January 5, 2005 - Drive to Jackson, Mississippi

Helga had to go to work teaching German in school and Jim had to get back to working on installing a new kitchen, so we reluctantly took our leave after chatting a bit more over an early breakfast. We stopped to fuel the truck at a gas station Jim had mentioned as we drove out of town and were rolling along Interstate 85 toward Montgomery shortly after 8 o'clock. Jim had also mentioned that getting to U.S. 80 to travel west from Montgomery to Selma was quicker using I-85 to the other side of town and then dropping south a couple of miles, so that is the route we took.

The western part of Alabama at this latitude was somewhat different from the pine forests and grazing land of the eastern part. Although grazing land still predominated, the intermittent pine forests were replaced by intermittent wetlands and sloughs. Occasionally some of the farmland was good enough for row crops as well as hay and pastureland. We saw at least some fields that had been planted in cotton and a couple of others in corn, but since many of the fields were just plowed under for the winter we couldn't always be sure what crop was being grown.

The road from Montgomery to the Mississippi border was generally 4 lanes but not limited access. Even when it narrowed down to 2 lanes for the last part of that segment, the sparse traffic kept the driving from becoming a hassle. We found out that after we left Selma and continued westward many of those small "black dot" towns on the map were either missing completely or so deserted that we weren't sure were they were. As a result, there was hardly a stoplight between Selma and the Mississippi border except for the one big town of Demopolis, where we stopped to eat at a "Mr. G" restaurant, in part because it was the only place we could find on the commercial strip where we could park the rig.

Mr. G was a curious cross between a fast-food joint and a regular restaurant. We lined up at the counter to order our meals just as we would at any fast food place, and picked up the food when it was ready and took it to our chosen table. But they offered daily specials that seemed very different from the usual fast food fare. The Wednesday lunch special was lasagna with a garden salad and a large French roll. We both liked the sound of that and ordered it for $6.50 apiece plus another $1.25 for each soft drink. A big difference was that the food was served on real dishes with real stainless steel utensils, and that was such a welcome change from fighting with the flimsy plastic utensils one finds at most fast food joints. The most important difference was that the food was jolly good and there was enough of it to satisfy both of us. I also chatted with another traveler who had stopped in by chance, and she was equally well satisfied with her roast beef sandwich. Since it was such a pleasant place to eat, I wouldn't have minded eating again at Mr. G's, but I didn't know if it was a one-of-a-kind operation or a regional chain of some kind.

After crossing the border into Mississippi we joined up with Interstate 20 to drive west to Meridian, stopping off at the state welcome center to stock up on brochures for things to do and see in southern Mississippi. We continued on I-20 toward Jackson and our destination for the night, Timberlake Campground on the Ross Barnett Reservoir a few miles east of the city. Pulling in around 3:30 p.m., we found a campsite (concrete RV pad type) and set up the trailer for the night. We had arranged that campground as our meeting place with Lloyd, and after an unsuccessful attempt to call his cell phone we settled down to wait for the evening. I worked on the journal while Monika arranged things inside the trailer and then started in on one of the crossword puzzles that Helga had given us for the trip.

Lloyd arrived around 9:30, but fortunately the space next to us was still free and we got his RV backed successfully into it, on the first try no less. Then we worked through the process of attaching his water and electric lines, opening and closing the right valves, leveling the trailer, and getting things to work in general. That process was remarkably more difficult at night using flashlights than I think it would have been in the daytime, but we managed to get most things hooked up and working. We trundled off to bed shortly after 10 as Lloyd and Sandy finished arranging their RV for the night.