Vicksburg, MS

Beautiful day in Vicksburg (if you're an iguana - ha) - temp is high 80s and the humidity is at 95%.  Actually it wasn't too bad as there was a nice breeze off of the river ...

The first attraction on my list for Vicksburg was a tour of Historic Homes - Several antebellum mansions, many containing original decorations and furnishings, are featured on the self-guided tour.  I nixed that stop because I was so over that at this point ....

... And moved onto the Biedenharn Coca Cola Museum in historic old town.  This is a history and memorabilia museum; the Biedenharn Candy Company was where Coca Cola was bottled for the first time in 1894. Joseph Biedenharn created a totally new concept of marketing the beverage and established the cornerstone of the independent network of franchised bottlers who now distribute bottled Coca Cola all over the world.

The next several hours were spent exploring the Vicksburg National Military Park.  My Senior Park Pass saved me the $15 admission - yeah, but it would have been worth the cost.

The Campaign for Vicksburg was second only, and may even been more important, than Gettysburg in terms of importance to the Civil War.  A very different type of war was fought here and it was interesting to see the differences between this campaign and Gettysburg.

From the start of the Civil War, control of the Mississippi River south of Cairo, IL was vitally important to the federal government.  Controlling it would let Union troops and supplies pass into the South.  It would isolate Texas, Arkansas, and most of Louisiana - a region crucial to the South for supplies and recruits. Vicksburg was vital to the North.

The Visitor's Center has a film that was very interesting about the siege Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took to take Vicksburg and made the tour drive that much more meaningful.

Shirley House - Union troops called it "the white house."  It is the only surviving wartime structure in the park.  During the siege it served as headquarters for the 45th Illinois Infantry.

The U.S.S. Cairo is a Civil War Ironclad ship that was used in the Battles of Plum Point and Memphis. The ship is over 140 years old and helped the Union army travel down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Vicksburg National Cemetery - of the nearly 17,000 Union soldiers buried here, about 13,000 are unknown.

I drove parts of both of the Vicksburg Scenic Drives - through some of their old neighborhoods.  They have two; the other drive takes you to the Military Park and other important Civil War stops.

During these months in the East and in the South, I have toured/experienced the Civil War - including the 2 most important battles, among several others - and I've driven and walked parts of the Civil Rights Trail - things that were previously only dates and facts in a history book for me.

I've looked at Antebellum mansions and plantations and learned how they lived and how they treated their slaves. 

(I've also experienced a whole new, wide range of insects, both flying and crawling .... but that's another matter ... and all the BBQ one could eat in a lifetime .... and some of the most unpredictable weather .... )

As I'm heading West for an entirely different change of scenery, I thought I would take the opportunity to experience the World's Only Cactus Plantation  (the cactus plantation boasts about 3,000 types of cacti) ... how do they grow cactus in a swamp?  Well, apparently they don't, because the plantation no long exists; even the sign has "outgrown" it's usefulness.  ha.  Oh well, I'll be in the Southwest soon enough.

While driving around I've driven over a couple of snakes laying in the road ... long black ones. I don't know what kind they are .... but the one I ran over in the Jeep must have caught in the wheel for a moment because it hit the undercarriage a couple of times, which was really off-putting.

And we know how I feel about the bridges .... Built in 1917, the Bovina Railroad Bridge is a concrete arch bridge that offers a route for vehicle traffic over the Big Black River. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Can you see the Confederate flag that is painted in one of the support columns?

And this is the Mississippi River Bridge - the old one and the new one ...

The churches in Mississippi aren't just confined to a street or two in town (although they do line Church Street as in other cities and states), but they are everywhere you drive .... country roads and dirt lanes.  Most are "MB" denomination, which I found stands for Missionary Baptist.

I have enjoyed my time here, and will make more trips to "this coast," but I am looking forward to getting back to the familiar for awhile and seeing family and friends.   It seems odd to think I will be in SoCal in less than a month.  I will have been on the road full-time for a year and a half and about 60,000 miles.