Vicksburg

We are currently in Clinton, Ms. which is right next to Jackson. There is not much to see here and if you ever  come here, don't bother going to the visitor center. Can't figure why they even have one.Well ignorance is not always bliss. We are about 40 miles from Vicksburg,site of one of the most important series of events in the civil war.I had told Joy that there was no need to go to Vicksburg because it was just a battlefield area and no big deal. DUMB DUMB DUMB! We would not have gone except Joy wanted to go to a quilt shop. Well, we went and the quilt shop was great. Then we went to the "battlefield". It is a wonderful National Park with a 16 mile drive showing where each of the regiments were encamped and explaining the history of that part of the war.There were many areas with rows of cannon. There were many monuments to the various military units, the various military leaders, and monuments done by the various states in honor of the participants from each state.There is also a national cemetery with more than 17000 buried there. I didn't know that Lincoln himself told Grant that the war could not be won without Vicksburg being taken and Lincoln himself was aware that to take Vicksburg would effectively divide the confederacy which is exactly what happened. In the beginning, Grant took many losses while the confederacy had many less.Ultimately, the losses basically evened out.I also didn't know that there was also a huge naval attack on Vicksburg and the confederates used torpedoes for the first time and sunk many boats. One of the pictures above shows the USS Cairo, an ironside that was raised from the Mississippi River and restored. It was a steam powered vessel with a huge paddle wheel iron plating for protection , and many rows of canon..Another picture is of a plaque that shows the losses on both sides.

Also, Vicksburg is the first place to bottle coca-cola. They have a little museum that shows the first bottling system and alot of other memorabilia.The first bottling system did one bottle at a time where 1 oz of syrup was put into the bottle and then the bottle was filled with carbonated water. A picture of the company logo on the side of the building is shown above.

Natchez, Mississippi

Yesterday we traveled from Dallas to Natchez. Actually, we are staying in a campground called Riverview RV Park in Vidalia, La. which is literally at the foot of the bridge going from Ms to La.The park is on the banks of the Mississippi River. Yes, we are directly in the path of Isaac but are leaving tomorrow for Jackson,Ms about 100 miles north east of here. We are in hopes of staying about 1 1/2 days ahead of the storm. Well enough of that.

Today, we went to the welcome center in Natchez and watched a film about the city and area. After that we toured the city and looked at the many ante-bellum homes. There are many,many of them.We looked at the most spectacular homes and took pictures of all of them. We learned a lot about the city because we saw it 14 times. You ask why? It's because almost all of the streets are one way. It is very difficult to get around but there are so many beautiful old homes. We were shocked at how many we're for sale. We inquired and were told most of the industry had left and many home owners simply couldn't  afford to maintain their homes. We took a break and went to quaint little coffee shop and had a fabulous breakfast at lunch time.

In the afternoon we toured we think the most phenomenal and storied home in Natchez. It is called Longwood , a 30,000 square foot home on 90 acres. It was built just before the beginning of the civil war by a very wealthy cotton man who owned 46,000 acres of land across the river and 800 slaves.  He and his wife hired an architect from Philadelphia who designed the home as the largest octagonal home in the U.S. The structure is composed of 750,000 bricks all made on site by the owner's slaves. The architect brought artisans from Philadelphia for the construction. The home was three floors with 10,000 square feet per floor and was topped with a beautiful dome. Now for the sad part. When the brick had all been done and the dome had been added, the civil war began and the architect and all the artisans literally dropped their tools on the floor and left back north thinking the war would be quick and they would return and take up where they left off. Well, the war lasted much longer and neither the architect nor artisans ever returned and to this day, the home has never been completed even though various descendants lived in the home until 1968.

The owner hired local workers to half-way complete the bottom floor which was actually the
basement so it would be livable for his wife and 8 children. How sad. Yes, it gets worse. Because of the shipping blockade during the war, the owner couldn't sell his cotton and went broke, losing all his land but only able to barely hang on to the home. With all the stress and a touch of pneumonia, he died at 46 making his wife a widow with 8 kids. Somehow the wife raised the kids in the house and educated them. Later, one of the adult kids who had moved away, came back at one point and paid $50 to save the home at a sheriff's sale.

