Vicksburg

We left Tunica on Tuesday and drove south to Vicksburg.  We're staying at the Ameristar RV Park.  Cable, WI-FI (super fast), pool, shuttle to the casino and only $22/night.  What a deal!

Yesterday morning, we rented a car to explore the city.  We first headed downtown to see the famous murals that depict the history of Vicksburg.  They are absolutely beautiful and so life like.

They also have a flood marker.  

After driving around downtown and seeing many beautiful, old buildings, we headed out Vicksburg National Military Park.  It marks the battle of Vicksburg in 1863.  The siege lasted 47 days.  Taking control of the Mississippi River combined with the battle at Gettysburg were the major turning points of the Civil War.  This park is the most well marked battlefield of any in the world.  There are over 1300 monuments.

The USS Cairo is also on display in the park.  It's an iron clad gunboat used by the Union.  It was sunk by the Confederates in 1862 in the Yazoo River.  The wreck was discovered in 1956 and was finally raised in 1965.  It was brought to this site in 1977.

Vicksburg is a city steeped in history and there's so much we didn't get to explore.  We hope to return here some day to check out the rest.  But for now, I need to finish my coffee so we can hit the road.  This coffee quote seems appropriate to me since Mr. Flaubert lived during the Civil War.

"Coffee: Induces wit. Good only if it comes through Havre. After a big dinner party it is taken standing up. Take it without sugar -- very swank: gives the impression you have lived in the East."

~Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

Walking in Memphis

On Monday, we took the Blues City Tour up to Memphis to go to Graceland.  The tour got off to a rocky start when the bus overheated at Harrah's where they were picking up a couple of other people.  They sent another bus down from Memphis for us and we were on our way again.  It only delayed us about an hour.

A few things were a bit different than the last time we were here but mostly Graceland lives on as it always has.

It's amazing how many singers have been influenced by his music.  Elvis lives on even 35 years after his death.  He will always be the King of Rock and Roll.

When our tour bus driver picked us up at Graceland, we had an hour before he had to pick up other people at a different location.  He asked us if we wanted to drive by some other places in Memphis and of course we said yes.  

He took us to the Stax museum.  I didn't even realize that Stax records was in Memphis.

He drove us by the church where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous "mountain top" speech.

He drove us to the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. King was assassinated.  The Lorraine is now the home of the National Civil Rights Museum.

There are few places we have traveled to that have tugged at my heart and brought tears to my eyes...President Kennedy's grave, Robert Kennedy's grave, the World Trade Center site, the Flight 93 memorial, the Vietnam Memorial.  And now the place where Dr. King died.  In my prayer here I asked God to keep us moving forward.

It is a glorious, sunny morning here in Mississippi, the sun is just streaming through the windows and I'm practicing my gratitude.

To the Mid South

We left home on Friday morning and drove to Bowling Green, KY.  Stayed at a nice KOA with the usual amenities, free cable and free WI-FI.  The problem was that our utility connections were a bit far, so we had to use our older piece of co-ax which made for a terrible cable connection and their WI-FI signal was slow at our site.  I topped off the Virgin Mobile MI-FI and it was zooming.  It was only an over night stay so it didn't really matter.

We left there Saturday morning driving through Nashville, TN.  As many time as we have travelled, we have never driven through Nashville.  Beautiful downtown area and since it was Saturday, not much traffic.

We drove to West Memphis, AR where we met up with a man who has a Texaco gas station on his property.  The station had been stored in 2 semi-trailers for over 30 years when he bought it and had it re-constructed on his property.  Doug and I enjoyed meeting Vernon who so kindly shared not only a tour of the Texaco station, but also of his other collections - neon signs and old cars.

We took so many photos, it's impossible to share them all.  We really appreciate the time he took with us.  Collectors are such nice people!

We left his place and headed to Tunica, MS where we are staying at the Mid-South RV Park.  It's part of the Harrah's properties here.  We checked in, got our site assigned, headed into town for a few groceries and then got set up.  We no sooner turned on the TV when we got notice of a severe thunderstorm headed our way.  The last time we stayed here, we had our pop-up and a big storm came through then, too.  I have to say I felt safer in the MH, but we decided to sit here until the storm had passed.

About the time we thought it was safe to go, we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and starting walking up to the office to catch the shuttle to the casino.  We hadn't gotten far when the skies opened up again, drenching us by the time we got to the office.  Even though we were soaking wet, we still went to the casino (and made a small donation), had the great Paula Deen buffet and then headed back.  There's still a chance of thunderstorms here today, but it appears that the severe stuff (remnants of Isaac) have moved on...finally.

