Awake: 6:26am Temp low 30’s sleep 7:11 sunny overnight @ Greenville, MS Welcome Center.
Total generator time for last evening & this morning: 7.4 hrs. After breakfast, we drive the Suzuki (7) miles north of Greenville & visit the Winterville Mounds. As the brochure reads: these Mounds were named for a nearby community & is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by a Native American civilization that thrived from about A.D. 1000 to 1450.
Twelve of the site’s largest mounds, including the 55-foot-high Temple Mound, are currently the focus of a long-range preservation plan being developed by the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. The Winterville Mounds museum we toured contained Native American artifacts including arrow heads, celts & adzes, chunky stones & ball sticks, clay pipes, shell beads & pots. After the museum visit, we climbed one of those mounds, probably the 55-foot one; which gave us some exercise & a great view of the nearby farming country but little else. It also gave us an appreciation of these Indians who built this mound & all of the mounds by carrying dirt one basket at a time; that’s lots of trips!
From here, we drive back into Greenville & do a grid auto tour of the city; the wide main shopping district was being totally renovated &, hopefully, will be back to its former self when finished; some of the buildings are beautiful & historic. We also found out that the Casino we planned to park at has another parking lot that is level & suitable for motorhome parking. Now, why didn’t that clerk Kathy talked with yesterday mention that?
Next we visit the newest Casino in town: “Harlow.” It was rumored that it was Art Deco architecture; very little, but it did have a bar (100) ft long. That was impressive!
Then we drive (8) miles to Leland, MS; the birthplace of Kermit the Frog. Muppet creator Jim Henson was born in Greenville & raised in Stoneville, just west of Leland. As a child, he spent hrs playing along the banks of Deer Creek. It was here that Henson dreamed of & created the character of Kermit the Frog. We visit the exhibit building that is loaded with photographs from the Henson Family Album, a video center with many of Jim Henson’s early works & a gift shop. Melissa spent her mid-morning hrs watching the Sesame Street program @ (2) yrs of age.
Back to our motorhome, we attach the Suzuki, wave our goodbyes to the Welcome Center people & leave @ 1:48pm; drive east on US-82, then south on US-61 to Vicksburg, MS arriving @ the Ameristar RV Park @ 3:43pm.
Today’s Travel: 2+06 hrs 98 miles 17 gal used 5.7 mpg 46.5 avg speed. As we sign in, we are given (2) coupons for a buffet breakfast @ the Ameristar Casino for tomorrow.
Zack calls just after we park in our campsite; we share talk time about (48) min each. We warned him….that’s what happens if you don’t return phone calls often enough.
Dinner: leftover meatloaf, asparagus & red peppers slices in Boursin sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy & salad.
DVR movie: “Miss Sadie Thompson” with Rita Hayworth, Jose Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins, Charles Bronson. Rita gives a provocative performace in musical of Somerset Maugham’s RAIN. 1953. For a change of pace, this is what Wikipedia had to say about this film. Miss Sadie Thompson was produced during the era of the production code. To conform with censors' dictates, the character of Sadie Thompson was changed from a prostitute into a nightclub singer with a past, and Alfred Davidson was changed from a morally corrupt and sadistic reverend into an unaffiliated religious zealot (to avoid offense to any specific religious group). Even with the changes, the film still drew criticism. Lloyd T. Binford, the 85-year-old head of the Memphis Board of Censors, said, "It's rotten, lewd, immoral, just a plain raw dirty picture," called "The Heat Is On" a "filthy dance scene," and believed the film should be banned. Several state censorship boards banned the film outright. Remember, this was filmed in 1953.
Lights out: 12:14am
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