A mere 90 miles from Monroe, Louisiana to Vicksburg, Mississippi and the destination target was the Visitor Center, immediately after the impressive bridge over the “Big Muddy” Mississippi River. It is an amazing view to see the automobile bridge along with the railroad bridge and the very old single lane auto side of the same railroad bridge.
We looked and found another geocache walking up the road to the Casino. It also offered a different view of the River and bridges.
Our principal objectives, here in Vicksburg was the National Military Park of Louisiana/Mississippi. We really didn’t know what to expect , but we knew it was a major Battle in the Civil War. The Park was 16 miles of touring roads. With Covid dilemma, admission was free, even though we have our Senior Pass. Driving through the Granite Arches, the Park roads are well groomed and many, many monuments line the Parkway. Pullouts allowed us to stop and take photos. As I write this, Monday morning, 6:30am, we plan on returning this morning for another look see… Mississippi water front downtown. Besides doing geocaching, we’ve started doing Adventure Labs. This is like geocaching but you don’t have to physically touch the geocache. What you do is follow your GPS or cell phone towards the hidden object. When you get within 30 feet, your phone will show you a question that you answer from a panel or sign. If it’s right, you completed one of usually five Adventure Labs of a series. You do get points on your geocaching profile. Like geocaching, Adventure Labs brings you to some cool places you would never know about.
Mid mourning, we left Vicksburg and changed our Easterly direction for a due Southerly direction to Natchez, Mississippi. We had so much fun in Vicksburg, Natchez would be another adventure!
We drove the scenic byway along the Mississippi, but it wasn’t so close that we could see the river constantly. Arriving to Natchez, we beelined to the Visitor Center and asked all of the tourist questions. There is no Cracker Barrel in Natchez, but the informative lady told us that they leave at 5pm and we could do what we wanted as far as parking overnight!
The parking lot could possibly hold 500 RVs but not one site was level. I found the best one at the bottom of the parking lot!
There is a dump station, but no potable (drinking) water or non potable water. No problem with that. I just wanted to empty my holding tanks!
Natchez had no major Civil War Battles, but does have beautiful mansions and very large Oak trees. photos tell the story better than words.
This morning, as I write at 6am, the temperature outside is 69º with 89% humidity. A major storm is coming from the Gulf. So far, it’s to our West in Texas and Louisiana. We will move up on the Natchez Trace Parkway to Jackson, MS and jump on I-20 East and try to outrun the storm which is moving North & East!
Natchez Trace Parkway
I’ve always wanted to drive on the Parkway. It starts in Natchez, MS and ends in Nashville, TN. We would only do about 92 miles to I-20 in Jackson, MS. The plan was to stay ahead of the appending storm. We were told not to speed on the Parkway as Rangers give tickets one mile over the speed limit. That was ok. I wanted to experience the Natchez Trace Parkway, not the Speedway Experience.
Getting on the Parkway was instantly different. The speed limit is 50mph. So you can look around at the scenery, but most of all, we didn’t see more than a dozen vehicles on the whole 92 miles! Green grass right up to the pavement, old growth trees, roadside flowers. It a cool morning drive on the Parkway, Not a cool temperature 74º !
From Jackson, MS we drove all the way to Montgomery, Alabama to beat the storm, which was on our heels! Tonight it looks like the storm will overtake us between 3am and 7am!
Stay tuned to hear what happened!
Note: There are at least three separate blogs that I have to write on outstanding visits! One being: Military National Battlefield, Two Army Corps of Engineers, Three Vicksburg Downtown and Natchez Downtown. I will do this at a later date!
That is what we saw and did!
2boomersonthemove.wordpress.com 
Very cool. Thanks Lucian. Laura Langett
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We really liked Vicksburg & Natchez but time restrictions kept me from writing separate blogs on each. I will at a later date!
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I remember driving from Tucson to Montgomery years ago. We wanted to stop in Vicksburg to se the battlefield. My great great grandfather fought there. We got in and when we opened the door it was so humid the windows fogged up, We had lived in the dry air of Tucson for so long we could hardly take a breath. Eventually we adjusted and had a great time
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