We have reached Alabama, the thirteenth state we needed to visit on this drive, and now we have 'ticked the box' of visiting ALL fifty states in the USA.
I've gone ahead and changed the title of the blog to - None to Go!. The two remaining states of the drive, Florida and Georgia, we have visited before.
We left Vicksburg at about 11am and, as we drove out of the town, we went past this 1950s MGA sports car on the back of a trailer, parked by the side of the road.
Shortly after, we passed the Vicksburg No.7 Engine House Fire Station with its gleaming fire engine. Why are American fire engines always so spotless?
As we left Vicksburg, we saw the 'Welcome to Mississippi' sign, that we failed to see when we crossed the bridge over the Mississippi and so, better late than never, here it is!
We then drove about fifty miles to the Mississippi state capital, Jackson. Here is a selection of photos that Wendy took as we drove around the city.
Entering the city.
The Governor's Mansion
The Old State House
The Capitol Building
From Jackson, we headed south-east to the town of Hattiesburg, mainly because we wanted to take some photos of the town signs for our granddaughter, Harriet.
We then took a lovely back road through the Mississippi countryside towards the state border with Alabama. The road went through the De Soto National Forest.
We saw areas of forest that looked as though the trees were dying from some kind of disease.
Has anyone any suggestions as to what it is?
We then hit another milestone of the trip - 5,000 miles on the Garmin. That's the distance we have travelled since we left Malibu on April 29th.
We reached the border with Alabama at around 2.30pm. It was an emotional moment for both of us. We stopped the car and I went and stood by the sign, as Wendy took a photo to prove we really had reached the final state on our list!
We spent about half an hour parked by the border sign having a snack lunch and enjoying the sense of achievement. The thought is going through my mind - what next?
We continued on for the final sixty miles into Mobile and arrived at 4.00pm.
The Mobile skyline as we reached the outskirts of the city.
We checked into the Malaga Inn, where Bob & Thelma were already staying. It will be good to catch up with them this evening and talk about the past two days.
The inner courtyard of the delightful old-style southern hotel.
Finally, me 'relaxing' with my notebook, about to start the posting of today's blog.
Now, a second 'finally'. We went a couple of blocks to a bar, The Spot of Tea, for a celebratory glass of champagne. In the end, we drank the whole bottle! There was a lady pianist playing and I asked her to play 'As Time Goes By'. As we both listened to the song, it occurred to me that this was one of those very special moments that we will remember from our Thirteen to Go drive.
Hearty Congratulations on visiting all 50 A great effort.
ReplyDeleteWhat to do next? I would have thought that was obvious... All the states and territories of mainland Australia. I will let you off the few external bits and you already did Antarctica. So, when can I expect you?