Day TWELVE | A Day Of Great Adventures

We woke up in the morning to freezing cold temperatures.  Breakfast was tough to eat because our hands were frozen. After drinking mugs of hot chocolate we were able to eat our food easier and we finished eating. We all ate breakfast and gathered in the pavilion where Gary told us about one of his favorite things to do, a plant transect.  He separated us into transect groups and soon after we were venturing through the woods identifying trees and shrubs.  Gary got very excited after seeing a few rare plants in some of our plots. Nothing makes Gary happier than a fine specimen!  Not only did we find a lot of neat plants, we also found a lot of neat insects.  We saw the biggest spider ever and also a lizard, which was a cool find. Luigi decided it would be a good idea to put the lizard on its arm, but the lizard ended up crawling up his arm to his head and was just chillin’ there. It wouldn’t move!  After doing our plant transect in the morning we moved on to the great city of Natchez, Mississippi.
When we arrived to Natchez we went to the visitors center where many activities were done. This was probably one of the greatest visitor centers of the trip so far, because they provided free beverages! Also, they had a mighty fine collection of Junior Ranger badges. Many of us are aspiring Junior Rangers, so seeing that badge collection was definitely a treat.  After the visitors center we went to the Melrose Plantation in the city which was very interesting.  Many of us did the activity booklet to become a Natchez junior ranger. The activity book was pretty difficult to complete. We had to do difficult activities like word finds, making a family tree, and creating our own war flag! It was most definitely a challenge. I think I speak for everyone when I say I felt extremely proud to complete the booklet. Once we completed the booklet, the ranger hooked us up with some pretty sweet things. Not only did we get a badge, we got a patch AND a paper hat! 
After becoming rangers we walked around the plantation and there was a lot of giant live oak trees, which were a site to see.  The grounds were covered in anthills, which were fun to stomp on because the ants would scurry out of their homes.  After terrorizing the ants, we decided that it was time to get down to business and actually sketch and watercolor. While sketching we stumbled upon a hickory tree, which was loaded with pecans.  We gathered many bags of them and took them back to camp with us.
When we were finished at the plantation, we drove back to camp to cook a delicious dinner.  After eating dinner, we were all dreading a large project we had to work on in the cold.  We had to design a connection from Beale Street to the Mississippi river in Memphis. We were all up very late into the night working on our projects, which led us into the next day…
Mason and Kat