We spent the night in Florence, Alabama and spent yesterday morning touring Ivy Green which is the birthplace of Helen Keller. Behind this "Little House" where Helen lived with her teacher, Anne Sullivan; is the well where Helen learned her first word, "W-A-T-E-R". The other home is a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Florence that has been restored and is open to the public. It was awesome to be able to take a tour of it.
The drive down the Nachez Trace Parkway was just lovely and thoroughly enjoyable. It was the original pioneer trail of 475 miles, of which we drove only 50 miles. There is so much history with many stops at overlooks and displays. Driving across Mississippi was delightlful also. We drove for about 150 miles through flat Mississippi Delta farm land that was just beautiful.
Renewing acquaintances with Pat and John Stoltman and their two grown children Katie and Chris was wonderful. It has been about 30 years since we have seen them. We were able to tour Clarksdale, Mississippi, a nice town with lots of real Southern flavor with Pat. Chris works as a manager for a farm of about 10,000 acres where they raise sod, cotton, and soybeans predominately. He took us on a tour of the cotton and soybean harvest. Leroy was a "farmboy" again and delighted in a ride on a 6-row cotton harvester (John Deere of course)! Having had several textile classes as a Home Economics major in college, I especially enjoyed the tour of the cotton gin process.
Leaving the beautiful Mississippi Delta farmland, we drove to Little Rock, Arkansas and toured the Clinton Library at the end of the day. Very interesting and well presented. Tomorrow we hope to travel into Oklahoma and do some touring.
No miles traveled by bicycle.
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