Thursday, January 2, 2014

Vicksburg and the drive home

Last post from our cross-country trip!

We made a stop in Vicksburg and ended up spending twice as many hours as anticipated.  Another place to come back to in order to see everything.

Starting at the Vicksburg National Military Park - we drove through part of it, but it would have been a really good place for a bike ride.  Especially on a warm sunny day, it was no wonder we were happy to be walking around.

The Illinois Memorial, one of the larger monuments in the park:


Inside the memorial:


John could sleep here on a nice day, now that the guns are quiet...


 A tunnel dug by Union troops to avoid going over an exposed ridge:


Navy Memorial - a very tall obelisk:


Porter and Farragut:


The USS Cairo, an ironclad that was sunk in the Yazoo River.  The mud preserved the boat and artifacts in it, and much was recovered over 100 years later.  Now on display:


Checking out some original parts interlaced with a framework to demonstrate how it used to look:


Paddle wheels to propel the boat up the river:


View from the back:


Tug and the USS Cairo:


A small museum has items from the ship on display:


No one died during the sinking but they lost most of their stuff.  Many items were found during the recovery - that must have been some interesting diving in a muddy river.


We drove through the town of Vicksburg for a brief stop.  Murals painted on the flood walls by the river:



Flood markers - it's not always easy living next to a big river:


Mural of a train ferry that was used to transport trains across the Mississippi River (before bridges were built), wow!


A riverboat docked at Vicksburg - apparently you can go on a cruise on a steamboat, that's neat!


We had just enough daylight remaining to drive across the top of Louisiana and jog a mile up a trail to the highpoint of the state:


In a bit of a rush and without much daylight left, our photos didn't turn out great.  John attempted a summit pose but all I got was this:


More photos here - highpoint #18!
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/louisiana.html


And with that - I'm caught up!  Time to start doing stuff again...

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