02/27/14 Vicksburg National Military Park

Weather first.  Vicksburg set a record low temperature last night.  Can anyone say 17 degrees?  This set an all time low record for this date in Vicksburg.  Glad I'm at a camp ground with electrical hook ups.  Our electric heather is doing all it can to keep us warm.  I might be out of battery power and propane by now without electricity.

It did warm up today.  Was a good day to tour the Military Park.  The CD tour guide said this park has more monuments than any other park in the US, and I believe it.  This is the Michigan State Memorial.  She honors all of her units with this one large memorial.

Illinois erected a very impressive memorial.  It is modeled on the Pantheon in Rome.  Note about the Illinois memorial.  There are no references to war anywhere on the memorial.

There are a couple of places in  the park where all the ground is clear like it was back during the battle.

This cannon represents a Union artillery battery.  On the other side of this open space, where the white column is, were the Confederate lines.  In most other places trees block the view from back in the day.  I believe the park should clear the trees that obscures all the open space at the time of battle.  In fact, I believe the National Park service should do the same in all the National Parks built around battlefields.

For me the high point was visiting the USS Cairo.

She was a Union gun boat that sank in the nearby Yazoo River and was lost for 102 years.  Lots of personal items along with the boat's equipment were recovered along with a much of the gunboat's ribs, guns, pilot house, etc.  It made for a very impressive exhibit.

These are the boilers that provided the steam to drive the steam engines that turned the paddle wheel.  The paddle wheel was enclosed inside the ironclad sides of the boat.

Wood planking painted flat black has been added to show what the iron cladding would have looked like back when the USS Cairo was launched.

Our visit to Vicksburg is rapidly coming to an end.  We're crossing the Big Muddy tomorrow, and heading for Louisiana's Red River (Shreveport).

More to come ....

Revised 10/22/14.  Pictures added, new narrative added, and some spelling errors have been corrected.

Vicksburg, Our First Stop

2/26/14

We're on the road.  We left home much later than we had planned, around 6 pm.  Because of that, we only got to Wytheville, VA on Monday.  Due to the relatively short drive yesterday, we drove further Tuesday than I had originally planned.  In fact we drove much further.  We blew past Gadsden, AL, and finally stopped at McCalla, AL. [south of Birmingham]  As it turns out, it may have been a good thing.  Looking at the weather this morning, north of Birmingham, it was a wintry mix of rain, sleet & freezing rain.  It just rained all night here in McCalla.  It stopped by the time we got underway again and we had a good run to Vicksburg.  I thought I was supposed to be in the deep south, where it's warm.

After dropping the trailer at the RV Park, we still had enough time to visit the Army Corps of Engineers Lower Mississippi River Museum.  It's free, so can't beat the price.  It was interesting.  One huge exhibit is the Motor Vessel Mississippi IV. 

Besides working as a barge tug, she also had a public relations type of role.  In the latter function, she had a number of state rooms for civilians along with a mess deck to serve them.

It was too cold to do any walking, so we settled for a couple of driving tours. 

The above building was the old passenger train depot.  Now it serves as a museum.

We stayed at an RV park owned by Ameristar Casino.  It was a very well run camp ground.  What's interesting about this RV park is charges are settled up upon departure, like a hotel would.  Normally, a RV park will charge for the entire stay at check in.

Revised 10/16/14.  Corrected errors, revised narrative, and added some pictures.

Checking the weather

I've never followed the weather forecast as closely as I have in recent days.  Our under way date is entirely dependent on the weather, more particularly known as freezing rain, sleet, and/or snow.

Since I haven't seen any in any forecast I've looked at, our underway date is a go.

Greetings

Let's begin.

This is my first attempt to do a Blog.  On the eve of our cross country tour, my son suggested I do a blog.  So I'm going to try my hand.  The purpose is to keep a journal of our travels, reporting on who and what we may have seen.

This is our Magic Carpet, sans magnets.  They're for football weekends.

Our Magic Carpet, aka OZ