Day 59 Wednesday October 2, 2024
We joined the group in the park restaurant for a farewell get together with a continental breakfast provided by Fantasy. They had a small gift bag for every couple. Then everyone slowly began to pull out and head to wherever their next stop is. Like us some are stopping in Red Bay Alabama for service and/or repairs before heading home.
We pulled out at 10AM for our 147 mile drive to Laurel Mississippi where the HGTV show Home Town is filmed. Sure glad we didn’t have to drive back through the busy roads through New Orleans. We were headed East so we were soon away from the city since our RV Park was on the East side of the city. I-10 took us on the bridge over narrow end of Lake Pontchartrain which is still probably 3-4 miles across. Laurel Mississippi is pretty much on our way to Red Bay Alabama so why not.
We have lost count of how many times we have crossed the Mississippi border on this trip.
We arrived at Sleepy Hollow RV Park about 12:30, checked in and setup in site 54. This is a nice campground, even has a level concrete parking pad. Amazing. There is traffic noise from I59 through the woods but we don’t hear it much unless we are outside.
After we had lunch Lena did some more laundry and we rested awhile before we drove into Laurel to look around some. We found the small downtown section and some of the nice residential areas but didn’t take but a couple of photos. The sun was just not cooperating so we will come back tomorrow kind of early morning for some good photos. We did recognize one building that Erin and Ben remolded for their show Home Town and also saw the building that Ben has his woodworking shop in.
There are a couple of tour businesses in town that will take you around in a golf cart but the tour cost $25-30 each for 45 minutes. That seems a little expensive and we think we can find enough on our own to satisfy our curiosity.
Day 60 Thursday October 3, 2024
We drove into downtown Laurel for breakfast at Lee’s Coffee and Tea. We both got a Latte and an Omelette. We got there just before a rush of people came in but it still took awhile to get our order. It was all good but the Lattes could have been a little hotter.
Then we walked down several streets and took some photos of some of their murals and the old buildings. We recognized one building that Ben and Erin remodeled an apartment in on their TV show.
Then we walked over to Scotsman General Store and Woodshop. This is where Ben Napier from the HQTV show Home Town has his woodworking shop that is shown on the TV show. There is a big glass window into the woodworking part of the building but of course we couldn’t go in the shop. They were not doing any filming today so I could take some photos of the shop. They have a variety of cutting boards for sale in the store that they make in the shop. And of course Tshirts,etc. They even have a little cafe there. There is a nice place outside like a small park with picnic tables, corn hole boards and artificial grass. I bought my first souvenir of the trip, a tshirt that actually has a pocket on it. I really think there should be a law that men’s tshirts should have a pocket.
Then we drove over to the Visitor Center. It was featured on the TV show last year when they opened it. It is located in one of the public housing units that was built in 1940 as part of the New Deal. There were six family two story apartments in each building. They saved one of the end apartments and have it furnished just like it would have been in 1940. On the TV show they had one of the former occupants that lived in one of the apartments when she was a child on the show talking about living there.
The carpet on the floor of the Visitor Center is made to show where each room of the apartments were. They saved the lumber from the apartments they took down and used it to frame up a simulated building inside the Visitor Center. There were several information panels on the wall describing some of the history of Laurel. We had a guide take us around then we could go back and take photos. This was a rather unique Visitor Center. They are very proud of their history here in Laurel and are working to preserve it and keep the downtown thriving. Ben and Erin Napier and their TV Show Home Town has been a big part in reviving downtown. They own several businesses in the downtown area.
We rode through some of the residential area that has a lot of beautiful homes. We got some information about an area that we can do a walking tour on our own but we will not do that today.
It was getting hot so we made a stop at Walmart and returned to the RV Park for lunch.
We returned to downtown Laurel just before nightfall to see how the streets are lit up. We have seen the overhead strings of lights they have that crisscross some of the downtown streets. There were quite a few people out enjoying the night and patronizing the open restaurants downtown. We felt safe to walk anywhere we wanted to and was able to get several nice photos, even some of the murals we didn’t see this morning. The camera on the iPhone does a good job with just a little light if you hold it steady. Lena even got one of a cat out on the town.
Day 61 Friday October 4, 2024
We were getting light rain this morning as we were finishing breakfast but it kept things cooler as we headed back to downtown Laurel to find the remainder of the murals. We got a map from the Visitor Center that shows the restaurants, shops, murals and points of interest downtown. Also we got a Walking Tour guide for some of the more historic homes near downtown. We have rode down some of the residential streets but today we will park the Jeep and walk the streets.
Laurel was incorporated in 1882. There were miles and miles of virgin yellow pine forest in this area and was eventually know as the yellow pine capital of the world and I bought the tshirt to prove it. 😂
Several lumber mills were operating here at one time. Following World War I Laurel shipped more yellow pine than any other location in the World. The peak of prosperity was reached in the 1920’s when the mills were producing one million board feet of lumber a day, enough to stretch 189 miles if laid end to end. All the large lumber mills closed in the 1930, partly due to the Great Depression and the dwindling supply of timber.
One mural was blocked by construction and we could not find one that was on the map so we started our walking tour of North 5th, 6th and 7th streets. This historic residential district is considered the largest, finest and most intact collection of early 20th century architecture in Mississippi.
There were some beautiful homes on these streets. We had to be really careful walking on the sidewalks because the old oak trees had caused the sidewalks to break and rise up causing potential trip hazards but we didn’t have any scraped knees when we finished. Some of the houses on streets one or two blocks over were not as nice and not as well maintained but that is the same in any town.
