The day started in Grenada, MS. We slept in and didn't leave the hotel until almost 10:00am. Our plans for the day were pretty simple. Stop in three cities to letterbox and do a little sightseeing and make our way to New Orleans for the night. So we left Grenada and headed south on I55. The first destination was the Canton Cemetery. We left I55 and took W. Peace St. through the downtown section of Canton and made our way to Lyon Street and the entrance to the cemetery. The clues to the first box lead us to a small field of markers all belonging to Confederate Soldiers. Talk about stepping back in time. The markers had dates ranging from June 1862 to February 1864. There were also some markers for Unknown Soldiers.
After perusing the markers we found the box and stamped in, and after rehiding it we moved to another part of the cemetery to find our second box. Once the ritual of stamping in and rehiding that box was completed we walked the cemetery and read gravestones and took pictures. Almost an hour later we made our way back to downtown Canton. We walked around the downtown area, took pictures and relaxed. Thomas saw a building with a radio station - WMGO 1370 AM. So when we returned to the car we tuned into the station. This station falls under the Gospel genre and our first introduction to the station was a preacher telling a story of a car accident in which one young man was hurt. A woman goes to a house and the lady at the house tells her she can use the phone to call a doctor. The woman says she wants to use the closet and call her doctor. It turns out she goes in the closet and prays. It then goes to the woman singing (at this point I couldn't understand the woman - so I am not sure what she was singing about) and I could just picture the congregation at this church standing up with hands waving in the air and lots of hallelujahs being said. It was very captivating and Thomas and I listen to this during our 12 mile drive along Hwy 51 from Canton to Madison. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to this local station while we traveled the area.Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Simmons Arboretum in Madison to search for Mr. Big, Mr. Woody and Mr. Attitude (I won't tell you what crossed our minds when we read the names of these three letterboxes). Anyway I digress, we read the clues in the parking lot and headed out to find the boxes. Some of the clues were a bit confusing and there were really no trail markers but we eventually found all three of the boxes. We enjoyed the Arboretum but were concerned because we think that there was a lot of poison ivy growing all over. At first we didn't notice but then I looked down and saw 'leaves of three' - but it really didn't look like poison ivy. We decided not to take chances and we became very careful where we walked after that. So far we haven't noticed any rashes but we are keeping an eye out just in case.
Now that we were done at the Arboretum we made our way back to I55 and drove the short distance to Jackson. We stopped at a bookstore called Lemuria to find a letterbox hidden in the store. We found the area but no box. So I asked at the desk and the lady came and looked for it as well (the staff knows about the box). Still nothing - so she goes and asks one of the other staff members - he looked in two places because he said he knows that the box sometimes got put on another shelf. Still nothing! So another staff member walks up to us and is holding the box. He said that the last finders (which was in March '08) hid it in the music section and not where the clues said it would be. We thanked them and found a table to use to stamp in. Thomas looked around the bookstore while I did my letterboxing thing. Once I was done I put the box in the location according to the clues - I hope it will be alright there. (I also wrote the placer about it and hopefully there won't be any confusion). The staff was extremely nice and we enjoyed the store. It is not your typical bookstore.
There are the typical books on the shelf but there are also books stacked up in front of the shelves as well. I am sure there is a method to the madness but to me it seemed like a big bunch of hodge-podge. But if you are ever in Jackson, MS it is worth the stop. Leaving the bookstore we noticed a deli on the first floor of the building so we decided to have some lunch - I had a really good shrimp po-boy and talk about good (I can tell we are getting closer to Louisiana).From here we headed out to a small park just a few exits down the interstate to find one more box. It was a quick and easy find and a nice two sided stamp.
I stamped in quickly because we wanted to do one more thing and then try to head out of Jackson before rush hour. That one thing was to visit the Capitol. Another beautiful building (my favorite this trip is still Arkansas) that Thomas and I enjoyed visiting. We spent about 45 minutes in the Capitol and talked to three or four people and learned some things about their legislature and the history of the building. So with my geekness taken care of we left Jackson and headed to Louisiana.The drive from Jackson to New Orleans was uneventful. We did stop at the Louisiana Welcome Center to stretch our legs and look at all the brochures for a few minutes. Then it was back on the road. We made it to New Orleans and checked into a hotel on St. Charles Avenue and decided to just stay in for the evening. We have the day tomorrow to visit the city. So with another 300 miles on our tires we settled in for the night.
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