88 bar falls 4mph NNE\u00a0 dew-point 75 (!)\u00a0\u00a0 Summer Solstice<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Waning Gibbous\u00a0Flower Moon<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Texarkana, Arkansas<\/p>\n
Ate lunch today in Monroe, Louisiana at the Piccadilly Cafeteria.\u00a0 This is the cafeteria you may remember from earlier times.\u00a0 It has a sturdy 3-part metal rail and about 50 feet of food set out in neat little rows.\u00a0 The watermelon and the cucumber salad I retrieved first could have come from anywhere, but the shrimp etouffee?\u00a0 Pure Louisiana.\u00a0 Cornbread and\u00a0greens filled out my tray (Formica with little flecks).\u00a0 This cost $11.84.\u00a0 Pay at the register on the way out.<\/p>\n
Dana brought me some hot sauce and a second large glass of water.\u00a0 The atmosphere managed to be both down-home and quietly elegant.\u00a0 I ate until I should have stopped, then went right on past that point.\u00a0 Mmmm.\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n
Earlier a Park Ranger at the Vicksburg Military Park got me to participate in a mock firing of a confederate cannon.\u00a0 I was the gunner.\u00a0 The whole business is a dance that a good crew could repeat three times in a minute.\u00a0 First, a long pole with a cotton damper is thrust into the cannon to put out sparks from the last firing that might prematurely set off the charge.\u00a0 A second person pushes a charge into the cannon.\u00a0 The first person tamps the charge home with a wooden tamper on the other end of the swab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A third person stabs the charge with a sharp metal rod, opening the powder.\u00a0 Then, the gunner steps up (this is me) and sights along a bronze rule.\u00a0 When satisfied with the placement, the gunner throws up his hands.\u00a0 This signals the person with the metal rod to step up and place a leather covered thumb over the striking hole to create a vacuum.\u00a0 Yet another person puts a firing pin in the next hole.\u00a0 Filled with chemicals, it lights when he yanks a six foot long lanyard.\u00a0 Boom.<\/p>\n
On a drive through the park on the tour route I thought about why we commemorate these events.\u00a0 Battles.\u00a0 Clashes of men and arms.\u00a0 There are many monuments.\u00a0 They honor states, divisions, armies, batteries, generals, colonels, the fallen and the wounded.\u00a0 They are made of marble, bronze, and other stones, some small, while others, like the Illinois and Wisconsin state monuments, are huge.\u00a0 This is sacred architecture called into service when some path changing event occurs in the sweep of human history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It does its job.\u00a0 The whole drive feels solemn, reverent.\u00a0 Somewhere, back behind the trees, the dead still swab the cannons and lift their muskets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stopped in Texarkana for the night.\u00a0 I plan to make at least Kansas City by tomorrow night, then on home.\u00a0 After the Vicksburg visit, my inner compass turned toward home.\u00a0 Now, headed north,the journey flows toward my pole star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
88 bar falls 4mph NNE\u00a0 dew-point 75 (!)\u00a0\u00a0 Summer Solstice \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Waning Gibbous\u00a0Flower Moon \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Texarkana, Arkansas Ate lunch today in Monroe, Louisiana at the Piccadilly Cafeteria.\u00a0 This is the cafeteria you may remember from earlier times.\u00a0 It has a sturdy 3-part metal rail and about 50 feet of food set out in neat little rows.\u00a0 … Continue reading The Journey Flows North<\/span>