The home is just as the workers left it except for the basement where the family lived. It is now owned by two garden clubs who maintain it and give tours for $12 per person. If you're ever in the area, we recommend you see this one.We took many pictures and wish we could upload them but can't figure out how to on the IPad.

Nice Day in Dallas

Thank goodness today was back to normal.  I must admit that this campground, Hi-Ho, is not a bad place. We truly are the only ones out of about 150 sites that haven't planted our garden but I must say that the people here are living here and going back and forth to jobs. Only by the grace of God we aren't having to do that too.

We got up this morning and headed into town to see the Sixth Floor Museum where Oswald shot Kennedy from. We must say that this was a nice set up. It was money well spent.  We asked the girl at the front desk of the museum about a quaint local place to have lunch. She suggested we walk right up "there" for about 10 minutes and catch the free trolley to the West End. Have I mentioned this girl was all of 20.  She failed to mention it was up hill and she apparently didn't see our age. We walked it but it was more like 20 minutes. Van said he'd been more than glad to move the car and pay for parking if he had known this. While on the trolley we asked some of the locals if they could suggest a place.  Everyone of them mentioned Mexican.  Now if any of you have been with Van and Me when we are in a Mexican restaurant you know that we have no idea how to order. We have to point to someone's plate and say we want that.  It's really pathetic. So we quietly told them thank you and when the trolley let us off we went looking for a "different" place. Let me go ahead and tell you that there are lots of different names for Mexican restaurants but I think that's all there's been in the whole state of Texas. We've been eating Mexican since Houston.  So, of course, we ate at a local place called Taco Diner. It was good food but we still had to point to someone's plate and say we would like that.  Needless to say, we didn't feel like we ate at the quaint place we were looking for (ha).  Now we had to get back to our car and we knew we weren't going to walk all that way again so we jump on the transit train. It cost us but at this point Van was more than willing to pay the cost.

Then we decided to go see South Fork where they film the show Dallas.  That stupid show has become one of our favorites. If you haven't watched it you haven't watched this new generation of children make J.R. look nice!  It looked just like you see in the show but smaller.  It too was a good choice to go see

Planning on leaving in the morning. We'd like to make it all the way to Natchez, MS but we don't think we can. We will probably stop overnight in Shreveport LA somewhere. As far as we can tell, there really isn't anything there for us to see. We want to spend some time in Natchez and going up towards Tupelo, MS before we see children on Thursday night in Booneville MS.

Well, that's all for now. All of you are so sweet to take time to read our little journey. We sincerely do miss you and will be ready to be home by the end of September.

Tire Day

Last night Van checked the tires and learned that one of the tires was 15 lbs low. He tossed and turned all night stressing about that tire. First thing, we found a mobile tire repair company who arrived in about an hour. The gentleman was real friendly and checked the tire by putting water on it, not jacking up the tire, and determined that Van had been using a cruddy tire gauge, which was letting the air out of the tire.  Van explained we were of our way to Austin and Dallas, and he "guaranteed" that we would not have problems, but he did tell Van what tire gauge to buy.   Van paid top dollar at the truck stop for this gauge and checked the tires. We had only gone about a 100 miles max. Lo and behold, the tire was 15 lbs low again.  You need to remember that before we started the trip we had a fender bender and had to go to the shop in Wildwood for repairs. While there, the man showed us a RV that had had a blow out. It had done about $100,000 worth of damage. All RVers know that the tires are the crucial element to a trip.  So all we could imagine, was having a blow out.  We found a Goodyear Tire Store right off the interstate and headed to see them. The road in front of their shop was closed due to construction and we were routed several miles but finally came across their back entrance. They inspected the tire and determined that the valve stem was leaking but didn't want the liability of jacking up the motor home.  They sent us down the road to a other place. After going to the front office and filling out our life history in paperwork, we were introduced to Pedro who knew as much English and Van knows Spanish, which is nada.  Pedro confirmed that the valve stem was in fact leaking which necessitated both rear side tires being removed, with the inside tire being broken down so that a new valve stem could be put on. For those of you who dont know, valve stems on motor homes and 18 wheelers are different than those on a car. Pedro appeared to be very thorough and, after about hour and $40 later, we were back on the road again.  Now Joy and Monet had to sit inside the motor home each time they worked on it without any a/c running.  They were
ready for the a/c to be back on. Van was in the shop with Pedro and his friend and he gave both of
them bottles of water.  They were probably  as hot as me and Monet.  We failed to mention that the first repair man who had "guaranteed" our safety was in a hurry to get to the hospital because his mother was having stints put in.  As he was leaving, Van had prayer with him for  his mothers recovery.  We are now on the outskirts of Dallas in a "campground" called Hi-Ho, which the name is befitting.  There is no cable, but Van is able to get 5 channels through the antenna.   The website said 
there were not any extended stays.....they lied!  I think we are the  only ones who are not here on an extended stay!  After supper, Van plans on using his new tire gauge. Will he sleep tonight?  The real question is will we be safe?

