Well, Saturday was the big day for our friends James and Melissa. The wedding ceremony was quite nice. Although it was a Catholic service, the priest invited everyone in attendance to consider the proceedings in terms of their own beliefs. We were absolutely delighted when, after the ceremony, Melissa came over and showed us that she was carrying the Rosary beads which we had bought for her at the Vatican when we were in Rome a few years ago. She said that she knew from the moment we gave it to her, that she would carry them on her wedding day. How nice is that!
The reception was lots of fun. Rather than a guest register book, James and Melissa asked all guests to sign a Dynamo banner (the general color theme for the wedding as they are avid Dynamo fans as were many of their friends in attendance). James' Mom and Dad were kind enough to sit at our table so we were not in the midst of total strangers. The others at the table were all in-laws and we had a pleasant time chatting with them.
We took Sunday as a rest day while we packed up the wedding duds and other clothing we felt we no longer needed, went to a fedex office and had the box sent home. Freed up some space in the wee trailer and the back of the car.
Monday we headed out into East Texas. The next couple of days were basic travel days with a stop at the KOA in Brookeland and another nice salt water swimming pool. Brookeland is just north of Jasper Texas. Jasper became infamous in American history, in 1998, when 3 white men dragged a black man named James Byrd, Jr behind their truck, killing him, then went off to a barbecue. One of the white men has since been executed; he ordered an extravagant "last meal" and did not take a bite of it, thereby causing Texas to discontinue the practice of offering a "last meal of choice".
Tuesday we entered into Louisiana for the first time ever and made our way to the Paragon casino RV park in Marksville, Louisiana. If we thought Kansas or Oklahoma had some flat to them, they seem to have nothing on Louisiana. The areas we drove through were very flat but with very lush green forests and we drove past many huge cornfields. Leaving Marksville we stopped later in Ferriday Louisiana and visited the Delta Music Museum which houses info on famous musicians from the Mississippi delta country, most notably 3 Ferriday cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart.
Our main target for the week was Vicksburg Mississippi and our first venture into Civil War history stuff on this trip.
Wednesday we arrived in Vicksburg and made our way to the Ameristar RV Resort only to find it fully occupied. Kimberley, the very harried reception person, explained to us that the nuclear plant down in Port Gibson (about 25 miles south) was being overhauled and there were 5,000 workers brought into the area to do the multi-year job. Kimberley was nice enough to phone another place for us and we ended up in the RiverTown Campground about 6 miles south of town. It seems it was a bit of a blessing as the RiverTown campground was very comfortable and had, yet another, fabulous little salt water pool. We didn't use the pool the first night as it was a bit thunderstormy with sporadic lightening. The second afternoon we did though. We met a couple from Arkansas who were both working on the nuclear plant upgrade. They corrected the number Kimberley gave us... over 6,000 workers! We had a nice chat. The work sounded quite interesting and gave them secure work for a couple of years. They told us that the part of Arkansas they come from can be described as "dirt poor". Driving around Vicksburg we stopped and went into the Vicksburg mall only to find it going through what must be hard times. Many of the stores in the mall were vacant (not to mention the huge parking lot). That aside, we drove past many fine old mansions and other interesting old buildings. We stopped and went into the Anchuca Mansion, an old townhouse since converted to a very nice looking B&B...
Very interesting but we think we will see much larger Antebellum period houses and plantations over the next few months.
We spent a few hours Thursday at the Vicksburg Historical National Military Park. The visitors centre is quite neat and they have a real good video describing the seige of Vicksburg and how it turned the tide in the war as it gave the Union forces complete control of the Mississippi, virtually splitting the south in half. The self guided driving tour is pretty cool as it takes you past all the Union and Confederate positions with descriptions of the various strategic advantages each held. There are numerous memorials to the many different infantry units from both sides. There is also cool memorial and museum to the USS Cairo which was sunk just north of Vicksburg. It made history as being the first US naval vessel ever sunk by an electronically detonated mine. It sat on the bottom of the Yazoo River for over 100 years before being recovered in the 1960s. By all accounts, the siege of Vicksburg was pretty brutal and feelings ran cold for a long time.... the residents of Vicksburg did not join the national 4th of July celebrations until 1945!!!
Friday we drove south through Mississippi to Hattiesburg. We had been told by a number of people that we should just whizz through Mississippi as there is "bugger all there"... not true and besided, we discovered that off the freeways, the highway driving is very pleasant with beautiful scenery of different forest types.
On the way to Hattiesburg we stopped in Jackson and visited the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. The main attraction, for us, was the Dizzy Dean baseball exhibit.
In Hattiesburg we camped beside a modest speaking young man who said he just worked over in the local army camp. We got chatting and after he found out we were from Canada, he told us he had worked with Canadians in Kandahar. He was interested to ask more about the "Tim Horton's" as he thought it appeared to be a bit of a big deal for the Canadian troops. He said they had contests for "Tim Horton's Kandahar" hats and one of his buddies won one. Big deal, they thought until, he said, they found out the hats could fetch around $500 on eBay or other auction websites. We told him about fund raising that takes place in Canada so that every soldier would get a Tim Horton's card at Christmas and he thought that was pretty cool.
The next morning while chatting with the campground host, she told us that the young man might seem a bit modest but never mind... he is a Black Hawk Helicopter pilot!
We have continued to try BBQ as we move east; the style of cooking changes from what we are used to in the Texas hill country. After some truly awful meals in Jasper and Vicksburg we saw a place near our Hattiesburg campground that had 3 huge smokers out front and a good crowd of people. The food was a different style - but very tasty. We are starting to see food that we just don't get up north, such as boiled peanuts and crawfish. Boiled peanuts taste like beans! Here, they have a lot of battered, deep fried foods (some of it good, most of it misguided...IMHO). The BBQ place had battered, deep fried corn on the cob, entire sheesh kebab things battered and deep fried, potato logs (quartered potatoes battered and deep fried). The deep fried pickles are quite tasty, but having had them once, I can honestly say it is not likely to make it onto my list of things to prepare at home.
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