Bustling around Vicksburg, MS

Reminder to my readers, I post a lot of photos in albums.  You should be able to  link to them from the blogs.  Let me know if you can't and I'll get Kam to fix it for me!!

 

May 24 – By the time we got up there were a lot of empty spaces in the park!  We thought that all the folks from Florida that we saw here were part of a caravan but turns out they were just stopping for the night heading out of the Florida heat!



Flowerree

Annabelle

I put a load of laundry in and while Bill went to check on a place to drill new holes in our mud flap and got my shower out of the way.  After he showered we went to take the mud flap and got the holes drilled and we drove a scenic road and saw several historic mansions.  Several are  bed and breakfast places.  We saw Cedar Grove (1840), Flowerree (1860) and Annabelle (1868).  Flowerree overlooks the Mississippi River but between the house and the river is industrial down below.

Barge pushing cargo UP the river

We stopped at a hardware store for parts and found a 6 foot hose that Bill wanted to use between the water and our water filter.  He’d seen one on an RV and took a picture and this was not nearly as pricy so we we’ll see how it does.

After having lunch at home we drove to

Illinois

Vicksburg National Military Park.  They have an excellent movie on the Civil War battles that took place here, which in the end had a big affect on the overall war.  Vicksburg’s loss opened the river for supplies to the Yankees!  We drove the entire park and stopped numerous times to read plaques and take photos.  We saw where the surrender took place

Missouri

and the route is dotted with memorials to the various states’ regiments.  The Yankees had the more elaborate and huge ones, while the demure Confederate states were smaller and more tasteful!  There were a couple of more elaborate monuments but nothing like the Yankees.

There is also a National Cemetery on the grounds.  Next to

USS Cairo

it is the USS Cairo.  It was one of 7 Ironclads commissioned to patrol the Mississippi.  It sunk in 12 minutes with no loss of life but all personal effects went down with it.  It was raised in 1964 and was reconstructed in a matter of speaking and is on display.  There is a nice museum about it next door where hundreds of the items in the boat were also brought up and put on display.

Yummy dinner!!

We made a quick stop at Wal-mart and then home.  Molly is always happy to see us, especially if her food or water is getting low!  We just chilled for a while and had planned to have dinner at the Ameristar Casino as Bill was under the impression that with our member card the buffet was $9.95.  We called for the shuttle and went over but the Friday night buffet is $24.95 so we opted out.  We took the shuttle back and Bill looked up some recommended places and we had dinner at  Gumbo Pot.  The place was crowded and the food was excellent and the prices were reasonable.  The wait staff was a bit disorganized but that’s their problem.  I thoroughly enjoyed my shrimp and grits.  It had a different spin on it than some I’ve had.  I thought of Jean and Melissa who both love it like I do!  Sorry ladies!!!!

When we got back to the RV it was still light out so Bill shortened the flap and put it back on!  Maybe being a little shorter will make it last longer, ya think?