Today is a day for taking it easy.  Doug is already down for nap number one and I think I will get out of here and see what trouble I can stir up in the casino.  Besides, they have free coffee and as you all know, coffee is my favorite beverage.

Deja Brew: The feeling that you've had this coffee before.

~Author Unknown

Heading Home

On Tuesday morning, we left the Keys and headed north.  We drove about 450 miles and ended up at Alachua, FL, just north of Gainesville.  Very nice park, cable and fast, free WI-FI.  They also had quite the collection of animals.  They had 4 or 5 cows, at least a dozen goats and probably close to 50 African Parrots.  Here are a couple of the parrots.

I don't know if they did bird rescues, or bred them or just liked to have a lot of them, but they sure did have plenty of them.  The dogs were very interested in the parrots.  I took them for a walk over to these cages just as someone was starting to feed them.  The parrots were quite noisy and stayed that way until dark when you didn't hear them at all.

We left Alachua this morning and continued north to Calhoun, GA driving about 385 miles. We are staying at a very nice KOA.  Here's our site.

This KOA has it all.  Pool, cable TV, free WI-FI, nice patio sites (like ours), bicycle rentals, firewood and on and on.  They gave us some doggie treats when we checked in, guided us to our site and then came back about 20 minutes later to check to be sure everything was okay and brought us some WARM chocolate chip cookies!

We also ordered a pizza and chicken wings from the store here.  Delivery to your site!  It was nice not to cook tonight.

This place also is a bit of an animal menagerie.  They have a bunch of very small goats up front, lots of bunnies running around and they also have five peacocks that roam the property.  This white one just walked right up to our site and hung out for awhile.

I was sitting outside with the dogs when it came up and I had to take them back in.  The bird didn't seem to mind, but the dogs were driving me nuts barking at it and I wanted to enjoy watching it.  About 45 minutes later it came back with two other peacocks.

He soon began the "fan dance".

I didn't realize this until I looked it up, but males are peacocks and females are peahens.  It's the males that have this long, beautiful train and it's a mating ritual when they show it.

If you listen carefully in this video, you can hear the sound his train makes as he rustles it.  (Of course, you can also hear Jackie whining towards the end of the video, too.  She wanted to come outside and see it so bad.)

Youtube video of White Peacock

Sort of a weird coincidence that two nights in a row, we get to see some exotic birds, but I loved it.  Who knows what we might see tomorrow!

In the morning, we will head north to Walton, KY.  That will be about 370 miles, leaving us about 260 miles on Friday.  I really have enjoyed taking a bit longer to get home.  It's nice to get off the road around 4:00, relax a bit, sit outside and then have dinner.  Even though we gave up a day in the Keys to do it this way, it is definitely better.  We're not as burned out at the end of the day.

C:>COFFEE.COM error.  Contact programmer J. Valdez.

-Author Unknown

Last Day in the Keys

I've got the "last night blues" so this post will be short and sweet.

Went to the beach at Curry Hammock State Park again today.  Beautiful, quiet, peaceful.

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As usual, the most beautiful sunset.

And something I've been meaning to post ever since we got here.  There are many folks who have decorated the trees with lights. It's so pretty to walk around here after dark.

My hips, knees and legs hurt.  Probably from sleeping on a different bed the last 27 nights, the fishing we did (trying to keep my sea legs under me), all the walks with the dogs, sitting in a beach chair every day and laying on my stomach on the beach (I did occasionally try to tan my back side).

Tomorrow we start our trip back home.  I got the blues.

"Don't waste your time away thinkin' 'bout yesterday's blues."

Jon Bon Jovi

Okay, Jon, I won't.  I'll just take a couple of Advil PM's and hit the sack early.  No coffee tonight.

Bahia Honda State Park

On Saturday, we headed south for the beach at Bahia Honda State Park.  We sat in two different places.  The first one is at the southern end of the park.  This stretch of beach is left natural and there were many shore birds.

Next, we moved to Sandspur Beach.  The sand is sugary and the water is crystal clear.

Last night, we had a beautiful sunset.

After it got dark, I took the dogs for a walk.  As we were headed back to the MH, I notice something lit up in the sky.  As I approached the docks, I saw a group of people gathered and they were launching Chinese Lanterns.

Lighting the lantern

Waiting for it to fill with hot air

Away she goes

High in the night sky

I was amazed at how long you could see them as they floated away.  I've never seen these before and they were beautiful to watch.   It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

"I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee."  ~ Carly Simon