh~

Looking into the memorial, pictures above, names below the ledge, benches in the middle. Both walls are covered in row after row...

From there we managed to find our way down some back roads that were heading in the right direction but not exactly where we wanted to be. I will tell you that we eventually found our way to I-10 once more and headed on back to our own neck of the woods. Not home but toward home. We had another stop to make. Can you guess where? I'll wait while you think about it. ~laugh~ You guessed it, Wally World for groceries. We were running low on a few veggies and a couple of other things and figured it would be better to pick them up today than wait until tomorrow when it will be much busier there.

Submarines were built on Pascagoula, Mississippi, a few miles from this memorial

We crossed paths with a person that was very .....fragrant ...but not in a good way. Truly thought the Chinese food may come back to haunt me. ~laugh~ We hurried out of the area only to have this same person come up behind us in the check out line. The cashier wrinkled her nose and looked around saying," Oh it must be the rabbit food." The guy in the next aisle was checking out with a bag of rabbit pellets or something, but it wasn't the rabbit stuff.  I was glad to get out of the store and felt sorry for the nice cashier that was left behind to handle this customer.

Do you think it's looking like spring?

From there we headed home and managed to get the groceries put away. The cat was kind of happy to see us but wasn't interested in any contact, she just looked down her nose with a look that said," Big deal, so you're home, I have sleeping to do, so go away." ~laugh~  She is a diva!!!

Everywhere you look there are Azalea's blooming...

For the past number of days we've seen so many flowers blooming and the blooms are reddish/pink/pinky/white and a few other colours. Like Canadians have hedges of cedar's or such things down here in the deep south they have hedges of Azalea bushes. They grow in the wild as well. Such a riot of colour in random spots. The green grass is an excellent backdrop to show off the bright colours. The leaves are also coming out which is adding more green to the picture as well. 

Such vivid colours...

Since we had a large lunch we opted to miss dinner which meant we were able to head up to the fire earlier than usual. Cool tonight but not too bad plus the fire was nice. Lots of folks up there, lots of laughter and good humour. The party broke up slowly but by about 9 pm everyone was heading inside.

Such abundant blooms....

So that was our day, much busier than yesterday, still not earth shattering but fun, entertaining and educational. We consider that a great day! Hope you had a great day as well.

So on that note, thanks for stopping by. Until next time...be safe, take care....