Today we drive from Memphis, Tennessee to Marksville, Louisiana some 300 miles and the first leg of our journey home! We have been on the road for three weeks and it’s time!

I think Miss Poppy needs to get home too. She is a real trooper and is happy to be anywhere we are … except that at home she spends all day, each day, playing what we call the “in and out game.” She places her head on the back of the settee, and looks out into the garden trying to spot a squirrel. The minute she does, she’s at the back door and letting us know that it’s time to go out and chase the pesky critter. The minute the door opens, she rushes out at the speed of light and only returns to the back door wanting to come in and repeat the whole process! It’s very cute to watch.

Our route takes us through Tunica, Mississippi, an immaculately kept small town where everything looks somewhat new. There is not a speck of rubbish anywhere; there are beautiful trees planted in neat rows to keep the winds away from the local crops of corn and rice; the road we are on is well-kept and for a Friday on a holiday weekend, it is empty.

What is interesting is that Tunica has not always been like this and was once one of the most impoverished towns in America. Life became dramatically different for the town’s residents when in 1995 Jack Binion, the son of a Las Vegas gaming legend, opened the Horseshoe Casino as part of a casino development centre of three gambling facilities side by side. The money began to flow into the town and it had the resources to regenerate itself into what it is today.

We head onwards and through Greenville, Mississippi. Greenville is the birthplace of Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets and the voice of Kermit the Frog until his Henson’s untimely death in May 1990.