Longleaf Trace Rail Trail

Mississippi – Wednesday, December 5

One of the things I had read about in Hattiesburg was the Longleaf Trace Rail Trail – a 41 mile rail trail that started on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. The morning was rainy, so I got a hot breakfast, then Tula and I headed out to the rail trail anyway because it wasn’t raining too hard, and was supposed to let up soon. This trail went through a short tunnel and over a bridge just like the trains used to. There weren’t many people out because of the weather so I felt like I had the whole trail to myself! It passed a bunch of college apartment buildings, then we were pretty much just walking through the woods with a lot of pine trees. (I’m seeing quite a few trucks again in this part of the state

hauling trees – presumably to paper mills). The rain did indeed let up and I was able to let Tula off her leash for a while, and we enjoyed walking 4 miles out and 4 miles back. It took nearly 3 hours, but was kind of nice to get all 8 miles done in one walk! The trail got busier as it dried up outside – I began to see more people out walking, jogging and biking. The rail trail makes a convenient bike path from a lot of the apartment buildings to the campus. I had to mail a package and some other stuff, so decided to take care of that, and I don’t know how I lose so much time taking care of some of those errands!

For my donation, I talked to a lady at MARL, which stands for Mississippi Animal Rescue League, which was going to be my animal-related donation for the week. But they’re up in Jackson, and I knew I wouldn’t quite get there in time, so decided to drop off the donation first thing in the morning. The lady jokingly said she didn’t want me to rush my shopping for them anyway! Their website had a wish list, so I knew I’d be able to take care of that in the morning.

After the errands and phone calls, I got a second wind, and thought it would be pretty to walk around the campus of U of Southern Miss. Tula was rested up too, so I got a parking pass, and then we walked all around the campus which was big and pretty. That gave me a couple extra miles for the day. We finished right at dark, and the rain started to fall again.

I took time for a pedicure right across the street from the campus (gotta take care of these hard-working feet!) and at least there weren’t any blisters to contend with this time. Then I got a Jimmy Johns sub and was happy to sit in the car for the drive up to Jackson.