CIVIL WAR ERA of VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI

We finished setting up home and relaxing after our drive from Pensacola. Then we began sight seeing on Wednesday.  We visited the Welcome Center and took pictures of the Mississippi River, the I-20 bridge and a railroad bridge.  Then we drove on downtown and checked out the waterfront area.  There are several museums, so we started with the Lower Mississippi River Museum.  We find all of this interesting, with the printed materials best.  There is a tugboat in dry dock outside which we also walked through.

Mississippi IV in dry dock.
First diesel motor driven tugboat commissioned in 1961,
following the steamboat era.

Picture of it on the River in it's heyday.

Diesel driven propellers, not steamboat paddle wheels.

Then we stopped in an antique shop across the street.  That did not take long as it was not the best that we have been in.
On to the Yazoo Mississippi Valley RR Station turned Museum, where there were model railroads set up for everyone's pleasure.  Most of the other items on display were depicting the Civil War era.

Yazoo Mississippi Valley RR Station

  

Shows Vicksburg, Mississippi and it's proximity
to the three state's borders. 

On to the National Military Park that winds through the hills and valleys for nine miles over the battlefield.  The roads were very nice blacktop and well maintained, most with one-way traffic.  We drove through going 10-15 mph. Beautiful scenery and monuments.  I will show many monuments at the bottom of this Blog.

and the USS Cairo Museum

Skeleton of the paddlewheel



 

Pistons and other parts of the steam engine.

The Cairo was part of a mine-clearing expedition on the Yazoo River in 1862.  It sank in just 36 feet of water with no loss of life.  It was recovered from the river in 1960.

Then on to Vicksburg's Historic Cedar Hill Cemetery which includes Soldier's Rest Confederate burial ground.

It is all so beautiful and leaves a lot to the imagination about the siege and defense of Vicksburg during the Civil War.  All very interesting and we took many photos.

But in comes the problem!!  I downloaded the photos onto the computer when we got back home.  All went well until I cut the updating process short by accidentally hitting "cancel" when closing down the computer.  I did not realize that this process would throw these photos into the next download of newer photos.  Long story short - - I deleted what I thought was duplicates.  NOT!!  So we were out all of the more than 200 photos taken our first day out!!  What do we do?  Just let it slide with no photos, or go back another day?  We waited until Saturday and went out to take all of the photos that had been taken outdoors, so not all was lost.  I went back and dropped those into the Blog.

Below I am going to show a few of the hundreds of monuments from the National Military Battlefield, especially some from Ohio.  We are thinking that each state provided their own monuments to honor their military groups, which we assumed from the different styles of markers.  Ohio got rather creative on theirs, when other states used the same design for all of theirs.  Interesting!!

 

Illinois monument because of Grant and Lincoln

One mini ball



Cannon barrels



Kansas.  A little modern sculpture?

A little lengthy, but I thought you Civil War buffs would enjoy these.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with another day about Vicksburg.

LEAVING PENSACOLA FLORIDA for VICKSBURG MISSISSIPPI

The last week in Pensacola left us pushing to finish all of those things neglected earlier, plus things of interest one last time. 
One more mail pick-up, one last trip to Publix for groceries, one more laundry day, one last trip for Gary's favorite pass time in Biloxi, and one last check-up on my tests and imaging.  Are we ready yet?  Not until we have our last goodbyes!!
My check-up, a breakfast at IHOP for Gary with the guys from church, and lunch at Cheddars for me with the ladies from church on Friday did not go without a hitch.  We had gone our separate ways in the morning with Darrell picking Gary up and me driving our car, but Gary forgot to take his keys with him.  So he got stuck, unable to get in to the motor home, when Darrell dropped him off back there.  By time he finally got through to me and I drove home (15 minutes one way), he had spent about two hours sitting in the office because of rain.  But he had the pleasure of watching a woman quilting.  Just ask him!!  Of course, I had the phone turned off part of the time while I was in the medical facility, thus causing the delay to be so long.

Ashley, I did make your blueberry desert for Gary!
Awesome!!

But all is well that ends well.  I had good reports from the doctor and we had wonderful time with our friends, who we will miss when we leave!!  They keep asking when we will be back and groan when we say at least two years.

Gary, Miki and William

On Saturday before Father's Day we got together with FL friends, Miki and William at Miki's house for barbeque.  We both fixed food so were not lacking in enjoyment of trying new things and old time favorites.  We enjoy Miki's introduction for us into Japanese cuisine. And William, you did great at the grill!!  Nor did we need to eat again for another week!!  But we did.  Thanks again for a wonderful visit.
On Father's Day, Sunday, Gary and I ate at Logan's after church and then relaxed at home. 
Then on Tuesday, Lana, a friend from our SS Class picked me up and we went for lunch at the silver diner around the corner.  It is so neat there and we had a lot of visiting to do. We left there and went on to Walmart and made a stop at Teen Challenge Thrift Store for fun.  Didn't find anything that we could not live without.  Imagine that, but I did get my Scripts for another month.
My scrapbooking and our reading and games kept us busy for the next couple days along with another lunch at David's Catfish House in Atmore, Alabama.

Howare, Lana, Audrey and Gary

Friday evening Howard and Lana picked us up and we went to Cheddar's for dinner again.  I think that we have found a restaurant that we could not get enough of!  We had a good time discussing what they might do when Howard retires this next year. Do they want to travel, and if so, in what kind of vehicle?  Lana, you will have to keep us posted.

