Laurel, MS

Laurel, MS 7/10/2021

We left Phoenix on July 6^th the beginning of a roundabout road trip to our home state of Vermont. The rental van’s back hatch area is packed up with two carry on size suitcases; Rubbermaid style bins with food, picnic items, a cook stove, table, pillows and more. Rangeley’s bin is full of leashes, vitamins, his bowl, etc. We have a large RTIC cooler containing the dog’s DIY raw food and human food, drinks and snacks.

Rangeley’s little van “apartment” is directly behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats. All the back seats are laid flat and secure barricades, to protect him from the cargo in the way back, have been constructed by Gary. Since this is our third multi week around the USA trip, we’re all getting pretty good at this! 

We drove through New Mexico, and stayed several nights in Texas. They really do things bigger in Texas! We thought the wonderfully large, off lead dog park in Midland was fabulous… then we read about a town park in Longview with two awesome fenced in, off lead dog parks. Oh man! The Longview parks were the largest we have ever seen! One was a huge field with some trees, dog agility stations, picnic tables and a small natural marshy area…about 3-5 acres entirely enclosed!! A short walk up a portion of a 3-mile walk/bike/running trail was a second area for dogs. A large, well maintained, fenced in, heavily wooded section. Both dog parks had water spickets and the field one had a hose at the exit which Rangeley loved! Gary washed the grass, mud and sweat off Rangeley’s coat during this humid summer day!

While driving through Louisiana, we stopped to find a Geocache making a grand total of 1,634 finds in 42 states for Gary to date! (Mississippi was find 1,635 and state 43) Not familiar with the cool treasure hunting game using GPS to locate fun locations and “caches” hidden all over the world? Go to www.geocaching.com to learn more : )

We stayed two nights in Meridian, Mississippi about 60 miles north of Laurel. We decided not to stay right in Laurel as the hotels that acccepted dogs were poorly rated. I did not search apartment or house rentals of which there are several in town. I wanted to visit Laurel to see where Home Town on HGTV is filmed. Erin and Ben Napier are a couple that renovate turn of the century homes in their home town of Laurel. I love Ben’s wood shop furniture, railings, frames, swings, you name it, he makes …often out of the home’s reclaimed wood. Erin’s interior design and art projects, antique finds and color palette creations on the home’s in and exteriors are amazing. To learn more, go to:

https://www.hgtv.com/shows/home-town  or

https://www.laurelmercantile.com/pages/home-town

As the saying goes, you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. The weather was not totally on our side for my (Elizabeth’s) well planned visit to The City Beautiful. But we made it awesome! We weathered through 80 degrees, 100% humidity, overcast, rain, lightning and sun… all in a span of 4 hours.

Our first stop was Sweet Something Bakery. Gary had a sticky bun and I had a raspberry cream cheese croissant. We walked across the street, sat on a bench and struggled through Rangeley’s watering mouth and “p..l..e..a..s..e can I have some?” eyes! Laurel has a strong art vibe. The park we enjoyed breakfast in had one section of handmade musical instruments for anyone to try such as xylophones and a steel drum. Another section of this small in-town park displayed many walls of hand painted murals that locals have contributed. Benches were sponsored by local business and a Greeting From Laurel sign covered a huge building’s wall.

The Welcome to Laurel sign painted on another business’ exterior wall was just down the street. I had printed a map of the local art and popular locations to visit in this just under 20,000 population town. You can also get maps inside most of the shops. We traded taking pictures of other visitors and they took our picture for us as well.

Laurel is undergoing road construction in the historic downtown area. The work was supposed to be completed by now but they are behind, sadly due to lack of people wanting to return to work. It’ll be great when the rotary, curbing and upgraded road construction work is completed.

We took pictures at the next building wall art: “Laurel looks good on you” sign and continued on foot to the Scotsman General Store and Workshop. The workshop was closed to public but the general store was fun to walk through. Small but interesting. A brand of coffee that Ben’s marketing, work aprons, a selection of hundreds of ice cold, sodas in glass bottles in a walk-in fridge and more. Just outside there is construction being done for a future outdoor band stand, on the second floor of the general store, overlooking “The Yard”. An artificial grassy area with chairs, picnic tables, corn hole games and a food truck called 5000. The local bank’s president whom we met later in another shop said the 5000’s Food Truck owners are from Prescott, AZ, not too far from us in Phoenix and the same town our oldest son and his wife live in.

Just a block down from Scotsman is the Laurel Mercantile. Another wall art photo op and they encourage dogs to come inside! Both the Scotsman and the Mercantile are owned by Ben and Erin. I loved seeing the store crowded with shoppers but the big event was when the gals behind the counter “asked” Rangeley to put his paws up on the counter. He was the hit of the store for several minutes! I continued shopping and Gary and Rangeley sat outside on the lawn beside the Mercantile. They seemed to draw attention from visitors and locals passing by. One person asked if he was part of the Laurel attractions! I bought a T shirt, a book by Ben and Erin, a headband (Erin is known for wearing them) and a Mercantile sticker. I love the old pick up trucks at both Scotsman and the Mercantile and was not disappointed in the in-person visits to the locations I have seen on TV for many years now.

Southern Antiques and Peddlers Junktion were both fun antique shops to wander through before we heard thunder, felt rain and saw the flashes of lighting in the sky. Gary knew right where to go…Shug’s Cookie Dough and Candy Shop! They let us bring Rangeley inside since outside was brewing up a good storm. We arrived there just as the rain poured down. Our lunch consisted of a made-to-order baked chocolate chip cookie in a small fry pan, vanilla ice cream, caramel and chocolate sauce topped with whipped cream! Not sure what was better, the wonderful locals, employees, shop owner, visitors that came and went or the hot sugary dessert we enjoyed for lunch! I asked one local what brought him to Laurel and he replied he was a “Jones County Husband”. I asked him to explain and he went on to say, the men that marry Jones County women become “Jones County Husbands”…the girl’s mama’s won’t let their daughters leave, so the men have to move to the county!  : )

I really enjoyed our time in Laurel. Rangeley was a hit, Gary was a patient trooper with all my visual shopping and dragging him from one side of town to the other to take pictures. We enjoyed the historical homes self-guided tour, popped into the 18,000 square foot Lauren Rogers Museum of Art established in 1923 and looked for some of the houses that Erin and Ben might have restored for the TV shows.  The day was everything I thought it would be… well… except for not seeing or meeting Erin and Ben of course!

We returned to the town of Meridian where we are staying a second night and made one last fun stop. The Dentzel Carousel. Built in 1896 for the 1904 St Louis Exposition was bought by, and moved to, the town of Meridian in 1909. It was placed in Highland Park, Meridian, MS., 3 years before Arizona became a state!  The carousel sits in the same park today, 112 years later! It was fully restored in the 1980’s. Including it’s original hand painted oils on canvas art work and intricately detailed horses and carriage seats. Yes I went for a ride! They charge 50 cents a ride but I gave the woman running it $5. She danced to the music and was very pleasant as I went round and round inside this historic landmark. To learn more:

https://www.meridianms.org/city-departments/parks-and-recreation/dentzel-carousel/

Thank you for “traveling” with us this summer! Roaming Rangeley will be taking you to the newest national park, number 63 in the USA, New River Gorge in West Virginia.

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We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us!

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