After that great breakfast we
started this leg of the journey at the logical place – a tourist welcome
center. The lady there walked us through
a map of the area and highlighted some key stuff for us to see as we trekked
around town. First stop, of course, was
the Vicksburg Battlefield National Park, which was, coincidentally, right
across the street.
The tourist info center for the park
was quite well done. A twenty minute
video about the battle gave us an overview that I sure needed, since I didn’t
brush up on my Civil War history before we left Galveston. There were also lots and lots of
souvenirs. Oh, and we met a new friend
there. His name was Douglas
Dromedary. THE Douglas Dromedary. Very friendly guy. And the consummate Confederate, I might
add. Seems he had been the actual camel
who was known to have walked with the rebels throughout the battle, giving them
encouragement and moral support. Camels
live a long time. Yes, I said
camel. Watch out, now. Don’t look down on him just because he’s a
different species. And don’t believe
everything you hear, either. Reports of
his demise during the battle were greatly exaggerated. He managed to smuggle himself through the
Union lines and onto a heavily armed gunboat on the Mississippi River. It was a Yankee gunboat, but Douglas was such
a smooth talker, no one thought twice about welcoming him aboard. He did his best throughout the rest of the
war to secret information to the South command, but sadly it was to no
avail. He has been stuck at this Yankee-commandeered
visitors’ center for years. He convinced
us to let him lead our self-guided tour of the grounds. How could I turn him down? He proved to be an invaluable resource. See, I was not allowed to climb on or in the
cannons. Having been an original
participant of the battle, he was exempt from such silly rules and regulations. We have some wonderful pictures. And after the tour he asked if he could come
home with us. He’s never been to
Galveston. Never been allowed outside
that barricaded visitors’ center. We now
have a new member of the family.
The park itself was a lot like
Gettysburg … big. But instead of lots
and lots of grass, this one had trees.
Lots of trees. And hills. Actually the terrain was beautiful. And there were plenty of the obelisks honoring
the different regiments involved in the battle.
We found the Texas one. Actually,
Douglas did. Huge thing. Had to go up eleven steps to reach the actual
monument – one for every state that seceded from the Union. Impressive.
Some of the monuments had people’s names on them, too. My favorite name of the trip so far? Andrew Hickenlooper. Douglas didn’t know him. He was a Yankee.
The absolute highlight of the park
was the restoration project of the USS Cairo.
It was one of the seven ironclad ships patrolling the Mississippi during
the war. It was sunk and finally
salvaged in the 1960’s. They have put
back together the wood and iron they have salvaged, and filled in some structural
gaps like a big, life-sized jigsaw puzzle.
Quite a feat. And quite
impressive. And across the street from
the ship was the national cemetery for all the Union soldiers killed. Also similar to the one at Gettysburg. The Rebs were all buried in town.
Speaking of in town, that’s where we
headed next. Old buildings and some
cobbled streets. Confederate General Pemberton’s
headquarters was a huge house. One of
many in the town. We saw the National
Biscuit Company. First corporation to
use the moniker, NBC. They have a sea
wall next to the river. They call it a
levee, though. Somebody painted on
theirs, too. We went into a museum in
town hoping to see the battle from the Rebel perspective. It was hard to remember that the National
Park was, after all, a national
park. This museum had a diorama of the
battlefield that would have been perfect had we seen it before our tour or the
park. It was awesome. Tiny little blue and gray clad soldiers
everywhere. But I guess the guy who
built it was more amenable to the losing cause.
Had to keep it on the Rebel side.
Perhaps the most horrifying
experience of my life came when we entered the Antique Doll Museum. It was everything you might have imagined and
more. The place was small. Hot. Cramped. Very old dolls lined the walls from floor to
ceiling. Dolls in cribs. Dolls staring at you from above. Dolls standing up. Dolls sitting down. Boy dolls.
Girl dolls. Wedding dress clad
dolls. Chatty Cathy dolls. Every Barbie and Ken and Midge doll ever
made. Even a My Buddy was trapped in
there. And the worst part of it
all? The hundred year old man who
operated the place was crafty. He added
a second line to the sign indicating that he also had boys’ toys. Sneaky.
He even admitted to us that it was his way of tricking the men into
coming into the room and not waiting outside.
That’s just … evil. Chris asked
how he got started collecting. His
answer? “I collected the collector.” Now that’s rather frightening.
Before leaving town we made a quick
run over to the cemetery where the Confederate soldiers were buried. Very impressive. It did seem kind of strange that they were
flying two Confederate flags over the area and no American flag. We were truly ensconced in Rebel territory. We found the Texas guys. One of them was named Hamelton. Chris wasn’t sure if he was a relative or
not.
From there we stopped by the state
welcome center. We had heard that it was
the prime spot for taking a picture of the Mississippi River and two different
bridges that span it. Something literary
about a guy named Flat Stanley? So we
took pictures of the Mississippi River. Then
we left town.
It took us a while but we finally
relocated the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Problem was we need some food first (we
just had crackers and water for lunch.
No, as far as we know neither of us is pregnant. Just focused in seeing the sights). We finally found a McAlister’s Deli. Had to drive right through the middle of the Mississippi
College campus. We finally got on the
Parkway, though. We took some pictures
of a reservoir (gotta love large bodies of water, right?). Then we took a through a swamp. Literally.
We had to walk on a bridge they had made. Also had to watch out for alligators. That’s where I learned about the word “tupelo.” Tupelo is a tree. And a city.
And a football game we used to play … what? Oh.
That was “Two below.” Sorry about
that.
We finally left the parkway. The 50 mph speed limit was just too slow for
Chris. Besides it would have taken us
forever to get to a city with some hotels.
We cut through the hometown of Mississippi State University. Any more college visits? We only made it as far as Tupelo,
Mississippi. The city, not the
tree. Too tired to complete the journey
to Corinth. But we did hear that someone
famous was born here. Guess we’ll try to
find out who.
Hotel rating: Quality Inn. About 3 starfish. Nice but not outstanding. AC was on and the room was nice and
cold. And there was a hot breakfast …
waffles.
Psalms
27:14 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait
for the Lord.”
Father, thank you for tupelos and
pines and whatever other foliage we passed on our way here. Beautiful stuff. You do good work. Amen.
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