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Here we go.... I have an Excel file with all the sites on the Mississippi DAR website listed. They are numbered and can be sorted by number, name, cemetery, nearest town, and county. Also have a SA7 file with all of the locations as close as I can get them without more research. I discovered that I can import that file into my GPS program making each drawing object a waypoint. Spent a little time working out a route up the east side of the state that would sweep all the sites more-or-less from here to Hattiesburg to Jackson to Memphis east to the Alabama line then back home. Something like 1100 miles. Considering that we have only basic directions to these places, I'm guessing five days on the road. Haven't even began to consider the west side of the state where most of the sites are located. Going to keep us busy for awhile. I'll add in some other things to visit while in the neighborhood just to break up the cemetery routine. Already dug out my old files. I guess you are still in Folsom, so let me know when you want the Excel and SA7 files. A lot of these sites are in Nowhere, MS. This is gonna be FUN. A LOT of those Revolutionary graves are in your side of Mississippi around Natchez. Shortly after the first of the year, the first several days of good weather, I'm headed out to locate, photograph, and waypoint as many of those graves as I can find. If I can find enough of them to make a website viable, I'll build a real website with a dedicated domain. Pass the candy. |
| Dateline:
7:10 am, Monday, January 2, 2006 Decision made to launch search operation for Dead Patriots beginning Tuesday. Launch clock running. 7:35 am Discover rear axle nut stripped on Bike "A". 7:36 am Decision made to switch to Bike "B" 7:37 am Remember Bike "B" stripped down to frame and engine from recent plastic surgery. Launch effort to make "B" rideable. Launch Clock ticking louder. Beloved wife, What's-Her-Name, snickering. 11:50 pm Bike approved as rideable. Nothing packed. Route notes nonexistent. Launch clock sounds like runnaway train. Too tired to care. 5:10 am, Tuesday, January 3, 2006 Third cup of coffee begining to take effect. Clothes in washing machine. Route notes limited to one day ride of researched sites and several waypoints that are of unknown accuracy. Launch clock has quieted down. Ontime launch looks likely. 7:15 am Beloved wife, What's-Her-Name, reports flat tire on truck. Rush to install tire plug is a dismal faliure. Hole to big to be patched properly. 7:45 am Launch clock explodes. Neighbors call 911. Fire/rescue/police afraid to come near insane motorcyclist. 7:46 am Resigned to do whatever has to happen and move on. 11:45 am Everything as close to normal as possible. Launch executed. 11:47 am Remembered camera and notes on table. Returned home. Steam building in ears. 12:00 noon Second launch executed. Uneventful (thank you Lord) ride to beautiful downtown Folsom, LA. |
| Anatomy of a Successful Structured Adventure |
| First of all, to those who are waiting in Henderson, the levee ride will continue after I get back over there and take a few more shots on a sunny day. I have been busy and this article is about some of that busyness. |
| Catchy title. I know nothing about structure or anatomy which are basically the same thing. Witnessing a plan being constucted, it methodically being carried out, interactions with the real world, meaning people, with a successful and bountiful fruition simply amazed me. This site and my wanderings have never been about success or fruition or construction simply because I have doubted any possiblity of a plan working especially when there is more than one participant. This really twisted my preconceptions. The Patriot Stone Project. What in the heck was he talking about? I've known Ray Fagan for a while and even done some little joint ride reports, calm down Cheech, under the name "Following Fagan". Those were little "putts around" just for the heck of it. They were for kicks with no redeeming worth but the usual collection of new places and history. Now he's gone serious on me and is on a mission. This little write will be about the first leg of the pursuit of the exact location of the graves of American Revolutionary Soldiers in Mississippi. No, he wasn't kidding and being such a bizarre undertaking, I dropped all my usual armor and succumbed to a plan, as unnatural to me as breathing water. |
| Mississippi ?!!? |
| That was exactly Billy's and my responce. Billy replied, after I told him what had come down from Ray, "He's got the wrong state. That war was up north on the East Coast". Exactly my thoughts. |
| The next move, and I know Ray was waiting, was to ask Ray if he'd just gone over the edge or maybe he was confusing The Revolutionary War with the War of 1812 or some other conflict. So I emailed him. Now Ray should have been a professor, in fact, I refer to him as Dr. Fagan because of all the ''you know what'' he knows or makes me believe he knows.I'm gulable, as I hope you are.. Back came a three page letter basically saying that those soldiers died in Mississippi and other states because some were paid in "land grants" in lieu of money for their soldiering efforts because the young government was broke. The British had built up the Mississippi area and they had been run off leaving land available. Of course I am sure some soldiers just came on their on, but that answer makes a good story, up to his usual quality. |
| Enough introduction. I save all of Ray's letters of enlightenment, dim as he claims them to be, for future use. I know better. Often I just can't digest them completely as my cognitive skills blink on and off. Since this is an anatomy of a plan, Ray's plan, I want you to see what it took to get-ur-done. For him this was not just riding out the driveway and sticking the finger up to see which way the wind blows. For me it was just following those Jesse Bags across Mississippi and back, wondering not only about what was around the next corner, but how many corners. Except for the auto pilot thing, a pretty normal ride. "Normal" being subjective. The anatomy lesson begins. Below is the earliest hint of "The Plan" that I have. I know, it seems that there must have been an earlier note hinting at "The Plan". You don't know Ray. |
| What I've just noticed is that Ray writes in verses. I think they are acid rock verses. I can see David Lee Roth standing on top of a speaker yelling between each, "Just Jump". So, so I did. Now this plan had a little help from the stars. Seems my wife was ready for a grandchild visit and that would take us to E. Louisiana. Ray was able to blank off some calendar and we would go. But first we would have to decide where we'd start from. Not included in the plan. Finally we decided on Folsom. The emails were going back and forth up to the last moment, The Plan looked in jeopardy. I told Ray I was writing this little deal so he sent me an explanation of what he had to go through to just leave. I swear he's David Lee Roth. |
| A couple of observations here. Is Ray may be instead, David Bowie's "Major Tom". The "launch" references would be troubling if you didn't know Ray. I believe the whole 2 day's Ride Plan was probably written in the same format. He'd close the book everytime I got near it. |
| I guess Ray got there at about 2:00, I didn't record it, but it was a successful arrival, as he said. With a little twitching and tweaking we got the DL650's on the little trailer and headed out to Lincoln State Park above Brookhaven, MS. We arrived at the park successfully. We grubbed down a bunch of Cajun cooking I'd stolen from home, successfully. We hit the sack, poping up early as most anticipating adventurers do. We waited until 8:00 to see if Billy could join us. Billy has lived in the area we would be exploring and his company would have been great. But it didn't work out. A redo when hunting season is over, not Patriot Stone hunting, deer hunting, so Bill can join us is plannned.. We both needed fuel and provisions so we went on into Wesson. |
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| Below is part of the "Play Book" for the day's ride. That's the lower half of the state of Mississippi. And he's serious. |
| Locations of possible gravesites. |
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