Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas

       We boondocked last night in the WalMart parking lot in Columbus, MS.  Boondocking is when you are totally self-sufficient.  That is, you've got no plug in for electricity (you use your generator), you have no connection to water (hopefully your tanks are at least 1/4 full), and you're storing all the nasty stuff in the grey and black water tanks.
       One of the challenges we've always had while traveling is that I (Ken) tend to wake up really early and want to get on the road.  Muggy on the other hand, likes to sleep in.  Well, this RV'ing stuff lends itself quite satisfactorily to this situation.  This morning I awoke at 4:00am.  I made coffee and had a bit of breakfast and by 4:30 was ready to go.  So, with Muggy ensconced in bed, we headed out following US Highway 82 across Mississippi.  US 82 begins in Brunswick GA and ends in Las Cruces, NM.  We could have started on US82 in Georgia, but for this trip we joined up with the highway in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Here's a link with some information about US 82:
http://www.usends.com/80-89/082/082.html
       A really cool unexpected diversion today was experienced just west of Greenville, MS when we turned off the highway to visit Warfield Point Park, (url:   http://www.warfieldpointpark.com/admission.html ).  We rested in the cool shade along the MIGHTY Mississippi.  When you see the river at this point in its journey, you can understand why it's called mighty!!  As we enjoyed the quiet sounds of the river and the many red-winged blackbirds in the trees, we witnessed a very specific purpose this river serves.

Several barges went by both up and down the river.  It's one thing to say you know there are barges on the Mississippi; it's quite another thing to witness the barge traffic.  The barges are huge and one can only imagine the power of the boats pushing them.

      Just after leaving Warfield Point, we crossed the Mississippi on yet another wonder: the US 82 bridge over the Mississippi.  Check out this link for information about this bridge which is the "longest cable stayed bridge span on the Mississippi.
http://www.greenvillebridge.com/index.htm

We continued on across Arkansas.  Did you know that Arkansas is the largest producer of rice in the world?  We didn't either!!  And it's really a beautiful state...well, they've all been beautiful so far!  We pulled into Texarkana and joined up with I-30 for a couple of miles.  I couldn't figure out why the exits were numbered #1 and then #223 until I realized we left Arkansas and entered Texas.  Then, we turned north to our destination for the next couple of days, a place called Millwood Landing.