On the Road Again-heading home to the desert

After a night of rain, flash flood warnings and tornado watch in the north and southeast of Alabama, we're headed south and west into Mississippi. We fueled and had a hot lunch at Flying J in Jackson, then headed west through Miss. Today, Jackson, named after Andrew Jackson is the capital and the state population is about 3 million. It's eclectic mix of culture and heritage shows with reminders of the Civil War found everywhere in this state. Vicksburg was a battlefield for 47 days as people used mules and rats for sustenance. Monuments, battlefields and cemeteries recall the ravages of war while white-pillared antebellum homes tell a story of prosperity brought about by river and cotton commerce, the cotton fueled by slave labor. We crossed the Mississippi River discovered by a Spaniard in 1541, the state seceded from the Union in 1861, rejoined after the Civil War. Going into Louisiansa, we stopped at the Welcome Center which was red brick with white columns, even the bathroom building. Inside was a cotton plant with a sign saying 'Keeping your cotton picking hands off the cotton picking plant.'
In 1962 James Meridith became the first black person to attend the University of Mississippi which we drove by today. What were you doing in 1962? Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, but when we went to New Orleans we were not near the area it struck. Mississippi calls itself the birthplace of America's music. From blues legends, Muddy Walter and B.B. King to the king of rock and roll, Elvis Prestley, to the father of country, Jimmy Rogers, they portray the sounds of America's music.
We're parked for the night at Shiloh R.V. Park in Monroe which has a stocked lake in Louisiana. Good drive today, a little wind but easy going.