Thursday, October 6, 2022

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument, Day 3

Thursday 9/22


On to Poverty Point Reservoir State park.  I thought it was a strange name, and assumed it had something to do with the living conditions of the settlers here. But apparently that was the name given to one of the ancient tribes--the Poverty Point civilization.

The park map says,
Also on site are the Marsden Mound Trails, a group of five earthen, Neo-Indian mounds, dating from the Tchefuncte through the Coles Creek civilizations, and possibly later.

 

 Yeah. What it didn't say was that the mounds were leveled for agriculture and excavated a long time ago, probably in the 1930s. The tallest mound was 10-13 feet tall and the others 4-5, with a raised wall connecting them. But they all seem to be gone. While I was walking the dog I did come across a strange uprising in the ground, a ways away from the marker. Possibly it was one of them?

 



Also this sign for "Mound B" in the middle of a dense woodlot.

 
 

 

 

Anyway, we felt defeated. Yet again we'd set out to see a historical artifact, only to find it gone. Like that village in Arkansas--all that was left there was a bit of iron pipe by the river.

Here's the review I posted on campgroundreviews.com:
Asphalt surface, very nice and level.The 30/50 amp power worked fairly well although the 50-amp circuit only had a single breaker. It glitched a few times while we were running both air conditioners, so we backed off to just one and switched the water heater to LP gas.  The dump station was very nice.

Not crowded down where we were, but at the end of the park with full hookups, it got very crowded during the weekend. But not especially noisy. A good number of people had bright lights in their campsites, but none shone directly in our windows so we could not complain. But the night sky view was ruined.

We failed to see a bear despite trying very hard.  There were a few trails, very mosquito-ey at the time of year but also very easy to follow. A number of people were fishing in the little river that runs through the park. There's also a large reservoir just beside the park.  Note that the Marsden Mounds no longer exist, except as a mowed area of ground with a historical marker.


 

This campsite will become legend due to the abundance of sticky leaves that we managed to track into the motorhome. Something about the tree--it's just a hackberry, which I'd never known to have a sticky substance--or some tiny insect, or maybe it's just in the air, has coated everything here with a sticky residue. The falling leaves glue themselves to everything--our shoes, our chairs, our dogs! It's like living in a sugar factory.

Other than that, it's unremarkable. Not crowded at all over at the end of the campground we are in although it's pretty crowded by the entrance. I suspect those are full hookup sites. I tried to get one of the three pull-thru, full hookup sites when I made the reservaion, but those were reserved for walk-ins or some such nonsense.

Pretty walk, pretty lake. And birds.


We actually had a horrid time leveling, at first. I'd directed Ed to back up as far as possible, which put the leveling stands just behind the concrete "stop" bar. That's an okay thing to do, so far as I know, but that put our back end quite a few inches lower than the front, which seems to have freaked out the leveling mechanism. It kept hoisting all four wheels off the ground and then tiling us sharply to the left.

Ed tried multiple times, tried some tricks, and then finally gave up and took the suggestion I'd made early on--to pull forward a couple of feet and see if the levelers liked that better. And that did the trick--first try and only the slightest of adjustments--in fact, I believe all four tires were ON the ground this time. Where they belong!

Across the river to Vicksburg and a not-so-memorable supper. Rusty's Riverfront Grill. Very high ratings.  The salads were poor (bad blue cheese dressing; old lettuce.) My food was good but not a great combination (blackened fish with a crawfish cream topping.) Ed's fried fish platter was tasteless.



No comments: