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

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Day Three on the Trace

First battlefield

Confederate victory

Battlefield

Brice's crossing cemetery

Campaign strategy for Tupelo

Actual site of the village

Louise and her boyfriend-- and that other guy

Family church

Birth house

Museum entrance

Fountain of life

We stayed an extra day in Tupelo so that we could visit the area Civil War battle sites. For Brice's Crossing we backtracked 20 miles nw of Tupelo. The visitors' center staff was very friendly and informative. They directed us to an auto tour on cd for $10. Thus armed off we went learning about the battle movements as they occurred. The picture of part of the battlefield is very deceptive. At the time this area was a vast black jack oak forest with low growing interlacing branches. The foliage was so thick that the combatants couldn't see each other 5 feet away. The day was clear after 2 days of torrential rain so the footing was slippery and at times very muddy. The Confederates were outnumbered and under armed, but used that famous Rebel Yell to confuse the Yankees and convince them that their army was much bigger than it was. The grays were also better used to the hot humid weather. Col. Forrest was not trained as a military leader, but he knew enough to use all of his knowledge of his troupes and his territory to win the victory. After a couple of hours of history on the hoof, we headed back to civilization for food.

Back on the trace we stopped at a couple of sites we missed last night. One was the site of a Chickasaw village. The Chickasaw were one of the so called civilized tribes who had a government patterned after the American government in DC. Their buildings were well constructed. The large rectangular wall in the center was the fort where all the people fled for protection. The rectangular building was the summer house while the circular one was the winter house. A short interpretive trail told about some of the plants the people used in their everyday lives.

Next we drove into Tupelo to find the National Battlefield there. It was in the town proper, and a bit disappointing. We were ready for another big battle site. Instead we got a corner park with a couple of monuments. However, we did learn that although the south won the battle of Brices Crossing and the battle at Tupelo was indecisive, they were both very important to the north. They distracted the south away from the Nashville and Chattanooga RR, the main supply line for Yankee supplies into the south.

Since our corner battlefield only took 10 min. I decided we should check out Elvis's birthplace. This turned out to be a very nice area with museum, gift shop, time-line walk, his original family;y church, his birth house, a bronze statue of Elvis at 13 and a chapel (requested by Elvis) which contains his bible--all for $12 each. We toured the well-done museum before heading out to the little Pentecostal church. The church was moved there from a mile down the road and refurbished to its original look with the original pulpit. In the ceiling they added three large film screens and three projectors which all come down at once. Awsome! We sat in the pews as the film showed a reenactment of a typical Sunday service that Elvis and his family would have attended. The left and right screens showed people sitting there and the front showed us the preacher, song leader and people who would decide to sing that day. After a rousing prayer meeting it was time to see where Elvis was born. The house, a two room "shotgun" house built by Elvis's dad Vernon, sits on its original site. It was refurbished with weatherproofing and new wallpaper and linoleum. The furniture is facsimile because when the family moved to Memphis they sold all of their furniture. After our little tour we walked the circular sidewalk around the house. Around the outside there was one brick for each year of his life ( dates in the bricks) with timeline info for the first thirteen years. This lead to a Story Wall (8' tall x 60') with anecdotes about Elvis's life as a boy in Tupelo as told by his family and friends. In the center of the wall is the Fountain of Life. The thirteen upper waterspouts pour out over granite, symbolizing the thirteen years he lived in Tupelo and the enduring power of strong values learned during his formative years. The 29 lower spouts symbolizing Elvis's life in Memphis. They flow over limestone, a soft stone symbolizing the softer, better conditions of his life as an entertainer. The circle is completed as the lower set flows toward the upper set as a symbol of Elvis' continuing reference to the character he learned as a boy in Tupelo. Those traits of humility and generosity flow together with the remaining 29 years to form a complete circle. At one end of the wall is the museum, at the other is the memorial chapel. A chapel was added to the complex because before his death Elvis dreamed of having a place of meditation at the Park.

Enough for everyone,

Louise and Duane

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Along the Natchez Trace

Overlooking the Natchez Trace National Park Road

Louise Standing in the Old Trace

Tennessee River Bridge

Stepping Stones To Spring Pond

Spring Pond

Beaver Dam at Spring Pond

The Mounds

Overlook

Our ride

Meriwether Lewis Monument

Grinder House where Lewis died

The Gorden House

The Gorden Ferry Crossing

Jackson Falls

Confederate Cemetery

Head stones of 13 Confederates

Fungus near the cave

Cave

Bear mound

Arch Bridge Over Valley

We left Bowling Green, Ky on Monday after a nice visit with my brother who lives there. Heading for the Natchez Trace National Parkway, we missed a turn and ended up driving through a real ritzy neighborhood. The sign said no vehicles over 5 tons, I guess we should not have been there....lol. By that time there was no way I could turn around, so forward we went. Finally, we found the route we needed to get to the start of the Parkway. I looked at the web site later and found out there was a real easy way to go, oh well I guess I need to do a better job of planning since we are pulling 40 feet of trailer.

The Parkway starts just south of Nashville, TN and and ends in Natchez, MS. The "Trace" is a path that the river boat crews took back to Nashville after going down river to Natchez. They would sell there goods and there flat boats in Netchez and walk or ride a horse back. They could not paddle the boats up stream so they sold them for lumber. The trail today is 444 miles long and follows the original trail pretty close. There are pull out after pull out with information boards about what happened there. Many of them require a short walk to get to the site. The first day we made 8o miles of the Trace. The second day we hurried along for 120 miles. At this rate we will be on the Trace for a week..lol We stop at most of the pullouts to read the signage and sometimes take the walks. We are spending the next couple of days in Tupelo, MS so we take the time to see more sites in this area before heading on.

The Parkway has a 50 mph speed limit and so far has been a been a beautiful drive. The traffic is real light except around the bigger cities. The locals use it to avoid the traffic lights in town, there are no lights on the Parkway.

The first night out we stayed at the Meriwether Lewis campground. This campground is National Park run and has no hookups but is free. When we got there our battery in the trailer was low because I left lights on in the trailer while we were going down the road. We ran the generator a while to build it back up. I was worried that maybe something else was drawing it down, so when we went to bed we turned everything off including the furnace to make sure it would ok in the morning. It got COLD that night. The temperature went down to 38. In the morning got out of bed, got the generator going and turned the HEAT UP. We have carried my old wool blanket with us since we hit the road. Louise wanted to leave it behind the last time we left TX because it is really heavy and bulky, but wanted to keep it. Good thing we did, we needed it that night. I need to get another battery the trailer so we can boondock easier. Last night found us in the Natchez Trace campground with full hookups. We were warm last night!!

Till next time

Duane and Louise

The Natchez Trace

We left Bowling Green after a nice visit with my brother. We are now on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Camping tonight in a park with no hookups so I will have to post pictures later. We only made about 65 of the 450 miles today. There are a lot of historical sites to stop at and we stopped at just about all of them. At this rate we will be a week on the Trace, maybe longer...lol. Oh well we don't have to be anywhere until the end of this month when we have doctors to see. we hope to get hookups tomorrow night so I can get the pictures posted. I think I got a few nice shots today.

Until next time

Duane and Louise

My latest

Here are a few pics of my latest carving. I just finished it this morning. It is an aspen walking stick topped with an indian head, with live oak leaves and acorns on the shaft. Now it will back to carving Christmas for the grandkids, 9 and counting.

Hope you like it

Duane