Tour Day in San Antonio

We began by having the tour bus pick us up here at the campground bright and early this morning.  Our first stop was the Japanese Sunken Gardens.  This was a beautiful Japanese style garden which was transformed out of an old stone quarry.  It had been abandoned for many years, finally some Japanese citizens of San Antonio presented a plan to the City to make the old abandoned quarry a beautiful garden area.  After years of discussions, the City elected complete the gardens, which are not only beautiful, but also have one of a kind handcrafted artisan works which are spectacular.  From there, we went through a older premier subdivision which had many beautiful homes and large old trees.  Then it was time to ride the boat down the romantic San Antonio River which runs between the downtown buildings.  It has many sidewalk cafes and shops along the way.  The concept of this was done by a young architect, which was only 25 years old, and this area has turned out to the highlight of San Antonio.  What is interesting about the San Antonio River is that it looks like a man made canal like you would see at a theme park when in fact it is the actual San Antonio River around which the entire city constructed its buildings.  Then onto the Buckhorn Saloon and the Texas Ranger Museum. The Buckhorn Saloon contains hundreds of stuffed animals from all corners of the world.  It was originally started where the saloon owner would give patrons anything from a free beer to a free bottle of liquor for a stuffed animal. It got so popular that wild game hunters from all over the world donated animals. It advertises over 520 different species, including fish from the seven seas.  At one point it was purchased by a beer company and moved to the site of the beer company's location.  Then, the beer company decided to move to another city so the heirs of the original family repurchased these items and opened the saloon back up in town. The Texas Ranger Museum is just....a history of the Texas Rangers and has a reproduction car of the one Bonnie and Clyde were killed in.  A very interesting place.  We were dropped off for a tour of the Alamo and lunch on our own.  It was recommended that we have the buffet at the Menger Hotel which was built in the mid 1800's and still operates today.  We went through the Alamo and learned the importance of the Alamo with regards to the formation of Texas.  We then had lunch at the Menger Hotel.  After lunch we were taken to two Spanish Missions from the mid 17th century.  We learned how the Spanish christianized the Indian.  It was kind of a sad story in that the Indians were forced to leave everything they had known, including their gods and their entire way of life.  They, in essence, lost everything and became slaves to the Spanish.  The smallest mission that we saw, which was Mission Concepcion, was built in the 1750's and has not really been restored and still has a Catholic service on Sunday.  The most amazing thing is the accoustics.  It is advertised as the oldest, unrestored stone church in our nation.  We also saw Mission San Jose, which has been restored but is ten times the size of Mission Concepcion.  We finished our tour by going to the Mexican Marketplace, called El Mercado.  Needless to say, our travel budget was not hurt at this stop!  The "authentic Mexican ware" is very similar to what you can buy at Pedros just over the Georgia border into South Carolina.  However, if you were in need of decorating a pueblo, this was your place.
We haven't decided for sure what we'll do tomorrow.  We know we need to hit a Wally World before heading to Austin on Thursday.
Again, we love you all and miss you

