Days 5 and 6

Rear of Mount Locust

Mount Locust Front

Part of the Vicksburg campaign

Divided pews

Two doors

Part of the Vicksburg campaign

Shirley house

Remnants of ironclad ship

Confederate view of Mississippi River

Various monuments

Blue signs marked Union lines, red for Rebs

Bridge in distance joins Vidalia LA with Natchez MS

Our house at River View RV park

Twin bridges at night w/Isle of Capri riverboat

Day five we packed lunch and went to Vicksburg. We had been to the National Historic Park before but then it was raining so we toured the Visitor's Center and called it quits. This time took the auto tour. The Union road winds along the bottom of the hill. Blue markers mark the Union lines. Various monuments and markers list the various Union states represented from Kansas to NY and parts of TN and KY. The top of the hill was similarly marked by red metal signs for the Confederacy with their monuments and markers dedicated to soldiers from Texas to KY and Virginia. We stopped for lunch at the Museum of Cairo, one of two picnic sites along the way. We shared a picnic table and conversation with a couple from CO. The we toured the museum and the recovered remains of the USS Cairo, one of five ironclad ships built for the Civil War naval campaign. A few more stops after that and we concluded that we finally "did" Vicksburg. We headed back to Jackson for more fun. We stopped by the house for a pit stop then headed for the Mississippi State Fair. By northern Midwest standards it was county fair size, but by southern standards it was state fair worthy. We strolled around for a couple hours soaking up the sights, sounds and food. How things have changed. All sandwiches are $5-7. There was one salt water taffy booth instead of 20. No waffles three for $1, only $5 elephant ears or funnel cakes. Lots of rides and games (no change there except in prices). All-in-all we spent a little money for a couple of hours of fun before we headed home to end another long day.

Day six we finished our Trace tour. We spent a leisurely day poking our big selves into more small spaces, but nothing we couldn't handle. Key among those were two sites where battles were fought when Grant's army marched from their Mississippi River landing site to Jackson before he headed back to Vicksburg. Two were representative of the kinds of people and their lifestyles that popped up along the Trace. One was the town of Rocky Springs a thriving little community of 2616 before the Civil War, the boll weevil, a yellow fever epidemic and over use of the loess fields left it empty of people, eroded, and overgrown with brush. All that is left is the rebuilt church to give mute testimony to a once-thriving community. (Poetic, aint I?!!) The other building is Mount Locust Inn and Plantation. The house was built in 1740. The last family member left in 1944. The National Park Service began restoration in 1954, returning it to its 1820 appearance.

Mount Locust being our last stop on the Trace, we said good by to one of our most pleasant trips and took the highway toward Natchez. Arriving too tired and too late to stop at the Visitor's Center we kept going across the river to Vidalia, LA and the River View RV Park. This is a very nice resort park with spacious paved and gravel pull thrus and some back-ins, a pool, store, laundry, and very nice staff. Nice views of the river too. Very relaxing after our long trip, although we did have to use the laundry. Just before we left Jackson our washer threw a belt and we drove the last two days with wet laundry hanging in the shower. That out of the way, we were ready to spend a quiet evening before our next day of touring.

Enough already!

Louise and Duane

/