Day 37 - New Orleans, LA to Vicksburg, MS

We wanted to sneak out of New Orleans early, so were up at 6:00 am. It’s dark then. A quick continental breakfast and we were on Interstate 10 headed west. Before getting too far, the GPS had us make a quick stop in Kenner for a couple of Starbucks.

We now followed Interstates 10 and 55 along the western shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Thirty-six of the miles along the lake were driven on elevated roadway over the Maurepas Swamp and several wildlife management areas.

A few more miles and I began to think about how a rest stop would fit nicely into my plan for the day. So, when the sign announced the Mississippi Visitor’s Center was just down the road I quickly moved to the right lane in anticipation. Closed. Checked the GPS and found another a short 30 miles down the road. Ok, no problem. Closed. Finally Magnolia, Mississippi came to the rescue with an Exxon station.

All this interstate driving gets a little boring. Time for a short cut, which turned out to be a pleasant drive down a little two-lane country road. Barb was happy and I saved 21 miles. We stopped to split a sandwich for lunch and then off to Vicksburg National Military Park.

First stop was the Visitor’s Center, which had one of those really neat digital maps. These maps have to be the very best way to visualize a battle progressing over days or, in the case of Vicksburg, even months. We picked up an auto tour map for the 16 mile drive over the park’s 1,736 acres. Vicksburg was a different kind of battle for us. In our travels from Gettysburg to Shiloh, battles have been won or lost by Union and Confederate forces fighting and dying on blood soaked fields. The high ground of Vicksburg offered the Confederates excellent ground to defend and the first two major assaults by Union forces were soundly defeated. After the heavy losses, Grant laid siege to Vicksburg beginning on May 25, 1863. With all access to resupply cut off, Confederate forces finally had to surrender on July 4th. The loss of the Mississippi River, along with Lee’s defeat the previous day at Gettysburg, was devastating for the South.

Probably the most interesting stop on the tour was at the USS Cairo. The Cairo was a city class ironclad gunboat, which served with both the Army’s Western Gunboat Fleet and later the US Navy. In December 1862, while clearing mines on the Yazoo River she struck a torpedo and sunk. In 1964, after several setbacks, Cairo was lifted onto barges and moved to Pascagoula, Mississippi, for restoration. She now resides in a special shelter at the park and, along with the museum, is well worth seeing.

While checking into the motel, Barb found out the vine we keep seeing is kudzu. It’s a climbing, coiling and trailing vine native to Japan and China. In the Southeastern United States it is known as “foot-a-night vine”, “mile-a-minute vine” and “the vine that ate the South”.

The rest of the day was uneventful, with Barb doing a little laundry after dinner. We are really looking forward to tomorrow, when we will travel the Natchez Trace Parkway to Natchez, Tennessee. 251 miles today.

Ulysses S. Grant Monument
Vicksburg National Battlefield
Vicksburg, Mississippi