On Monday, the three of us set out from Meridian MS and headed for the Vicksburg National Military Park. Before and during the Civil War, Vicksburg was an important economic center. Mississippi was one of the wealthiest states at that time (strange now that it is one of the poorest states in America). It had fortifications on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. We watched a video giving a history of the year long attempt by the Union Army under Gen. Grant to capture Vicksburg. It finally was captured in the summer of 1863 - actually, the Confederate troops surrendered on July 4, 1863.
They had numerous replicas of various fortifications used in the Civil War. The first and third photos below are of cannon mounts, the first from inside, the third from outside. The second photo shows one of the devices to stop attacking soldiers from coming up the embankments.
Cannons were the weapon of choice then, and several were on display.
There were numerous memorials to those who fought and died there.
Although we did not go on it, there is a self guided tour that is some 16 miles. It starts under this memorial gateway and among other things, goes by the USS Cairo Museum. The Cairo was the first ship sunk by electrically detonated mines in the Mississippi River.
From Vicksburg, it was another six hours of driving, including going through rush hour traffic in Dallas to get to the hotel near DFW airport. We were very thankful for the accurate routing provided by our Garmin GPS - without it, we would have easily been lost for hours, as it was a most contorted route to get to our hotel.
On Tuesday, Helen left the hotel bright and early - on the 6:00 a.m. shuttle to catch her 8:30 a.m. flight. She safely made it back to Hudson MA before dinner time.
Patty and I set out later and after the blessing of the GPS Monday evening, found the curse of the GPS Tuesday morning. It directed us into traffic, then we hit detours and construction. But we survived and finally got back on I-20 for a fun drive of 500 miles - all within Texas. We drove by Abilene where Ben was born in 1982 and Dyess AFB where we lived from 1981-1983. A couple of years ago, when driving this route, we noticed a lot of wind generators - windmills just west of Abilene. We did the Google and found that they were in a construction boom for the wind generators. Now, much of that has come to fruition. And the small city of Sweetwater has just installed new welcome signs in each direction - it is a large wind generator blade with the words "Welcome to Sweetwater, the Wind Power Capitol of North America." We did not stop to get a photo, but I looked on line and found the following in the Feb. 11, 2013 issue of the Sweetwater Reporter:
The Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce and Crane Service Inc. have installed Sweetwater's new welcome signs on Interstate 20 at the east and west main exits. Installation began on Thursday, as Crane Services put the blades into place. Creative Graphic Solutions will be creating the blade wrap that will say, "Welcome to Sweetwater — Wind energy capital of North America."
We continued on for a long, long day of driving and stopped in Van Horn TX for the night. This is at the northern edge of the Chihuahua Desert - the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute is just south of there in Fort Davis, TX. It was very windy and very dry, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the owners of the hotel had beautiful roses in front of their hotel - one must stop and smell the roses.
We were in cattle country, so we had dinner at the Van Horn Cattle Company Bar and Restaurant. The Tuesday special was bottles of Tecate for $2.00 - cold beer tasted great, especially with great steaks - and the hotel was in walking distance, so no need to worry about drinking and driving.
Wednesday, we crossed into the Mountain time zone about five miles west of Van Horn and into Arizona we crossed into the Pacific time zone (Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time). Although we only went 350 miles, we gained two hours on the clock. And now we are in Wilcox AZ. We had planned to go into the Chirichua National Monument where Cochise and the Chirichua Apache used to roam, but we are both tired and are just taking it easy here at the hotel. Thursday, we will head back to Phoenix.
One thing that amazed me on the trip was how quickly we passed from Northern Vermont which still had snow on the mountains and things just starting to turn green - to Hyde Park NY where forsythia and flowering trees were in bloom, daffodils were up and tulips were just starting to come up - to Dover DE where the tulips were in full bloom and the trees were as well - to Durham NC where the azaleas were in bloom, roses were starting to bloom and the tulips were pretty much gone by - to Columbia SC where the tulips were all gone and summer annuals were starting to wilt - to south Georgia where they were already starting on the second cutting of hay - through Alabama, Mississippi and east Texas where everything was green and where we hit rain so hard we had to stop the car - to the desert and wind of west Texas where we hit record high temps and dust devils with warnings for dust storms. We were south of the snow falling this morning in Colorado. America is an amazing place - we Americans take it for granted that we are free to roam throughout this great land. We should all learn more about this country, the flora and fauna, the geology, the climate and weather, the peoples, our history - and our system of government that allows us the freedoms we enjoy.