One last trip to Big Daddy's for fish and shrimp, to meet up with our Ohio friend, Karen.


Karen 



And her KIA. No, it's not red!

I forgot to use the camera in Big Daddy's so I caught her on the drive out! 
Karen was a renter of ours way back in the '70's when our kids were small and we happened to find out that she was near us when we spent last winter in Pensacola.  So much has taken place in the years between, that we just try to catch up a little more each time we talk.  I will try to keep in touch by e-mail until our next time through.  Take care, Karen and Dennis.  We missed you Dennis.
One more dinner with the Class on our last Sunday, at Cracker Barrel.  Ladies at one table, and guys at another.  There were fourteen of us and much flow of conversation!!  God Bless until we meet again!!
Monday was a trip to Carpenter's Campers RV shop for an oil change and lube.  Oops, and some unexpected repair to our water heater to the tune of $447 total.  But we are considered to be road worthy now.  We will pull out in the morning and head to Vicksburg.

Home again!
In Vicksburg, Mississippi this time.



Down hill from the highway, Ameristar RV Park

After a five and half hour drive, we arrive safe and happy.  The Ameristar RV Park is not large, but has swimming and is very neat.  Our week here should be nice in spite of the trains. 

Train coming across the Mississippi River, headed for tunnel
taking it under Washington St. toward our Park.



Tunnel under the highway, with track going into middle tunnel
under the off ramp for I-20,
before it winds around behind our park.
Ameristar Hotel in is the background and our Park behind it.

Ameristar Casino across the highway from our Park,
on the bank of the Mississippi.
Ameristar sure seems to have a monopoly here!

All style of RV's come and go from the park each day.  We know when the Prevost pulls in beside us as their sound is distinctive.  Each park has it's own sounds and every one different.  That is what is interesting!
We have been seeing the sights in the area and taking a lot of pictures, so stay tuned and we will share. 
We have been having temps in the 80's during the days and high 60's at night with occasional showers.  Daytime is to go into the 90's for the next week, with 70's at night,  but no rain.
Hope that  your summer is going well.

BLUE ANGELS PRACTICE AGAIN TODAY in PENSACOLA

We decided to go to the Naval Air Museum on the Navy Base here to watch the Blue Angels practice again.  It is a show that you can watch over and over again.  There were several thousand there today. What a crowd, but we had the pleasure of sitting next to a family vacationing here on the Gulf from Kansas.  Their kid's interest is mainly the beach and swimming, but I am sure they will find a few more things to do in the area.

This is the run when they roll over, but it happens so
fast it is difficult to get them on camera!

 

After the air show, we went looking for lunch and stopped at an old haunt, The Oar House.  Since we had told the family next to us about The Oar House, they ended up there also and we sat together and got better acquainted.  It was great and thanks so much for lunch, Vicki and Jeff!!  You were so kind and we wish you a safe wonderful vacation.

Vicky, Corey, Cooper and Jeff
See I did remember!!



We hope that you enjoy your afternoon at the beach!!  We just had thunder and rain drops here for about a minute, but now the sun is out again.  That is what the rain can be here, just flash storms. 

I promised to share what we have been doing between our previous two Blogs.  You will see that we do a lot of eating!!

Looking out our side window from our recliners.

After a very rainy week, with a lot of Sudoku, Solitaire and reading, we finally started going out again.

Some solitaire hand??

 

After the rainy spell, we went over to Fairhope AL and looked up Big Daddy's Grill on a river there.  The food was great and we left stuffed.  We learned a lesson and bought one burger the next time and split it!!

 

Gary

Broken Egg Restaurant



Another day out we stopped at the Broken Egg for a brunch.  It is across from McGuire's Irish Pub, another of our favorites.
Next we tried the 50's silver diner just about a mile from our RV Park.  We had noticed it for sometime and finally turned in!! It was very clean and nice.

Wayne's Family Diner

It does not look busy, but it was by time we left.   It was yummy and we have been back again since, just for a root beer float.

Another day we drove north into Alabama to Windcreek Casino.  Gary has his fun at the machines dropping his pennies.  It seems that my pennies do not last as long, so I usually read in the lounge area and watch the fish.  They are so pretty.

Last Friday evening we took our Loaded Potato Dip and joined our Sunday School Class at Olive Baptist Church for a Baked Potato and game night.  Yummy Potatoes, Salads and Deserts!!
The games were a get better acquainted played with M&M's making the choice for our topics.  And also we were to build castles with toothpicks and marshmallows.  It was fun with lots of laughs.

With our table proclaimed winner with the highest castle.  Haha

Then late Sunday afternoon, we went back to church to a concert with the Tally's.  It was great as we always enjoy good Gospel music. 

Minister of Music at Olive Baptist



The Tally family from eastern Tennessee

Pearl, I thought you would like to meet John, the new music minister!!  He also has an awesome voice just like Leo Day does.  Leo moved on to Texas soon after we left here last spring. 
We enjoy it each Sunday.  We have to keep telling ourselves that we are not there to be entertained, but to worship!!  Such a blessing!!

I believe that this brings you up to date on our time here.  We will be crowding in a few more things before leaving, I am sure.  This coming Friday the scrap booking group at the church will be meeting  at 6 pm.  So I am thinking that I will join them this time.  I hope that I did not miss out on other meetings during the time we have been in this area this year.  I will get to use some of the new paper that I bought on sale yesterday and make some progress on our grandson's new album with his spring break pictures.

You all take care and enjoy your summer!!