We had a wonderful time with Bev and Wally in St Louis.   Wally picked out great places for us to eat, we enjoyed the great weather, time on the deck by the fire reminiscing about the 46 years we have known each other.   We were able to see their new beautiful home, and just relaxed.  Thanks Bev and Wally.   After a few nights it was time to give them a break and hit the road.   We headed south. My initial plan this year was to leave St Louis and head east through Tennessee, but after hurricane Helene that would have taken us through areas of East Tennessee and Georgia that were hard hit,   so instead we went through Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee into Mississippi just south of Memphis.   It was a good ride. The autumn color in the trees continued, with different types of trees giving us different oranges and yellows.  We knew we were in the south when we saw the cotton fields being harvested.  It is always neat to see ‘snow’ covered fields and rolls of cotton.   All along the highway is lined with white tufts of cotton that have been blown there by the wind.  There was also a lot of acreage of soybeans being harvested.  The National Soybean Festival is an annual event held in Portageville, Missouri.  We made it through Memphis traffic to land in Olive Branch Mississippi.  The south side of Memphis for an easy start in the morning.  I had intended to go a little further south but found small hotels at $1000 a night, apparently Old Miss has a football game tomorrow.  So instead Olive Branch where we had a walk through the parking lot for a cocktail and a steakhouse,  which proved welcoming and tasty.  In the morning a light breakfast and further south.

talk at the fire table

Fields of Cotton

Rolls waiting for pick-up

Cotton on the Road

Looks pretty cool

Welcome to Memphis