One thing I can't get over was how fantastic the weather was in Mississippi. It was perfectly sunny, and that ideal spot between warm and hot where you roll up your sleeves and want to spend the whole day out and about.
And of course we couldn't find a good hike.
Ryan made the best of it, though, and found us a few good spots for long walks. We hit Natchez first, and kind of accidentally found a tribute to Antibellum living, where we roamed the grounds, just soaking up the sun and scent of fresh-bloomed flowers. When we left Ohio, it was cold, so this freshness was a friendly shock to our systems.
We also hit downtown Natchez, and walked the long hill down to the river, then the long climb back uphill from the river. It felt wonderful to stretch our legs for an extended period.
Unfortunately, we were running on a bit of a schedule at this point. Ryan was trying to juggle some work meetings, and our next stop, Vicksburg Battle Grounds, closed at 5pm. I took over as pilot and drove Vincent most of the way from Natchez to Vicksburg. It was mildly terrifying, since I had not the vaguest clue of where I was going, but I rolled up to the main gates promptly and safely at 3.30pm, and bought our National Park pass for 2018. Do you know about these things? Basically, you can pick up a pass that lets you in any National Park in the US for a discounted rate. This is going to be clutch as we head out west and start our back country nonsense.
In any case, Ryan's meeting ended, and he hopped back into the driver's seat. Since we had acres of park and limited time, we chose to do the driving tour, pulling over at each stop to take pictures and read the history of the battles that occurred on this site.
One thing I did not expect from a battlefield was its size.
The immense stretch of land, with rolling hills and footpaths just stunned me. How troops managed to organize anything over this amount of space blew my mind. I imagined being a soldier - scared, hungry, hot, overwhelmed- and found myself feeling very, very uncomfortable. As a tourist in shorts and a t-shirt, I was already feeling queasy and disoriented.
We managed to wrap up our tour, feeling much more somber and informed, before the gates closed. It was about then that we remembered we hadn't eaten since that biscuit at breakfast back in Louisiana, so we headed downtown for dinner.
Coincidentally, we saw this:
We inhaled more po-boys for dinner, then headed out on the road. Unfortunately, there was zero camping in the vicinity, so we had to drive until well past dark to find a place to stay. Northern Mississippi is very flat and very sparsely populated. We drove past delta upon delta and field upon field as the sun rapidly exited the sky, and I was more than a little worried about whether we were going to find a spot to rest or not. Thankfully, we scooted into a military dam area just before midnight, and I slept solidly for the first time on our trip.
The next day, after all, was Memphis, and boy, did we have some big plans!!
No comments:
Post a Comment