On the Road to Mexico

Hi Adeline,

This letter will cover almost a thousand miles of travel, over four states: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. I made a map to show you where we went.

The first part of the trip was 961 miles and took two days.

We left Gulf Shores around noon on November 24 and headed north, even though we would be going south and west. We had to drive north for almost an hour to get to I-10, the Interstate highway that crosses the United States from east to west, all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We got onto I-10 just east of Mobile, Ala.

Here comes the creepy tunnel.

We did not stop in Mobile, so my only picture from there shows me in the car as we started into a tunnel. I knew about tunnels that go through mountains, but this one went under part of the ocean at Mobile Bay. I didn't like the tunnel much. It is a big, round hole with straight lines of lights in the ceiling. It goes down and down and down until it finally starts back up and you can see out the other side.  I kept thinking about all that water over my head. I was happy when we were able to see the other end, and I was even happier when we were through it.

After Mobile, we crossed into Mississippi. We stopped in Gulfport and guess where we had lunch — Waffle House — then it was back on the road and before long we were in Louisiana. We decided not to stop in New Orleans  and drove straight on through to Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana.

This part of Louisiana is called Bayou Country because the land has lots of bayous, places where the streams spread out into marshes and swamps as they join the ocean. The land is flat and just a few inches above the water. Alligators live in the swamps.

South Louisiana is also called Cajun Country, and is known for its delicious foods, friendly people and lively music. "Cajun" is a shortened form of "Acadian," a group of French-speaking people who moved from Canada to Louisiana about 250 years ago.

Crossing the mighty Mississippi at Baton Rouge

 In Baton Rouge, I had the thrill of crossing the great Mississippi River. The Mississippi is the largest river in the United States. It divides the country east and west, and all the smaller rivers in the middle of the country empty into the Mississippi. The Mississippi stretches 2,320 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico and collects water from 31 of the 50 states. At Baton Rouge, the river is almost a mile wide.

After crossing the bridge, we continued west to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where we spent the night. Lake Charles is the last city in Louisiana before I-10 crosses into Texas. It is at the beginning of oil country, where oil is pumped out of the ground, cleaned at refineries and turned into gasoline, heating oil, plastics and thousands of other products. I was impressed by the huge refineries that I could see from the road between Lake Charles and Houston, Texas, but I have to admit that I covered my nose while we traveled through there. Refineries don't smell good.

I get a close look at a pumpjack between Victoria and Laredo, Texas.

The next day, we traveled across Texas. Texas is so big that it took a whole day, and we only went across one corner of the state. We left the oil refineries behind as we passed Houston, the biggest city in Texas, but we continued to see oil wells during the whole trip. I was happy to get to take a close look at a pumpjack, a machine that draws the oil out of the ground. A pumpjack looks sort of like a dinosaur or an ostrich, with a head that bobs slowly up and down.

Hey! Is that a dinosaur about
 to bite my head?

I slept a lot during the drive through Texas. It was mile after mile of open country with cattle scattered across it and now and then a pumpjack. Texas is famous for its cattle ranches, and I passed a bunch of them, but the ranches are so big that you can travel a long time without seeing any cows.

We arrived in Laredo, Texas, in the middle of the afternoon Tuesday, Nov. 25. We spent a night there and prepared to cross the international border into Mexico the next day.

XOXO
Stan

Flat Stanley Hits the Beach

The beach at Gulf Shores

Hi Adeline,

I'm sorry it has been so long since I wrote to you. I have been traveling, and I did not have internet most of the time I was on the road. But I have a lot to tell you.

I spent a few weeks at Gulf Shores, Alabama, on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. Gulf Shores has a wide, white beach that is lined with condominiums and hotels. When I was there, the beach was nearly empty and we could walk for miles along the water without seeing very many people.

Sometimes the beach fills up with people, especially during festivals like the National Shrimp Festival in October and the Hangout Music Festival in May. And, of course, the beach is jam-packed all summer with people tanning, swimming, boating, fishing and flying kites.

I saw a big fishing boat in Pensacola, Fla.

Lots of kinds of seafood are caught here — oysters, shrimp, crabs, crawfish and many kinds of fish. Sea turtles nest in protected areas on the beach. Sometimes you can see porpoises and sometimes sharks.

Many kinds of sea birds are here, too — seagulls, brown pelicans, terns, blue herons,white ibises and more. It is a popular place for birdwatchers.

I try my hand a picking cotton. 

The land leading down to the beach is flat and sandy, and it is very fertile. I was surprised how many crops are grown here. The beach is just a skinny line where the ocean meets the land, but farms spread out over miles and miles of south Alabama. I got to see peanuts, corn, soybeans, pecans, sweet potatoes, satsumas, azaleas and cotton.

The cotton was my favorite, even though you can't eat it. It is used to make cloth. T-shirts, blue jeans, sheets and handkerchiefs are some of the things you may have that are made of cotton.

Around the end of November, the weather began to be chilly and rainy, so we decided it was time to go farther south. I will tell you about the trip next time.

Hugs and Kisses,
Flat Stan