Travel Day 7 - Enjoying Vicksburg, MS

We’re encamped here at the Ameristar Casino RV Park, enjoying our stay.  Heck, it’s great just to be off the road for a couple of days.

You never know who might happen to be your neighbor.  Yesterday evening the gentleman next door saw us out and stepped over for a visit.  He told us about a meat market in Mt. Pleasant.  There was a great meat market in Brenham; I’d stock up my freezer once a month.  I sure have missed that place and was glad to hear about one in Mt. Pleasant.  Mr. Walton is retired from the business he was in for many years, Walton’s, and it is now run by his son.  We had an even more interesting visit this morning, as it turns out Mr. Walton is Donnie Do-Dad from days gone by.  What a lovely gentleman; I was quite pleased and honored to make his acquaintance.  He and his wife pulled out this morning.

After taking care of a few chores around here, we ventured out to the Vicksburg National Military Park, first stopping at the Vicksburg Mississippi Visitor Center.

At the visitor center with the Mighty Mississippi behind us

We enjoyed the driving tour, finding that the monuments and other structures here were more impressive than Gettysburg; however, the feelings that we experienced at Gettysburg were more profound.

See that dark speck in the center at the top of the steps?  That’s Dave sitting down.  Very impressive monument.

The terrain here was extremely rolling and with ravines. 

Navy Monument

USS Cairo

Maggie accompanied us on our driving tour, snug as a bug in her crate in the truck.  We kept the A/C running for her, as it was pretty warm today. 

After our sightseeing excursion, it was laundry day back here at the RV park.  Thankfully the two washers and dryers were available, so I got after it.  We have clean laundry again.  Yay!  I got the laundry done before the rain sets in again.  Yay! 

Once everything was put away, we headed back down I-20 East again to Cracker Barrel for our main meal of the day.  I got the half order of meatloaf and two veggies and, while it was tasty, I must confess that the meatloaf and hash brown casserole could have been hotter.  The okra was plenty hot, but the other two items were warm at best.  Oh well.  Dave’s chicken salad was huge, colorful and looked yummy.

We did stop down in Ameristar Casino’s parking lot to watch barges being pushed by tugboats on the Mississippi for a few minutes on our way home from Cracker Barrel.  I could sit and watch the river for hours.

Since then, I have been uploading photos and we’ve had a few strolls  around the park, stopping here and there to chat briefly with folks.  This place stays full every night.  I tell ya, this afternoon it was a steady stream of RVs coming in.  Wow.

We were actually watching a bit of TV now and then since we have cable; however, the cable packed in this afternoon.  Oh well, it’s no big deal but fun for a change.  We have another day and night, so perhaps it will come on again.  It might come in handy tomorrow with all that rain in the forecast. 

Well, we’ve had a bit of excitement this evening here.  Apparently the folks next to us were in the wrong site, as they moved when another rig came in.  They went to one site, found it unacceptable and then moved to another . . . but walked the entire park looking for yet another spot.  We just took another stroll and, in passing their rig, noticed that they were completely hooked up to utilities but their headlights were on.  They have a Class C and the cab curtains were shut, indicating they were in for the night.

Oh dear.

Okay, so I walked over and knocked on their door.  Told the gentleman his lights were on.  He didn’t realize it and thanked me.  As we walked away, the lights went out.  Poor folks, they had a devil of a time getting set up next to us, and we were sure they were frazzled after moving around this evening.

It’s interesting and amusing to walk the park and see how folks have set up in an attempt to get level here.  Or not.  Ha!

That’s about it for today.  We’re just hanging out this evening.  It’s rather fun being able to stay up as late as I want (or go to bed as early,  too) knowing that there’s no work tomorrow!  Vacation!  Yay!

“When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up.  When we dig roots, we make little holes.  When we build houses, we make little holes.  When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don’t ruin things.  We shake down acorns and pine nuts.  We don’t chop down the trees.  We only use dead wood.  But the White people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything . . . the White people pay no attention . . . How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? . . . everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore.”

- Wintu Woman, 19th century

365 Days of Walking the Red Road

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I am a Warrior

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