26 Hours in Mississippi

[canyonwalker]

Mississippi Travelog #7
En route to New Orleans - Thursday, 26 Apr 2023, 2pm

We had an amazing hike at Red Bluff today in Mississippi. "Where's the blog with beautiful pictures?" you may ask. It's in my backlog. The workflow for those beautiful pictures takes more time than I have some days while still in the middle of a trip. Rather than let the whole blog series get jammed up behind them, I'm trying an approach on this trip of just working around them & posting them when I can, later. So, for now, just take my word that Red Bluff Canyon was stupendous, way better than we were expecting.

Update: Don't just take my word for it! I've now posted journal entries with pictures of the stunning Red Bluff canyon!

So, what's next? Completing our jaunt through Mississippi is what's next. Here's a map showing what we've done between yesterday and today:

After the hike at Red Bluff today we drove back to Columbia, MS for lunch. Even with a population under 6,000 (previous blog) it's the biggest town around for miles. From there we headed south toward New Orleans. We crossed the state line into Louisiana around 2pm, completing our jaunt through Mississippi in 26 hours.

How was it? Well, aside from the hikes, which I've detailed separately, Mississippi wasn't as bad as we feared. Remembering our trip to Arkansas a few years ago where Confederate flags and banners with racist language sprouted everywhere like the state flower— seriously, like half of all homes and businesses were displaying such flags— we thought it would be another place like that. In the southern parts of Mississippi visited over these 26 hours I didn't see a single Confederate flag. That's doubly surprising because Mississippi incorporated the Confederate battle flag as part of its state flag until a few years ago. People who want plausible deniability could fly the old state flag and say, "Naw, I ain't racist, I'm a proud Mississippian! ...New flag? I ain't made of money!"

Comments

[sorcyress]

AH! FLAGS! (You've activated my trap card, as the kids say)

I am _so_ into the new Mississippi flag --it's no Maryland heraldic disaster, but it's actually a state flag that can compete! _so many_ state flags are just "slap a seal in the middle of a piece of cloth and call it a day" which is _so bad_ and ugly and undifferentiable and just...inadequate flag design in all ways!

(The Maryland flag is very much a love-it-or-hate-it flag, but as I grew up there, I'm inordinately fond of it. And to be fair, regardless of how one feels about it, it *is* instantly recognizable from any distance and identifiable if there's no wind and the flag is crumpled and resting on its pole.)

Anyways, I quite like what they decided on for the new MS flag. It loses points for having text on it, but I like the symbology of the stars and the balance of different colour blocks and the flower.

~Sor

[canyonwalker]

I agree, so many state flags are weak efforts. They're not just "slap a seal on a piece of cloth" but "slap a seal on a piece of blue cloth." Seriously, like 17 states' flags are indistinguishable from a distance because they're blue fields with some symbol and small printing in the middle. Maryland's flag has a very complex design— another mistake— but it's unique and expressive. It's also a fun history lesson as it incorporates two coats of arms from the family of George Calvert, Lord of Baltimore.