It “snowed” here in Charlotte today. Sheesh! *
*”Snow” in a very strict sense of the word. There were flakes coming down from the sky that melted when they hit anything.
Where The !@#$% Is Spring?
No Foolin’
I’m a little late to the April Fool’s party so I don’t have anything funny. But wanted to post that we are safely at home now and enjoying the spoils of our own house – quiet music, comfortable chairs and our own place! We loved the travel but are happy to be back to home base. It won’t last long, but we’ll enjoy it while we can!
A Thing For Cyprus Trees
I have a thing for Cyprus trees. The shapes are interesting, and I love how they live against all odds of nature. We found these in a swamp along the Natchez Trace Parkway today. I know there’s a rule about taking landscape photos in harsh sunlight, but I keep forgetting…. 
Postcard from the Natchez Trace Parkway
I lucked into this scene yesterday morning as we were entering the Parkway. We never saw him again so I didn’t have a chance to see more of the car.
Postcard from Natchez, Mississippi
Kathy & I spent a couple of nights in Natchez, Mississippi before starting off on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Natchez sits on a 200 foot bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. We spent a lot of time walking and watching the barge traffic on the river. The river is high and a few roads are closed, but we didn’t see anything serious.
Postcard from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
On to Natchez, Mississippi today. Here is a sunset photo from last evening after our swamp tour.
Postcard from Avery Island, Louisiana
In addition to being the home of Tabasco, Avery Island is home to Jungle Gardens, a 170-acre semitropical garden that stretches along Bayou Petite Anse. Jungle Gardens was created by Edward Avery “Ned” McIlhenny. Born on Avery Island in 1872, Ned was an arctic explorer, naturalist and conservationist.
Postcard From Lafayette, Louisiana
Today, Kathy & I are in Lafayette, Louisiana where we toured the Tabasco plant in Avery Island and took a swamp tour, then capped off the day with a visit to a roadhouse with Cajun music and fresh seafood. Louisiana is an interesting place!
Postcard from Huntsville, Alabama
This past Friday, Kathy & I visited the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. While there we toured various NASA facilities including the Control Room at the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. This is where all of the communication with the International Space Station regarding the payload and experiments takes place. It was very interesting to see.
While we were there, the astronauts aboard the space station were returning from a space walk. We were able to see live video of them returning to the ISS through the airlock and beginning the process of removing their suits. Quite an unexpected treat!
Ready, Set, Go!
One of the things Kathy & I are really loving about this retirement thing is the ability to pretty much come and go as we please. No, we didn’t win the lottery jackpot so we are kind of limited to what we do and how long we go, but it is no longer dictated by an arbitrary vacation allowance.
We were driving near the airport shortly after we returned from our cruise, when I asked Kathy if she wanted to just go get on a plane to “somewhere.” We didn’t have our passports with us, otherwise we might have done it, but that didn’t stop her from saying “why not?”
I suppose we’ll eventually get tired of the coming and going, but so far all we seem to have is itchy feet! And for us the cure for that is to pack up a suitcase and go somewhere.
I’ve had in my mind for a while that I wanted to check out the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi and Tennessee. So in a few days we’re going to head out on a little road trip. We’ll be hitting a few highlights only – this won’t be an in-depth trip of any kind – through Alabama to Louisiana before heading back up to Natchez and up the Parkway to Nashville. No ‘Nawlins’ or ‘Opryland’ for us this time – that will need to wait for a more focused trip. In the mean time I think we’ll have plenty to see and we are looking forward to seeing it!
