Lake Lincoln

This morning we biked around Lake Lincoln State Park, investigating our surroundings and challenging our quads a bit with the hills. It’s a rather small state park with a lovely lake. We checked out the campground and the beach. We’re not sure exactly what people are thinking when they get into water that has “Beware of alligators” signs around.

We saw several fishing boats out on the lake and talked to a couple of anglers who were preparing to leave. We asked about bass, and they admitted there were bass in the lake, but they had been fishing for perch.

We rode up to the gatehouse/office and talked to the attendant there. She’s a contractor working for the State of Mississippi. Ken was off taking photos of the entrance area, and there was no traffic, so I had a chance to chat with her. Her name is Sarah. She worked for Bell South for 33 years and has worked at this state park for the last five years.

She was a student at Jackson State when the police shootings occurred there, just days after the Kent State shootings in May of 1970. In fact, she was looking out her dorm window along with some friends when the shooting started. At first, everyone thought the police were shooting blanks, but then they saw one of the murdered students fall. They ducked, just in time, as shattered glass rained down on their backs. She said that she was recently watching a documentary made for the 50th anniversary of King’s I Have a Dream speech when the scene turned to Jackson State and she was on camera (just standing there on campus).

It rained this afternoon and early evening, which surprised us. We hadn’t expected rain until tomorrow. We waited until later to take our evening walk and were rewarded by the sight of a bright September moon over the lake.

We spent some time today researching places to stay in the Jackson area and things to see and do. After Jackson, our next destination will be Vicksburg.