Saturday, October 17, 2009: Famous frogs we know...

We stayed the night in Greenville to visit the museum of the 1927 flood the next morning. The Mississippi flood of 1927 was one of the greatest natural disasters in the history of the US. Chris had read a book, Rising Tide, about it several years ago and wanted to refresh his memory. Unfortunately, the museum advertised as open on Saturday morning was closed. So we drove east toward Leland.

Muppet creator Jim Henson spent his early years in Leland. At Leland is a little memorial building with lots of Muppet stuff and a person who knows a lot about Jim Henson and Muppets and who will not stop telling us about them. As a result, we learned a lot about Jim Henson. She also showed us a video documenting Jim Henson's early career as a puppeteer doing commercials and late night satire. Henson has said that this is the birthplace of Kermit the Frog because the seeds of his creation began during Henson's years exploring the Leland countryside as a child. The little place was actually rather inspirational.



We drove on Jackson, Mississippi where we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway (map) southwest to Natchez, Mississippi. We camped at Natchez State Park, on the Mississippi River. Nice park. Good facilities.