Aww man...well, sort of...

Today we made it back into Atlanta. Once we left Lake Providence, we spent the day in Oak Grove, which is about 15 miles north. We didn't find a whole lot on the family that was there other than marriage records, but it was something, you know?

From there we headed to Bastrop to visit a cousin and his wife. We had a ball there. They fed us to death too. I'm actually connected to his wife too! It was crazy meeting her for the first time and finding that out so many miles away from home. Nevertheless, I know I will get to see my cousins more often as they come to California more than I thought they did because of our little connection.

While in Bastrop, we met up with my cousin's oldest daughter and also had two more cousins come by, who originate from Oak Grove. A lot of people met for the first time. We took some great pictures too.

From Bastrop, we drove back through Oak Grove to Southside Cemetery. It was in much better condition that Evergreen was in Lake Providence. Unfortunately, we didn't find as many graves as we did at Evergreen.

From Oak Grove, LA, we drove to Jackson, MS. Our family there had a big party for us with a ton of food. I ate so much that I passed out watching Hotel Rwanda. **LAUGHS** I was CHARBROILED when they had the banana pudding on deck. I KNEW these folks were my kin when I saw that.

The next day, we went to the state archives in downtown Jackson. We went through a ton of documents and found nothing documenting slave sales for the Balfour family. We were quite discouraged, as we both have spent a lot of time in search of at least something. We made it through about a quarter of all the stuff that they had there on microfilm, so we knew we'd have to come back after this trip and check the stuff we couldn't get to. We then decided to go out for dinner and have some ice cream as comfort for not finding anything. LOL

My cousins and I ate root beer floats and laughed until the about 1:30am. I practiced my southern accent a lot...they said I was doing a good job. LOL

I think the earliest I've gone to bed was midnight since I've been gone. I'm dreading going back to work even though I don't have to go back to work for another week. I think this trip has given me a fresh perspective as to what is really important in my life, and I know that my dead end job is NOT!!!