Southaven, MS to Vicksburg, MS
Today tested the flexibility of our scheduling. Thankfully, it passed the test.
It was storming in Southaven this morning. We were up and ready to go, so we decided to get on the road about a half an hour early.
Per our plan, I called our Vicksburg hotel to request an early check-in. They asked me to call back later.
We picked up the trail of JBS and headed to Hernando, MS, where his regiment took part in a raid. We stopped by the Crumpler-Ferguson Historic Log Cabin which was built in the mid-1850s (and relocated to its current location). JBS would have seen log cabins of this style as he marched through the Mississippi countryside.
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| Crumpler-Ferguson Historic Log Cabin in Hernando |
We continued heading south and had to make a quick, unplanned snack break. Turns out leaving early (and skipping our "second breakfast" snack in the morning) threw the timing off a bit. No worries though, we got back on the road and made it to Winona for lunch. We knew from our planning that it had to be lunch in Winona because there was no other options for miles and miles.
We got back on the road and I called the hotel again. They couldn't give us an early check-in. No big deal; we just had to flex the plan again.
We arrived in Vicksburg with a couple hours to kill before we could check-in at the hotel. We decided to find a Pokémon GO raid and had a group of 14 show up to take down a Lapras (the biggest group we've been in so far). The raid was at the Lower Mississippi River Museum -- not a place we had planned to visit, but with the raid conquered and time still to spare, we googled it. Free admission was all we needed to see -- we headed in for some bonus sightseeing.
We were greeted by friendly faces, watched a 7-minute video about the Mississippi River, explored the exhibits, including the M/V Mississippi IV workboat, and walked over to the model of the Mississippi River behind the museum. The kids got a kick out of "jumping over the river." They really liked the whole place; it was a pleasant surprise addition to our trip.
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| Mississippi River Model at the Lower Mississippi River Museum |
We checked-in to our hotel in Vicksburg for two nights and then embarked on an adventure to follow JBS. My husband had done some impressive research with the information I had given him and he was able to pin-point GPS coordinates for a few events.
First, we found the spot which was once Young's Point, LA, (state #6 of the trip) where JBS had landed after the 2-day river journey from Memphis.
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| Area That Was Once Young's Point |
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| Loved These Cows Checking Us Out |
On our way to our next spot, we stopped at Grant's Canal. JBS did not work on this but would have been aware of it and maybe even passed by it.
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| Grant's Canal |
While all of this was on back roads, our next stop was the most adventurous to get to, taking us down bumpy gravel roads, over rutted dirt roads, and up to a single lane road atop the levee.
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| Adventures With GPS Coordinates |
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| Adventures With GPS Coordinates |
Eventually, we came to a view of where the Mississippi River once flowed and which was the approximate spot where JBS and his regiment crossed into Mississippi.
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| Approximate Area Where JBS Crossed Into Mississippi |
JB crossed into Warrenton, MS, and we had planned to visit that spot on the other side of the river but, again, flexed the plan and just went to dinner. We had originally planned to eat at 10 South tonight and try Newk's Eatery tomorrow, we decided to opt for the quicker meal tonight and flip them. We arrived at Newk's to find a sign on the door that they had closed at 4p today and would be closed tomorrow for the holiday. Time to flex again.
We ended up at our pick for lunch tomorrow: Whataburger. It is a chain that we don't have in Illinois but I have heard quite a few out-of-state friends mention, so I wanted to try it out. Maybe it was just the day or location or what we ordered but I wasn't impressed. It was just average fast food. We got to try someplace new, though.
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| Whataburger |
We still had one thing left on our itinerary for the day that we had not yet done: to get the tickets for the National Park. We drove over and realized that we weren't going to do anymore sightseeing today, so the ticket could wait.
With so much plan flexing, we were exhausted. We headed back to the room for some relaxing, pool time, and an in-room snack of a veggie tray from a near-by grocery store.
Time to rest up for a full day tomorrow!