It is quite noticeable in the Southern States how much faster nature reclaims land after man stops caring about it...

We have seen whole houses completely swallowed up by trees and creepers. Now every time we see an overgrown patch of land we wonder what lies underneath it.

In Eutaw, Alabama we saw a couple of county road workers clearing long grass with chainsaws. I guess weed-eaters aren't manly enough for this part of the country.

In Hickory, Mississippi we drove passed two young guys standing by the side of the road with their car barely visible at the bottom of a deep ditch. I went to offer my help, but the driver had already called his Dad to come and tow him out. He had hit a deer just before we arrived and this was the 4th time he had hit a deer in this same stretch of the road. This was the first time his car had survived though, and the first time the deer had survived too.

He was more annoyed about losing the deer than he was about the damage to his car.

As we were driving through Mississippi we heard storm warnings over the radio. They were predicting golfball-sized hail and 70mph winds to hit shortly in the areas of Newton and Scott Counties, where we had driven through two hours before. We could see the storm brewing in the skies and at about 5.30pm stopped in Clinton for the night, just as the rain and wind started, but the real storm missed this area. We were lucky we hadn't left two hours later.

And for the two John Taylors in the family, we found this road in Ralph, Tuscaloosa County.

We have driven through many towns with strange names but perhaps none as strange as Chunky, Mississippi. You really have to wonder if the consumption of a lot of moonshine is involved in choosing the town names...

Just imagine if you went to school there. Telling someone you went to Chunky School would be kind of embarrassing if you were, shall we say, a little overweight.