A family get-together in Florida- Bob and Camille flew in from San Francisco and Steph from NYC for a long weekend in Florida. We’re not sure if they were impressed with our new “digs” – especially the idea of living in a very senior oriented gated community filled with golf carts and motorhomes. But they did get into the kitsch of Florida- spending the afternoon at our favorite biker bar – seeing the manatees, going to local alligator theme park and exploring the swamps in an air boat. 
John quickly found the beer wagon- a fixture at these rallies. 24 hour access to beer on tap!
Now getting John to put a shower cap on his head and shave cream on top was a sight to see! We made it through the day activities- but then came the evening – and the DANCE! For two Yankees with a combined 4 left feet, we were really intimidated. The dance started at 7PM and was going strong at 11PM on both Friday and Saturday nights. 
The dance floor was packed the entire time! It took a bit of coaxing to get us onto the floor, but we gave it our best shot. We’d never even danced together- much less with some of the best dancers you will ever see! They’d all been dancing since they were kids –learning from their parents.
We were so taken with these absolutely wonderful people – and definitely wanted to become “Cruisin Cajuns”. So with our sponsors and paperwork in hand, we became official “First Timers” and made plans for the next 2 rallies so we could become official club members.
We spent the afternoon at the local Patterson Mardi Gras Parade – caught our share of beads and enjoyed the local color. The American Coach rally was quite a change from the Cajuns. They did manage to get one of the extraordinary Cajun dancing couples to come to their rally and give some dance lessons. Every little bit helps!! 
Jean and Gordon arrived and we got them settled into their “guest suite” at TGO. The house actually worked quite well with guests – quite a change from the close quarters in Boston. We did face the challenge of how to make this trip memorable. After all, their first two visits to the States had been NYC, Boston and New Orleans. Here we were in Florida- home to Mickey and Minnie – with explicit instructions that Disney was not to be a part of our itinerary! No worries- we managed to pack the two weeks with Florida sights and a road trip. While we didn’t make the Mickey pilgrimage, we did spend a day at Universal Studios in Orlando. We had to make the Brits experience at least one theme park in Florida.
We explored the Titusville area- having some up-close and personal looks at the manatees and a day at the Kennedy Space Center. 
We headed north to take in October’s Bike Week in Daytona Beach. We found a few great biker bars where the people watching was astounding and the beers very large!
We knew it was going to be a great tour. We learned a whole other side of the city from this tour- hearing the stories of slave labor, slave uprisings, as well as a host of other things we didn’t know about the black culture. We were quite taken with the old wives tales that everyone contributed…especially the one about putting menstrual blood into dirty rice and serving it to your man to assure that he would be yours forever! Gordon’s going to think twice if Jean serves him dirty rice at home.
Once the trading route for European explorers, it became a U.S. Postal road and was later widened to become a military road. Today, it is a beautiful two lane road through woodlands and pasture from Nashville to Natchez. Along the road were numerous stops- Indian mounds from AD 1400, parts of the original Trace- and absolutely no traffic. It was a wonderful way to cross the state of Mississippi. We had a great campground- the Isle of Capri (gambling casino) Campground- concrete pads and level sites. We explored the town of Vicksburg- the historic homes interspersed throughout the downtown area.
It was an interesting battle- Grant besieged the city for 47 days until its surrender on July 4, 1863. It’s said that the town would not celebrate the 4th of July for years after. The cemetery was particularly touching- of the 17,000 Union dead, over 13,000 were unknown. The gravestones of the known soldiers are in marked contrast to the square markers of the unknown soldiers- with only a number engraved on them. (Photo courtesy of Flickr). The park also had the original gunboat, the USS Cairo, which sank in 1862- the first vessel in history to be sunk by a electronically detonated torpedo (mine). 
Never missing a chance for the ‘eccentric’, we made our way to Margaret’s Grocery, about 3 miles outside of town on Highway 61. The story goes that the widow, Margaret, operated what was once a small, unassuming roadside snack store. About 20 years ago, the Reverend Dennis came along and promised her that he would turn her store into a castle if she would marry him. Now, seeing as how this would make her Reverend D’s 5th wife, she courageously accepted. The store was turned into Reverend D’s version of a castle- made of red and white cinder block. Religious signs and messages are everywhere. The sign as you enter reads: “All is welcome, Jews and Gentiles here at Margaret’s Gro. And Mkt & Bible Class”. 
He preaches out front in a bus that’s been converted into a church- complete with pulpit and pews—covered in metallic paint, tin foil and duct tape. We were lucky enough to find Reverend Dennis at home and he were treated to the story of his life. It turns out that his mother died in childbirth, leaving him alone by her side for 5 days. Someone found him and since his father’s people didn’t want him, they brought him to his grandmother (who was a midwife and cook for the “white folk”). She took him to several doctors who all said that the child would never live. But, she “knows the man”- and he is now pushing 88 years old. When he was still a baby, a tornado went through the town and he was swept out of his grandmother’s arms and they found him some 40 miles away swinging from a tree branch. At the age of 12, his grandmother died and he went to live with his father. After 9 months of regular beatings, he took off and hitched a ride on a train. When he got off the train, he heard them calling the “cotton-pickers” to come to work. So, since he was the “best cotton-picker and cotton cutter around”, he took the work. About that time, he met up with a white plantation owner surveying his pecan trees. He told his sorry tale to him and he asked, “What can you do, boy?”. Well, he told him about being the best cotton-picker, cotton cutter and farmer around- so the man let him have one of the empty rooms on his plantation in exchange for work. He said that everyone would taunt him, calling him “nigger, ape, monkey” and he would just smile and “Yassir, yassir”. Finally, the man said, “Why do you keep smiling and saying Yes Sir when they call you a nigger?”. Dennis replied, “ My grandma taught me manners and respect for the white folk”.
So, eventually, when he would go into town with the white man and they’d ask him why he had that nigger with him, the white man would answer, “He’s no nigger, he’s the black sheep of the family”. About this time, John was getting a bit antsy. We cut his WWII experiences a bit short, got the rest of the story about his return from service in the Pacific, his 4 year contract to learn the trade of brick layer and his skills in wood working, bricklaying, etc. He took us into his church- filled from floor to ceiling with Mardi Gras beads, Christmas tree lights, religious signs and posters, stuffed animal on turntables, and 9 donation boxes. He proudly showed us the numerous write-ups about him- including one that he proudly read out loud: “One Man’s Ridiculous Dream: Reverend Dennis and Margaret’s Grocery”. With his red suspenders and painted stained shirt, the safety pin in the zipper of his jeans, cataracts in his eyes, a hearing aid in his ear and only a few bottom teeth left in his mouth, he was quite a charmer- or was he a con artist? Who knows – or cares--- another bit of eccentric America!