We decided to go to the other coffee shop in town across the street from the one we already tried. This one was named Merchant’s Coffee. The coffee was good and it gave us a chance to set down for a while because we had walked about 1.5 miles.
Then we rode around some more of the residential streets and decided to get lunch at Bird Dog Cafe. This is one of the buildings that Ben and Erin remolded on the TV show Home Town. It was a house but they converted it into a cafe for the new owner. It was nice inside. The light fixtures and tables were kind of an eclectic mix of repurposed items. The base of our table was the metal frame of a pedal sewing machine as were two others beside it.
Our food was good except my sweet ice tea was just a tiny step up from water. I also got French onion soup and a half sandwich. I have had French onion soup many times and it always had a layer of melted cheese on top. This didn’t and the cup was a small cup, smaller than a coffee cup and it was only half full. It was good but I felt kind of cheated. My turkey sandwich was really good. Lena got a chicken salad sandwich and a small salad. She said it was good except the dressing on the salad tasted like nothing but vinegar. Sure glad we went when we did because when we left, the front porch was full of people waiting for a table.
We returned to the RV Park for the remainder of the day.
Day 62 Saturday October 5, 2024
We will be leaving here this morning but only have about 90 miles to go and checkin is not until 1PM so after breakfast we drove back into Laurel to check out their Loblolly Festival they were having today downtown.
For a fairly small town they had a huge turnout of people and every street downtown was lined with vendors selling everything from funnel cakes to hand made woodworking items. There were several food vendors with mobile food trailers. We shared a funnel cake and latte. First funnel cake we have had in ages.
We returned to the RV Park and got everything ready and pulled out just after 11am. We had a good drive to Philadelphia Mississippi and checked into site 37 in Pearl River RV Park. It is actually located on the Choctaw Indian Reservation and is across the street from Pearl River Resort and Casino. The RV Park is just a cleared area with 44 concrete RV site park, full hookup with river rocks between each site and not a sprig of grass or a shade tree in sight.
Philadelphia is the hometown of the country musician Marty Stuart. We came here to visit his country music museum but discovered yesterday that it is temporarily closed. We had heard that he donated 60,000 items of country music memorabilia to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville TN. So we are guessing they are having to rearrange the remainder of his collection in the museum but that is just a guess. He is a huge collector of country music memorabilia.
All of our food is frozen so we drove down the street to El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant for a late lunch. We had the best Mexican food we have had in a long time and great service.
Day 63 Sunday October 6, 2024
We didn’t do much today and it seemed kind of good to take it easy. We got up late, ate breakfast and then drove the 4 miles into downtown Philadelphia MS which is a small town. Not much going on today since it is Sunday.
We found the building that is supposed to be Marty Stuart’s Congress of County Music. The signs on the building states it is the future home of the Congress of Country Music. One sign shows a building that looks like the center of it is an old church with the Ellis Theater on the left and around the corner to the right another section of the building. The center section looks nothing like the sign. Maybe that is the plan and if it is they have a long way to go to make it look like the sign. Apparently the Ellis Theater is operational based on the marquee.
We found a few murals and then stopped at the old train depot which is a small museum but it was also closed. So we went to Walmart for some milk and ice cream and returned to the RV Park.
Day 64 Monday October 7, 2024
After breakfast and a couple of maintenance items on the motorhome we drove back into the metropolis of Philadelphia MS.
Our first stop was the old depot we stopped at yesterday. There was not much to see there but one of Marty Stuart’s guitars a few framed photos and three very nice homemade quilts. They appeared to be preparing for an event in one large room. The man preparing a large vase of greenery asked us where we were from. We made a comment about the destruction from Hurricane Helene in Western NC and from his comments he hadn’t even heard about it.
Then we went to the Neshoba County Historical Museum. We found it when we were googling the area looking for something interesting to visit. We would have never know about it otherwise because we didn’t see any sign about it. It is in the 19th century George Pegram home about a block off the street that runs through downtown. We were greeted at the door by Mrs. Charlene Walker. Lena said when she signed the register the last entry was in September. As Mrs. Walker was taking us around the different rooms she told us she was 95 years old. I sure hope I am as spry as she is when I am 95 years old. They had a lot of displays on the history of the area. We discovered that Little Debbie Oatmeal cakes were developed by O.D. McKee that was from Philadelphia MS.
As we were leaving she suggested we visit the Williamsville Store just outside of town. It was established in 1902. It didn’t look like much from the outside but it surprised us when we went inside. They stocked about any kind of shoe or boot for anyone from a kid to grown men and women. They also had a huge selection of casual and work clothes for men and women. And there was also a fairly large grocery store on the opposite side. We didn’t need anything so we departed and stopped at J’s Coffee House when we noticed they had beignets. We bought 4 and returned to the RV Park to make our own Lattes. We had beignets when we were in New Orleans and they were much better than the ones we got today. Today’s were not near as light and flaky.
Mrs. Walker at the museum told us we needed to ride out and checkout the Neshoba County Fairgrounds so we did that later in the day. She said something about they built small houses out there on the fairgrounds but we did n’t understand the concept of what she was saying until we got to the fairgrounds.
We didn’t drive onto the grounds even though one gate was open but there was a road that ran right down the fence line so we rode down it. There were dozens and dozens of small 2 and 3 story small house built along the perimeter of the fairgrounds. They were so close you could barely walk between them. I guess there must be must a party atmosphere during the fair. She said that she has over 20 people in hers to cook for. Can’t imagine where 20 people could sleep in the houses no bigger than they were. A different concept for a county fair than we are accustomed to.