Arriving in San Antonio

We decided to back out the motor home which was literally wedged between Kristin and Chris' house and their next door neighbor. I should have thought to take a picture. If Van had been 8 inches either way we would have been repairing a roof overhang!  Since we wanted to leave bright and early we decided to back out the motor home last night and put it on the street in front of their house.  Well first, you must remember that we ripped off the electrical connections going up their driveway which we had to go buy new wires. So while we were backing down the driveway, even without the weight of the car, our hitch decided to carve its shape about an inch into the pavement.  Then we noticed that the front of their house had low hanging tree limbs so we had to park it in front of their neighbor's house. I know they were thrilled not to be able to see when they tried to back out.  We hooked up the car and loaded our things back on. We get up on time and started doing our "leaving" routine of checking lights, etc., but we didn't have any signal lights showing on the car. We find a place about 10 miles away to have them see what's wrong.  Come to find out that when we dragged into the pavement, it blew fuses. Easy and relatively cheap fix.  Yea!
We get into San Antonio about 1:00 and are staying at the KOA here. Very nice set up and wonderful people.  We decided to take the car and meander a little around the Riverwalk Area. It really is a great little set up. We decided to take an all day tour trip that takes us to all the touristy areas. So tomorrow we will do that.  It is soooo hot here that it's hard to breath so I'm a little worried about how we will do.  Anyway, hope everyone is doing well.

Houston

WOW what a great weekend!  It's hard to believe our time here is up in the morning.  How fun it's been.  Houston is a nicer place than I had imagined.  We were fortunate enough to be here when they were needing to look for house plans. They finally decided on one today...big and beautiful!  I'm so happy for them. It looks like in 6 months they'll be in their new home.

Tomorrow we are off for San Antonio.  Sure will miss these grown babies.

Houston

Arrived in Houston so looking forward to visiting with Kristin and Chris. Pulled into their driveway at an angle and destroyed the new cable I just bought in Florida that controls the lights on the car when towing. Also my bicycle tire hit and tore it up. So this morning was spent getting a new wire made and getting the tire fixed. The good news is the bicycle wheel wasn't bent and all I needed there was to have it repaired with a new tube. The bad news is our travel budget took a $120 hit.

We had a wonderful day after a morning of repairs. Kristin and Chris treated us to lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant called Chuy's. I'm certainly no expert, but this was the best Mexican food I have ever eaten. They even had a white sauce for the chips that tasted a lot like my Alabama white sauce.

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking at amazing homes. Kristin and Chris are leasing a house and are paying $2700 /month but have wisely decided to look into purchasing a home. It was fun looking at really nice homes we could never  afford. Try four bed rooms, three and a half baths,  an office, an exercise room, media room, game room and a master suite with a closet as big as our bed room. Did I mention a three car garage and an outdoor kitchen and a pool?

A very relaxing evening with a cheese and beef dip and yes drinks. Tomorrow, we expect to see a few more homes and then in the evening, Chris is taking me to see the pre-seanon game between the  Houston Texans and the 49ers while  Joy and Kristin share some girl time.  If you happen to view the game on the tv, and they pan the crowd, we'll be the guys having a great time!

Tour and Wet Day

Yesterday was the tour which was very interesting. We were supposed to see the home where Jefferson Davis passed away and Archie Mannings home. We saw neither but did see some neat stuff. Our guide was really into cemeteries so we saw a bunch. We saw the "condos" (above ground burial vaults) for the founder of Popeyes Chicken an the founder of Ruth's Chris steak houses.

We saw one of the levees that was breached and how it was patched. We also saw the new zillion dollar drainage water pumping stations. Pretty impressive. We went through one of the blighted areas and saw some vacant lots where houses were lost and saw some of the houses with the marks to show they had been searched and the number of bodies found inside.they have new regulations requiring all new homes to be built at least 2 feet of the ground. For the residents who tried to salvage their homes, there were federal funds available to have the existing structure built on the ground to be raised from 2 to 10 feet off the ground and we saw several that had done so.

