Happy Summer Solstice! Vicksburg, MS to Red Bay,AL

We spent the longest day of the year traveling.

We stayed three days at Vicksburg’s Ameristar Casino  RV Park.  Casinos can have some nice parks, and if you promise to gamble a certain amount, sometimes they’re free.  Our’s was not the case, in price or quality, but we didn’t gamble either.

Instead we used our day to drive down to Natchez, MS, where there are many preserved antebellum homes that are open for tour - each one for $10-20 each.  Unfortunately, Bill’s sciatica is still bothering him such that he doesn’t want to walk much yet.  So we went to the Visitor’s Center, got a map, and drove around the town.   At the Visiter’s Center, I learned that the US outlawed buying/selling of slaves from Africa in 1808.  The slave trade continued up to the civil war because the middle-southern states provided slaves to the lower-southern states, sometimes by kidnapping, and “selling them down the river”.  This is what the movie “12 Years a Slave” is based on.  AND some freed slaves owned slaves themselves.  Such an awful part of history that has to be carefully preserved and learned from.  I loved the town - hated the history.   The homes in Natchez were the town homes of the owners whose plantations were across the river in Louisiana.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is the preservation of the road traders would use to walk back home after floating their goods down the Mississippi.  They would sell everything, including the lumber from their boats.  But, of course, robbers knew these travelers had plenty of cash.  The trip home could be treacherous.

BTW - there is an awesome National Civil War Battlefield Park in Vicksburg, which we saw with Brendan on our first trip around the US.  So, we skipped it.  Did you know there were iron-clad ships in these rivers during the civil war?  The U.S.S. Cairo was the first ship sink by a torpedo in battle.  

Hope you got some free ice cream on the longest day of the year!

Just do it! Shallow Creek RV Park, Gladewater, TX

We’ve spent this last week in East Texas, getting acclimated to our rig, and spending time with Bill’s aunt and uncle.  They are a gracious couple who love to entertain, and they live in a tiny house!  They have some acreage with a stocked pond, and some horses, dogs and a pig.  We feel like they’re kindred spirits - own less, live more!

I wanted to find a way to thank them for their hospitality, so I got out my watercolors, got over my reservations, and tried my hand at illustrating their house.  It’s important to note that I consider myself an illustrator, not a painter.  I work best with pencils, color pencils, ink and pastels, media I can control, more or less, but I want to get better at watercolor. So I think I found a good compromise.  

1. I first sketched out the image in pencil, working from a photo Bill took, cropping the image and zooming in with the iPad so I could see as many details as possible.

2. I used varying thicknesses of permanent micron pens to ink in all the important lines.

3. I masked off the house with masking tape and painted in the background of trees, pond and fields.

4. Finally, I unmasked the house and CAREFULLY painted in the details, painting over the inked lines.  In this way, it felt more like I was coloring in a drawing, and had a bit more control over the final product.  

I’m pretty pleased with the result, and it gives me confidence, and a process, to try some more.

Look up!

The sky is the thing that gets me. We get so bogged down in our busy lives, we forget to look up. We’re in the piney woods of East Texas and I love the delicate lace of the trees as they outline the sky. The clouds are constantly changing. I need to get this down on watercolor paper. It’s funny, as an artist and teacher, that I should have artist’s block. I’m afraid to start, afraid it won’t be good enough. I’ve never been very good at watercolor, so that is one of my goals on this trip. Practice!

The first day of the rest of our lives

Yesterday, we said goodbye to San Antonio, and set out on our new adventure.  We’ve been living in our Tiffin Allegro Open Road 36LA for over a month, so the inside already feels like home.  Now the outside can begin to change. I finished up the school year on Friday, said goodbye to family and friends, and we’ve hit the road!  This morning I woke up to cornfields.  Dear Lord, bless our travels.