Stormy Day and a Little Cachin 4/11/2008

Today started out with the threat of a few thunderstorms but the forecasters didn't seem to know any kind of time frame or how bad they would be so we decided to go do some caching. We left and got on the Trace to drive to Ridgeland. As we drove up the Trace we did see 2 historic sites.
The first was Osburn's Stand. To improve communications to the Old Southwest, the Natchez Trace was declared a post roadin 1800. Afterwards, with Choctaw permission, improvements to this section of the Old Trace began. In 1805, the Choctaw allowed inns, known as stands, to be built along the route to provide basic food and shelter to travelers. By 1811, Noble Osburn opened a stand near this spot. He was known to treat equally his Choctaw neighbors and American travelers. In 1821 at LeFleus's Bluff along the Pearl River, the city of Jackson was founded and a year later became the state capital. As a result, the postal route shifted slightly east from here to go through the new capital leading to the demise of the stands along this section of the Old Trace.
Next we stopped at the Choctaw Agency. U.S. agents like Silas Dinsmoor lived among the Choctaw and represented their interests while implementing U.S. policy. His duties included surveying and preventing illegal settlement on Choctaw land. He also encouraged the Choctaw to be more dependant on modern farming practices. He was tasked to collect tribal debts owed to American companies and insure that the Choctaw were paid for land ceded to the U.S. The agency moved four times to stay within the shrinking boundaries of the Choctaw Nation. It was located here, along the Natchez Trace, from 1807 until just after the Treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820.
Then it was on to our first 2 caches in a lovely large park in Ridgeland. The first was near a soccer field and the other one was near a walking trail. Ridgeland is the only place in Mississippi that professional soccer is played. Each year they host the Chicago Fire pro soccer team in an exhibition game and the park is the spring traing home of the Fire. Next was a cache at another McAlister's Restaurant, the next 2 caches were located along the shore of the Ross R. Barnett Reservoir, then it was on to Ridgeland Baptist Church and a 2 stage multi-cache, then a very clever hide in a small neighborhood cemetery and the last cache was located, in a primarily tennis complex, under a light pole. Then it was on back to the RV as it started to rain. We stopped at Kroger and picked up a few things and at Burger Barf for a sandwich, went back had lunch and I showered and Mom did the logs. We had to cancel our reservations at Eighth Lake and Fish Creek Pond in the Adirondacks as we didn't realize they don't have any electricity. We were able to make reservations at the North Pole Campgrounds so we can watch Chris's triathlon, and in fact the bike part of the race goes right by the campgrounds. I watched the Masters for a little while and I am doing the blog now. It's almost time to get dinner ready and feed Muffy and Raggs so we will say until tomorrow and we love and miss you all.


Picture List:We didn't have any pictures from today's travels so we thought you might like to see the plaques that were located around the U.S.S. Cairo at each section of the boat that it pertains to.