We spent a lovely afternoon walking around Meridian, MS. Meridian was established in 1860 and economically grew at a railroad crossroads. During the height of railroad usage, Meridian grew to be a very large city with over 40 trains arriving daily!

Now, parts of Meridian are kept by Mississippi State University and local businesses working to breathe life back into the city. There are also still blocks that need revival. There is so much street art throughout the more downtrodden areas, that much of our afternoon was spent on these blocks. We were amazed at the artistry that abounds here.

It may not look like much, but this charcuterie plate has some great finds from our travels (and a couple gifts from other people’s stops)!

Top row (left to right): Carroll’s award winning summer sausage (Ashburn, GA), Sweetwater Valley Farm Chipotle cheese and smoked Gouda (Philadelphia, TN), Yoder’s pepperoni cheese and garlic cheese, and Yoder’s all beef summer sausage (Shipshewana, IN).

The Ritz crackers and Hormel pepperoni are not so special, but were what we had on hand!

We adopted a spider plant recently. He seems to like our rv so far, and has grown roots over the last 2 weeks. I hope we don’t kill this one like we did with Oliver, the tiger aloe plant we got at Magnolia a couple years back…

Another travel day and another set of low branches on our route 😡 This time we were able to scoot around them off the side of the road and lightly brush along the roof. How many people carry a pole saw for this situation? I think one of ours is going in the RV next time we’re able to get to it.

We generally stay at the Hoover Met when we’re in Birmingham. This was recommended by several people to us a few years back. All sites are full hook up and there’s lots to see and do around this part of town, including a Costco. It’s also a relatively safe area of town.

The downsides are that you’re literally in a big parking lot and if there is a sporting event scheduled it can difficult (or impossible) to get a site.

Spent a lovely day driving through Birmingham and the surrounding areas. But first, Kate had to venture downtown to pick up a package, so we grabbed a shot of this mural at the corner of Third Ave. and 24th St. as we were driving around downtown. There were several other murals to capture, so we’ll make a map and try to get the next time we’re here!

We made it to Alabama! Stopping for a few days in Birmingham to see a college friend of Kate’s. We really like the times we stay in Birmingham; these days give us a chance to recharge (and restock) before getting back on the road.

We are super proud of Coco’s progress from last week! She met 6 new friends - Lucy, Bandit, Axle, Luna, Charlie, and Gretchen (intros to Charlie and Gretchen not captured). She did great with all of them, even eating a cookie with Charlie!

For all our Garmin RV GPS using friends, did you know that you can submit map errors and routing problems to Garmin? You can help make maps & routing better for everyone!