Driving Through Mississippi In The Spring

A Short Story

Mississippi Odyssey

Driving across Mississippi this week I realized that one of the most amazing attractions of the trip was the sides of the highways. In places, the roadsides were literally carpeted in swaths of bright orange-yellow flowers mixed in with deep purple along with patches of bright reds, whites and pale blues. These wild flower displays went on mile after mile.

Doing some research it seems that seeding roadsides with wild flower seeds by highway departments is common and because the roads are regularly mowed it actually provides a better environment than even open wild fields for these flowers to grow.

Some of the popular flowers in Mississippi include Lance-leaf Coreopsis known for its beauty and commonly planted along roadsides in Mississippi it boasts bright butter yellow flowers. Black-Eyed Susans are another of Mississippi’s familiar yellow flowers and a favorite of butterflies. Cardinal Flower or Scarlet Lobelia is the showiest of the North American Lobelia species with its bright red blossoms. A bright blue flower known as Bachelor’s Button, Bluebottle, Cornflower, or Garden Cornflower is another species common along Mississippi highways.

In Spring and Summer it is possible to see almost a hundred different wild flower species along the highways of America’s Southeast.

Camp Shelby Mississippi And A Museum

Just outside of Hattiesburg is a Mississippi National Guard training base called Camp Shelby. It is a large base with a really remarkable museum. The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum honors the servicemen and women of all branches with exhibits that often tell the personal stories of Mississippians who served their country.

It features great displays offering a well presented history of the wars fought by this nation, but the most remarkable aspect of the museum is the personal stories. Dozens and dozens of exhibits tell the stories of these individuals like a young man who immigrated from Italy with his parents in the thirties and joined the army right after America joined the fight in WWII. He was not yet a citizen and because he was technically Italian he was sent to an internment camp. Two months later he rejoined the Army, became a Ranger and parachuted into France on D-Day. He jumped again on operation Market Garden, remembered in the movie A Bridge Too Far. After the war he returned to Mississippi, bought a farm got married, had five children and lived to the age of 93.

Fascinating accounts of individual pilots and Marines, sailors and soldiers who fought in the Civil War, the Mexican War, WWI, WWII all the way through Desert Storm and their lives after service in Mississippi.

The museum’s goal is to educate future generations about the price paid for freedom and prosperity by the people of Mississippi.

Red Bluffs Mississippi

Mississippi Odyssey

Take A Hike or The Attraction That Could Be

Where the road ends

We’ve overlooked Mississippi. It always seemed that there were much more interesting or attractive places to visit and the truth is we focused much of our travel itineraries on international destinations. Our attention was initially drawn to Mississippi by a show on HGTV called Home Town and recently we decided to spend some time exploring the state.

Before heading out we were looking for hiking opportunities and discovered a place called Red Bluffs and it sounded interesting. A red clay canyon eroded through the rollings hills of south-central Mississippi.

After spending some time in Hattiesburg we headed off one morning to spend a day exploring Red Bluffs. It’s about 45 miles west of Hattiesburg and it isn’t an easy place to locate. The car’s GPS had no idea, while navigation on an iPhone located the route to the canyon. After almost an hour of driving Mississippi’s rural roads the phone indicated that we should make the next right. Two hundred feet down that road there was a sign indicating the road was washed out.

Welcome to Red Bluffs. When we pulled up on the dirt near the end of the road there were just two men there flying a drone. In talking we learned that this was the first time they had been back in ten years and what remained of the road now was some blacktop caps on red-orange spires going off across the “canyon”. The area is beautiful but it s not a park or a protected area but is private land. The end of the road is just a drop off of a couple of hundred feet with some piles of dirt on the road to keep cars from driving over the cliff.

We walked a trail along the canyon rim off to the left and it descended sharply and ended in about a hundred yards or so. The end is a point in the woods with steep drop-offs on three sides. Along the trail there were a couple of steep eroded gullies with one having a rope tied to a tree for the adventurous to use to get down into the canyon. Climbing back up we tried a trail heading off in the opposite direction but it also ended in the woods with a very steep slope dropping into the canyon.