We also saw the area where houses were built by Harry Connick, Jr for musicians only and their families in an effort to get the musicians back , and it worked. The houses were like habitat for humanity houses and there were many. Harry Connick , Jr also had a music museum and recording studio and music facility built where any child from 8-18 can go for music lessons free of charge. Fats Domino lost his home and a rock n roll guy we think from Led Zeppelin who is friends with Fats built him a new home across the river. By the way, we learned that all of the flooding came from the levees failing along Lake Pontchartrain and not from the Gulf or the Mississippi River.

Today we headed out to catch the trolley to go to Riverwalk. It was about a 6 block walk . About 2 blocks into the walk, we found out that summer rains come out of nowhere much faster than in Florida. We both looked like drowned river rats. We decided to go into Harrah's casino to get out of the rain and use their facilities to try to dry off a bit. While we were there, Joy decided she wanted to "gamble" . I gave her a dollar and she went to a 2 cent slot machine. After a few minutes, she had amassed a fortune of $1.04. She got cocky, increased her bets and in seconds her fortune was gone. So much for our gambling.

Natchez Paddleboat/Steamboat Dinner Cruise

What a beautiful evening. Went on the dinner cruise down the Mississippi River. Weather was beautiful, food was good, service was good and the Dixie-land music was so nice.

We met a couple from Ontario Canada and enjoyed their company very much. Hopefully we will see them again. We exchanged info.

Got to see where the levees broke during Katrina. Did not realize that the French Quarter wasn't really hurt, but it was primarily the ninth ward which is out from the downtown area. Of course the ninth ward is what was so devastated. I'm sure we'll learn much more tomorrow on the tour.

Was very surprised to learn that the  N O Port is the biggest port in the world. Savannah looks bigger and busier.Also learned NO is 100 miles from the Gulf by water and 60 miles as the crow flies.

Will check in again as we do more. Having much fun and really looking forward to seeing babies and grand-babies.

First Day in New Orleans

Got in to NO yesterday and our campground is very nice and located adjacent to the French Quarter. In fact the name is the French Quarter RV Resort.We took a long stroll thru the quarter and thru the market place. We both like jazz and asked where to go. We were given a place where the locals go called Snug Harbor. We had dinner and went to a hour and a half jazz show that was great. The namesake of the trio played the big bass. That was the first time we had seen the bass be the lead instrument. The leader had written all the songs. There were no vocals just good jazz. The place was famous for their burgers so you know..." when in Rome". We met a couple from Baton Rouge ( about an hour and half away) who said they come regularly and verified it was the best place in NO for jazz. Everyone advised to stay away from Bourbon Street because of all thr rowdies.

Tonight we have reservations for the dinner cruise and tomorrow have plans for the tour which will include post Katrina areas and the mansion of Archie Manning where the famous quarterbacks grew up.

Our campground has an area where they put the Prevost coaches. We are behind them in the section with normal folk and fifth wheels. Don't know why (lol) . Still very blessed!

Continue to pray for us! It works. Over 500 miles and no more wrecks!

Resending today's

I had some bad emails so I'm resending this out.

1st stop-Alabama!

I cant believe it.  We made it 420 miles today!  For those of you who know us, you know that's really, really good for us. We found a Passport America campground in Robertsdale, Alabama.  For those of you who use Passport America, you know these campgrounds aren't always nice.  We stopped in the Wilderness RV Park and it's okay. The road to the entrance was a little scary....we are truly in the wilderness!  Poor Monet.  She hasn't slept a wink all day. For a dog who usually sleeps  17 1/2 hours a day, she's dead. She won't wake up til the morning.  Tomorrow we get up and go to New Orleans. We just can't wait. Love you all

On The Road Again

Will be getting up bright and early to head towards New Orleans. Will probably stay somewhere near Pensacola.  Keep us in your prayers. We had an accident with the motorhome last week trying to get organized. Hopefully, all the bad things that might happen to us are out of the way!!  Talk to you soon.