Monday, I was stuck inside all day due to freezing rain. Tuesday, the weather man said it would be a good day to go out and take pictures, if you had a good camera. He was wrong about the camera. It was a good day to take pictures. However, I did have to dodge falling ice.
Most of the homes around Natchez, MS, last tour is a 4:30 p.m. So, what do you do after you walk around downtown and view the Mississippi River? Yes, you go to the cemetery.
The Historic Natchez Cemetery was established in 1822 high on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.
I do not have any known relative or friend buried here. But, there is a lot of history on these grounds.
What do I remember about Rosalie? It is located in Natchez and overlooks the Mississippi River. The walk around Rosalie was beautiful; tree lined paths and flowering plants. The original owners built it on the property that once held Fort Rosalie and decided to keep the name.
I remember most the gardener putting down mulch and playing with the sundial. The gardens were beautiful.
I have driven through Natchez, Mississippi many times while heading to North Louisiana. Mostly, stopping at the McDonalds for a quick break. I always loved the tree lined view on John R. Junkin drive, and wanted to see more of the city.
Natchez, is located on the East side of the Mississippi River. Vidalia, Louisiana is directly across the river on the west side.
Selecting pictures to add in the blog post was difficult, because Natchez is a beautiful city with a lot of history.
I could have spent the entire day, looking over the Mississippi River. If you never have seen the Mississippi River in the Southern States, it is an amazing site.
This is a newer building overlooking the Mississippi. I share it because the famous restaurant, Cock of the Walk, was located.
Even their Court House is a vision.
In other blog posts, I will cover some of the places I visited while staying in Natchez, MS.
Paris, Texas is located in the northeast Texas just minutes from the Oklahoma border. I have driven through Paris, Texas many time, even spend the night there once. But, arriving after dark there was not much adventuring, just eating and sleeping.
On this trip, I decided to add Paris to my list of places to visit. My only regret is, I didn’t spend enough time there.
I learned in 1916 there was a great fire that burned most of the city, 30 blocks. Most of the downtown area was rebuilt in about a year. That is why most of it’s architecture in from the 1916 period.
The fire spared the Sam Bell Maxey House, only touch the edge of the property. After the fire, Mr. Maxey was a key figure in setting up the American Red Cross in Paris, Texas.
In 1993, Paris, Texas built their Eiffel Tower. In 1998, they added a red cowboy hat to make the tower taller then Paris, Tennessee’s Eiffel Tower.
It is located next to their Veteran Memorial.
Today’s adventure took me out into the snow and 5 degree weather. There is a limited number of pictures you can take before your fingers and thumb starts to go numb and hurt. Yes! How can they be numb and hurt at the same time.
It is not snowing, that is snow blowing off the trees.
Below are the snapshots of the videos I took. The videos are located on YouTube. I looked for other hosting sites, but my quick search turned up Facebook and YouTube. Click on the link below the pictures to see the vide0.
For the best effect, pause the video and scroll around.
This is the 28th year that the Stuhr Museum has held the Fantasy of Trees. Local organizations and community member displays decorated trees.
I took the opportunity to view the trees this year.
I also brought with me my new 360 camera. This is just a test to see how it come out.
My 3600 miles adventure over 22 days ended abruptly when my home town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana flooded. Today, is the first day in 6 weeks that I have had some free time to do something I wanted to do. Not, something that needed to be done.
I was in Marshall, Texas helping my niece and sister-in-law out with their Back to School Bash. It was a gorgeous day in Marshall; clear skies and hot.
About 10 a.m. that morning, August 12, I got word that my parents house had water in it. My mother was working on getting the water up, before it caused to much damage. The water was from flash flooding that was occurring all over the area. Later, I heard the water was being pushed into their house by boat wakes as they were rescuing residents from the back of the subdivision. A few hours later the water went down. My mother, father, and niece worked until 11 p.m. that day drying out the floors.
A was suppose to go back to Baton Rouge the next day and spend the weekend, then go to the beach. But, talking with family and looking at the weather reports, I concluded it was too dangerous to travel to south Louisiana. Thirty inches of rain in 24 hours was devastating South Louisiana. All the cities along I-10 between I-49 (Lafayette) and Slidell were flooding. I really did not have to be back in Baton Rouge for 9 days. I could not help anyone while the roads were flooded. So, I headed back to Nebraska.
On my drive back to Nebraska, I got word that my sister’s house was flooding. And, then I learned that my brother, his wife, and their 4 kids walked out of their subdivision through flooded streets. Lastly, I heard that my parents had to abandon their homes because all the rain that occurred north of them was headed south and overflowing all the ponds, creeks, and rivers. When my family left their houses, they only brought a change of clothes with them. They truly believed that they would only have a few inches of water in their houses. They were wrong.
A lot of people have said; “It’s Louisiana, doesn’t it rain and flood like this in Louisiana.” The answer is “NO!” Saying it floods all the time in Louisiana, and we should be use to it. Is like saying Nebraska has tornados all the time and they should be use to it. I’ve heard this morning parts of the Midwest was dealing with flooding because it had received over 10″ of rain over 3 days. That amount of rainfall, Louisiana could have handled. Nowhere in Louisiana in the last 100 – 1000 years has 30 inches rain has falling in 24 hours.
To describe how bad it was, people traveling on I-10 between Baton Rouge and Slidell was trapped on the Interstate overpass for 36 hours because of flooding. My cousin was one of those people trapped, and when he got home he found his house was flooded too.
In June, I sold my house in Baton Rouge and stored all my furniture most of my belonging. Four days after the flooding began, I got word that the place where I stored everything was taking on water. I hoped for a few inches like everyone else, but I had this image in my head.
A week after the flooding began, I got an email from the Storage company saying that the units had to be cleaned out in 48 hours. I was still two hours away from Baton Rouge and felt that I could not ask any family member to help, because they were dealing with the own mess. So, I called the movers. I must have sounded pathic, because they agreed to meet me the following day.
Unfortunately, my storage unit had about 30″ of water in it. The furniture was damage beyond what I could repair myself and I had no where to store it. It was abandoned. But, this wasn’t the most heartbreaking part.
There was some small victories. I saved my star certificate, even though it was underwater. And, the table I finished faired well.
Losing all the books and the pictures I never got to scanning was the biggest lost.
At this point I just stopped taking pictures. I could no longer capture the devastation, because I was too busy sorting out my mess and helping my family deal with their mess. Then I realized, I didn’t take one picture of my parent house. This is a picture after it was gutted. I am grateful that God sent some gentlemen from the Convent Church of Shreveport, LA to clean and gut my parents house.
Oh, while I was in Baton Rouge, my 17 year old niece (who was sleeping on a couch in a storage shed) announced that she thought it was for her benefit that she come and live with me in Nebraska. It would be the best solution. Since all of her family members house flooded and her school flooded. We enrolled her in school and this is her first full week.
My parents house had 44″ of water. My brother’s house had water to their mailbox. My sister’s house had 23″ of water.
I must say, that after everything I have witnessed and experience: People in South Louisiana are truly amazing.
The citizens of Paris, TX are proud of the historic home that is located in their city, the Sam Bell Maxey House. It was built in 1868 and was left untouched by the fire of 1916 that destroyed the town.
Rock City is located in Minneapolis, Kansas. The huge rocks are sandstone concretions. It a nice area, but bring your insect spray and use it. It located in a field ripe with big rocks and tiny bugs.
Sarah Cath's Adventures 