The drive from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi was just over 3hrs. It was an easy drive. The road was mainly surrounded by trees, cotton fields and the occasional water way. It was very green the whole way.
We decided to have a very easy day as Robyn is suffering with a cold & cough, maybe a chest infection.
The Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain seems to be quite big in the South. The founder, Clarence Saunders, was the first man to introduce self serve supermarkets. He opened his first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis in 1916. Prior to this store, shoppers would hand their list to a clerk who would get the items off the shelves.
Piggly Wiggly's logo is a distinctive pig face, similar to Porky Pig.
Saunders built a home called The Pink Palace in Memphis. He never lived in it as it was taken by the tax man but it is now a museum housing a very eclectic display, including a full scale replica of the first Piggly Wiggly store. We didn't get time to visit it while in Memphis so today we stopped at a Piggly Wiggly store.
As we were getting out of the car, one of the employees, an older black man, starting talking to us. He thought it was quite funny that we were from Australia but wanted to see a Piggly Wiggly store.
It was a really big store, with every imaginable grocery item & many things I had never heard of.
They have their own Piggly Wiggly line, same as Woolies Homebrand. There was even a soft drink flavor called Mr Pig.
We bought a bottle of water so Rob could get a Piggly Wiggly bag. At one end of the store was a little office. Hanging outside were some Piggly Wiggly t-shirts. By now our friend was up near us so he arranged for one of the office ladies to get one out for Robyn. She bought it through a checkout & he went to put it in a plastic bag. She asked if she could have it in a paper bag which also had the label on it. He gave her an extra unused one too. She is very excited.
We are staying in a suburb called Flowood which is about 15mins from downtown Jackson. It seems to be a relatively new area with lots of medical facilities around.
There is a large outdoor mall not far down the road, which covered both sides of the road. There were also lots of restaurants & eateries around. We went down for an hour or so tonight before having dinner at a Thai fusion restaurant close to the hotel.
There didn't seem to be a great deal of sight seeing to be done in Jackson so we don't seem to be missing much by choosing to have a quiet afternoon.
The people in the South have been extremely friendly & the most interested in us. Most ask where we are from & then say 'welcome' straight away. Others have wanted us to keep talking because they like our accents. Robyn has been asked once if she was from New Orleans - not sure why they thought that. She has also been asked if we see kangaroos everyday. They are very nice people but sometimes a bit hard to understand.
Tomorrow we go to New Orleans.