They had numerous replicas of various fortifications used in the Civil War. The first and third photos below are of cannon mounts, the first from inside, the third from outside. The second photo shows one of the devices to stop attacking soldiers from coming up the embankments.
Cannons were the weapon of choice then, and several were on display.
There were numerous memorials to those who fought and died there.
Although we did not go on it, there is a self guided tour that is some 16 miles. It starts under this memorial gateway and among other things, goes by the USS Cairo Museum. The Cairo was the first ship sunk by electrically detonated mines in the Mississippi River.
From Vicksburg, it was another six hours of driving, including going through rush hour traffic in Dallas to get to the hotel near DFW airport. We were very thankful for the accurate routing provided by our Garmin GPS - without it, we would have easily been lost for hours, as it was a most contorted route to get to our hotel.
On Tuesday, Helen left the hotel bright and early - on the 6:00 a.m. shuttle to catch her 8:30 a.m. flight. She safely made it back to Hudson MA before dinner time.
Patty and I set out later and after the blessing of the GPS Monday evening, found the curse of the GPS Tuesday morning. It directed us into traffic, then we hit detours and construction. But we survived and finally got back on I-20 for a fun drive of 500 miles - all within Texas. We drove by Abilene where Ben was born in 1982 and Dyess AFB where we lived from 1981-1983. A couple of years ago, when driving this route, we noticed a lot of wind generators - windmills just west of Abilene. We did the Google and found that they were in a construction boom for the wind generators. Now, much of that has come to fruition. And the small city of Sweetwater has just installed new welcome signs in each direction - it is a large wind generator blade with the words "Welcome to Sweetwater, the Wind Power Capitol of North America." We did not stop to get a photo, but I looked on line and found the following in the Feb. 11, 2013 issue of the Sweetwater Reporter:
The Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce and Crane Service Inc. have installed Sweetwater's new welcome signs on Interstate 20 at the east and west main exits. Installation began on Thursday, as Crane Services put the blades into place. Creative Graphic Solutions will be creating the blade wrap that will say, "Welcome to Sweetwater — Wind energy capital of North America."
We continued on for a long, long day of driving and stopped in Van Horn TX for the night. This is at the northern edge of the Chihuahua Desert - the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute is just south of there in Fort Davis, TX. It was very windy and very dry, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the owners of the hotel had beautiful roses in front of their hotel - one must stop and smell the roses.
We were in cattle country, so we had dinner at the Van Horn Cattle Company Bar and Restaurant. The Tuesday special was bottles of Tecate for $2.00 - cold beer tasted great, especially with great steaks - and the hotel was in walking distance, so no need to worry about drinking and driving.
Wednesday, we crossed into the Mountain time zone about five miles west of Van Horn and into Arizona we crossed into the Pacific time zone (Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time). Although we only went 350 miles, we gained two hours on the clock. And now we are in Wilcox AZ. We had planned to go into the Chirichua National Monument where Cochise and the Chirichua Apache used to roam, but we are both tired and are just taking it easy here at the hotel. Thursday, we will head back to Phoenix.
One thing that amazed me on the trip was how quickly we passed from Northern Vermont which still had snow on the mountains and things just starting to turn green - to Hyde Park NY where forsythia and flowering trees were in bloom, daffodils were up and tulips were just starting to come up - to Dover DE where the tulips were in full bloom and the trees were as well - to Durham NC where the azaleas were in bloom, roses were starting to bloom and the tulips were pretty much gone by - to Columbia SC where the tulips were all gone and summer annuals were starting to wilt - to south Georgia where they were already starting on the second cutting of hay - through Alabama, Mississippi and east Texas where everything was green and where we hit rain so hard we had to stop the car - to the desert and wind of west Texas where we hit record high temps and dust devils with warnings for dust storms. We were south of the snow falling this morning in Colorado. America is an amazing place - we Americans take it for granted that we are free to roam throughout this great land. We should all learn more about this country, the flora and fauna, the geology, the climate and weather, the peoples, our history - and our system of government that allows us the freedoms we enjoy.
And keep on learning!
ReplyDeleteWill do. I just sent the end of semester email to one of my classes and noted the many things I learned this semester. In this ever more rapidly changing world, if we do not keep learning we will be lost.
ReplyDelete