Back at the car we chatted with the men flying the drone and they explained that the eroded walls of Red Bluffs ended in both directions in about five hundred yards or so and that the canyon was only about a hundred yards wide.

The Red Bluffs are beautiful and seem to represent a lost opportunity. Developing some hiking trails in the canyon, providing a parking area and maybe a concession could actually regularly attract a number hikers but we doubt that that is likely to happen anytime soon.

All in all not what we intended to do that day…

Intend2Travel’s World in 120 Seconds

A Celebration For Earth Day

A very long time ago a couple of popular television shows whould do segments called “speed seeing”. I have always been amazed at how much information can be processed in a very short time spans. The segments actually got frame viewing rates down to 1/12th of a second. The shortest I have been able to get from my video editing is about 1/6th second. See if you can name the countries, cities and places?

Take a peek at this magnificent world in about two minutes…

Now that COVID is letting up we’re back to planning for the next year or so that should include Portugal, Spain, Italy, India, Sri Lanka, Jordon, Egypt, Malta, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and hopefully the East coast of Africa…

Images On A Hawaiian Holiday

Photographic impressions from our travels…

Oahu North Shore
Oahu Southeast Coast
Oahu Southeast Coast

Hawaii is truly the American Paradise and Oahu is the island that stands at the center of this remarkable island chain both literally and figuratively.

Waikiki Beach
On The Island Of Maui

Standing Watch Above The Rhine

People, places and captured moments selected from The Intentional Travelers photo collection. Marksburg Castle on the Rhine River Marksburg Castle, a majestic fortress located above the town of Braubach in Rhineland, Germany. This castle holds the unique distinction of being the only hilltop fortress on the Rhine that has never been captured or destroyed. Originally…

by The Intentional Traveler

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

The History Behind The Celebration Of Easter Without question the holiest site in all of Christendom is located in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. It represents the location where Jesus was crucified and where his body was laid to rest. Today there is a high level of certainty that the location has been actually identified.…

by The Intentional Traveler
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A Steam Railroad In France – Tournon Lamastre

Going Back In Time

On a recent trip through France we spent time visiting the Tournon Lamastre Steam Railroad line which features open-air cars (in the warm months), beautiful old steam engines and fantastic scenery.

About 125 miles north of the city of Avignon along the Rhône River in southern France is Doux Gorges, located in Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, a commune (community) in the Ardèche department. The area features some of the most beautiful and remote wilderness in France and attracts tourists, hikers and bikers from all over.

A  network of railway lines was constructed around Vivarais between 1898 and 1903 to provide access to markets for farms and vineyards in remote areas of the region. When the Vivarais railway network closed in 1968, a group of enthusiasts decided to acquire it and some of its’ rolling stock. In June, 1969 a tourist operation started between Saint-Jean-de-Muzols and Lamastre. The Meyzieu Tourist Railway Company (CFTM) was created, supported by a group of volunteers who restore and maintain the railroad rolling stock. In February, 1970 access was restored to the railway station at Tournon, and the new Tournon – Lamastre line, 21 miles long, was officially opened for full service in April 1970

At the Train de l’Ardèche station
The journey begins

Pulled by restored and beautifully maintained steam engines over one hundred years old, today’s train cars carry passengers into the most beautiful and inaccessible part of the Doux Gorges. the trip offering views of an untouched and rugged landscape. At the station of Colombier le Vieux – Saint-Barthélémy le Plain, the locomotive has to be turned round on a turntable and placed at the front of the train for the return trip. Watching the two men push the turntable is a sight worth seeing.

Offering full day or half day excursions, the Train of Ardèche travels through the mountainside overlooking the gorges. It is particularly popular with hikers and bicyclists (who can load their bicycles aboard) for the trip uphill to Lamastre and then the walk or ride back downhill through the gorge. The trains do not run everyday so it is important to check the schedule when planning the trip (official site link below).

Visit the official web site HERE.

The engine turntable at Colombier le Vieux