16 April 2024
Another really great day weather wise. I got a late start this morning because I slept past 7 which is unusual for me. I guess I need to turn in earlier if I want to get up earlier. My walk was the shortest of the four today but I extended it to 1.34 miles. My stamina is slowly improving.
While on the walk, I saw a species of Jasminum blooming called Morga. It’s Jasminum sambac and is considered the national flower of the Philippines and is an important component in perfumes.
There are around 200 species of Jasminum worldwide and all are members of the Olive family (Oleaceae).
There are 15 genera of Oleaceae in North America and 8 species of Jasminum. Over the years I’ve seen three genera in the wild – either doing my masters at Tishomingo State Park or on my travels.
I managed to do my yoga stretches, my home PT exercises, and swim today. The problem is I have PT with Shannon at 1:10 this afternoon and I’ll probably be wiped after what she puts me through. However, I’ll try anything to build my stamina.
I have a trip planned for May. My cousin Jimmie in Greensboro is driving to Mississippi with Stephen and I’m driving from Fort Lauderdale. We’ll meet in Mississippi on May 2nd. Jimmie and Stephen will be staying with her sister Jean and her husband Roger at Pelahatchie. I’ll be staying at Roosevelt State Park near Morton and use that as a home base to visit with them and my brother Archie and his wife Tanis in Brandon.
We also hope Jean and Jimmie’s sister Jo comes in from San Antonio. It’ll be a real family reunion of Agnew’s, McKay’s, Searcy’s and LeCoeur’s. The plan is to stay three nights and have some get togethers and maybe head out to some local restaurants. We are all getting older and we don’t see each other as often as we should.
Roosevelt has a lot of memories for me. It was my first night of camping with Boy Scouts. Actually, it was three of us camping on our own to earn a camping merit badge. We had those awful Army pup tents and it rained on us all night long. Those tents were treated canvas and if you touched the inside of the tent, it created a leak. Of course, one of our number didn’t believe that and touched the inside and had a drip over his head all night long.
Our Scout troop often camped at Roosevelt and we were “given” an area that we could clear and use for our permanent camp. Of course, when we cleared all the land in the area, the park took it to make camping spots for tourists.
We also made a lot of the trails around the lake at Roosevelt. I assume some are still there and I look forward to maybe walking one of those.
The Methodist Church used the group cabins as their Church Camp for many years. Jimmie and I would attend. The cabins were extremely primitive with a single light bulb, bunk beds, and no air conditioning. Of course, Church Camp was in the summer.
I’ve previously mentioned that the park had a lot of WWII canons and tanks kids could play on. I guess it’s like the old merry-go-rounds found on school yards. If you got hurt, it was your fault.
I also fished Roosevelt so many times I’ve lost count and caught the last fish I needed for the fishing merit badge there. I had to catch one on an artificial lure and I used a hula popper. I caught a bass. That’s still my favorite lure.
Roosevelt was also where I learned to swim. I took swimming lessons at the pool in Forest, Mississippi but it was Mrs. Oliver, the minsiter’s wife, that really taught me to swim at Roosevelt. It was cousin Jo that taught me to swim on my back out to the diving platform – a scary proposition for me. That gave me the courage to eventually do it using the American crawl and jump off the high dive.
If you swam in and around and under the diving platform (we would often play a game of aquatic chase) you would sometimes have fish come up and nibble at your bits. You’ve never been in pain until a fish has tried to bite your nipple.
That’s enough for today. I need to get ready for PT. Stay tuned!