Day 8: Mississippi

Miles and miles between stops today. Not a very fruitful day in terms of quanity of pictures. Used the air conditioning a bit today which always seems like an indulgence (this van is the first vehicle I've owned that's had A/C).

Went pretty far out of the way to Ackerman to find there is definitely no Muffler Man there. Then went a couple hours out of the way to find no polar bears in Saltillo. Here's all that was left of them:



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But I did get to see some lovely countryside on the way. The Natchez Trace Parkway is beautiful. Here's a photo of "Sparkle" basking in the sun and pines:




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The kids had great fun running in the woods:



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This is Nik trying to climb into the water bowl (it was HOT!):





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Since I don't have a lot of miscellaneous photos to share, I'll give you a little behind the scenes peek at my "system". From my huge master list, I make lists for each trip. This is the Mississippi list for the day. I make notes on it to add to the master list when I get home.



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Each destination has a "stickie" a partial mini post-it note stuck to the atlas page. I binder clip a piece of cardboard to the atlas so that it stands up next to me and is easier to look at while driving. The cardboard also protects the stickies on the other side. (sorry, not the best photo -- a huge swath of sunlight reflection there; taken while driving, bored, at 75 mph; that's also the laptop at the ready to check emails at the next "free-wi-fi" hotel I pass; and Grip dozing in the passenger seat).



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Each destination also gets its own local Mapquest map so that I can easily find my way there and get onto the next stop efficiently.