On The Road to WDW

"We're on our way, pack up your pack, and if we stay, we won't be back. How can we go, we haven't got a dime, but we're going and we're going to have a happy time" - Cuanto La Gusta by The Andrews Sisters and Carmen Miranda.

We drove from Dallas to Vicksburg, MS..... 7 hours. We pulled into the Ameristar Casino campground at 3pm yesterday. Good drive.... bumpy road in places. Some places have been smoothed out, we appreciate that. Even though the drive through Shreveport/Bossier City is usually good - no big traffic problems, we always take the bypass. I-20 through Bossier City is very bumpy for a trailer.

We played in Ameristar Casino last night - slots keep getting tighter and tighter. We should have gone to Riverwalk, but we wanted to eat gumbo for dinner, and Ameristar's Bella cafe has great gumbo. Turned out to be very expensive gumbo by the time we headed back to the trailer. Oh well, easy come, easy go. The lyrics "we haven't got a dime" apply.

We were going to leave this morning and drive about 2.5 to 3 hours to a campground we read about near Hattiesburg, MS. We decided against that, though, because of the strong winds. Gusts have our Cat shaking and shaking. We've been watching an awning on a TT behind us, waiting for it to blow, but so far, so good. We like the flexibility of travel that we get with being retired. We want to get to Leesburg, FL on the 21st of Jan, but if we are a day late, that's okay. Our arrival date for WDW's Fort Wilderness is on Jan 24. We're staying 4 nights in the Gulfport, MS area, and that can be flexible too.

We started today with pancakes and bacon. The day started out with dark clouds, but that has been replaced by clear a clear blue sky with some fluffy white clouds. We'll probably do some sightseeing. Checked on-line and the closest Wildcat dealers are in Monroe, LA, and Hattiesburg, MS, too far to drive. Well, we'll find something to do - maybe we'll visit the Vicksburg National Military Park. We haven't been there since sometime in the mid 90s.

Tater

Wow, you were just there! I'm trying to get a few friends together to hit Disney this time next year. What are the temps like down there at this time of year?
Hope you have a safe and uneventful trip!

Earl

I hope you'll give my regards to Mickey when you see him.

TC

Orlando in the winter can be like the children on the list in "Here comes Santa Claus" ..... either naughty or nice. I spent two winters there (65/66 and 66/67). 65/66 was miserable. When it was 40* it felt like 20* due to the high humidity of the area. Ice on the orange trees and black frozen oranges isn't a pretty site When it rained it was even more raw. 66/67 was alot better than the previous year and much warmer. But still humid.

Last year at this time, it was very cold. We saw broken water pipes in Hollywood Casino campground in Bay St Louis, MS, and Diamond Jack's Casino campground in Shreveport, LA. Several nights we turned off the campground water and rolled up the hose. WDW was cold in both December, 2010 and January, 2011. It seems as though the winters are getting colder down south. We used to be able to walk around and be comfortable in t-shirts and shorts in January. We still bring them, but the last few trips, the warm weather clothes just goes back home clean.

So far, this trip, we've had to turn off the campground water in Vicksburg and Bay Saint Louis. We went to Home Depot yesterday and bought a real small 1500W heater that is small enough to fit on the shelf in the bedroom. Wow, it sure was nice to come out of the shower into a warm room last night.

We'll still go south in the winter, though, just to get away from home.

I mentioned an awning that we thought would blow off when we were in windy Vicksburg - well, I'm happy to say it hung on.

Tater

Bay Saint Louis, MS. We are here for 4 nights. Having a lot of fun driving around. We drove through our old neighborhood and saw that the people living in our former house (moved from there in 1990) have put in an in-ground pool, built a big unattached garage, and converted the attached garage into another room. The pool isn't where we would have put it, but it looks nice.

Friday night we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Catfish Charlie's, and had all the fried catfish we could eat, along with all the trimmings. Yesterday we drove up to Picayune, MS to buy a king cake from Paul's Pastry Shop. Our daughter worked in Gulfport with someone who lived in Picayune, and the friend would bring king cakes from Paul's to work. Sometimes our daughter would "order" one from her friend and bring it home. Delicious!! So, being here 4 days, we decided to drive up there and see what Paul's was all about. Very busy place!

Tater

Finally got some photos loaded into the computer, and edited. These are all from Vicksburg National Military Park- Vicksburg, MS.


Visitor Center


This arch is the entrance into the park


Trenches such as these can be seen throughout the battlefield in Vicksburg. The terrain around Vicksburg has bluffs and ravines, which could hamper or enhance the battle, depending on which side had the advantage at the time.


There are many monuments throughout the access roads that have been built for the self-guided tour through the park.




Monuments such as this commemorate officers - this one is a colonel.


Busts commemorate generals.


This is the Illinois monument - the 47 steps that lead up to it signify the 47 days of the seige.




I'm sorry about the quality of this monument. A huge Negro Army participated in this battle, fighting for their freedom.






A statue of General Ulysses S. Grant


There are many small monuments all around the park representing the states that had troops. Each monument is placed where battles raged... each one gave details of who lead the troops, where they were from, and included casualties. Illinois must have had a great many troops there, as they had the most of the small monuments. Monuments from other states each have their own design.


Scruffy and I feel that the monuments from Ohio are the most interesting. Some were forms of objects from the war, and some were bas reliefs of soldiers or objects. This and the following three are from Ohio.


Ohio


Ohio


Ohio


This "tent" protects the U.S. Gunboat Cairo from the weather. A large number of these gunboats came down the Mississippi River to battle from the water side of Vicksburg. Only one was sunk.... the Cairo. It has been raised and preserved here.

That marks the end of the self-driving tour. The National Cemetery is located right across from the Cairo. We didn't go in, we just drove by. There about 22,000 bodies in this cemetery, around 18,000 are unidentified. The cemetery is full.

Tater

Very nice, thanks for posting.

Thanks!

Every time I turn around, Scruffy and Tater are headed for WDW!! Talk about lucky. Sooner or later they will have to set them up a park model. LOL. Just wish we were going!!

There ARE people who live in Fort Wilderness year round - not all are work campers, although I think some of them are. We like home and our "stuff" too much to leave it altogether. We actually HAVE talked about it though.

Very nice pictures, it reminds me of Gettysburg, Tater, have you and Scruffy ever been to Gettysburg, PA.

oldelmer1 wrote:Very nice pictures, it reminds me of Gettysburg, Tater, have you and Scruffy ever been to Gettysburg, PA.

Someone is getting close to my stomping grounds. Im about 30 miles west of Gettysburg on US-30.

Earl

Earl,

Yes, we are up that way at lest 2 times a year.

Earl, passed your way a couple of years ago, east bound to Gettysburg, hiway 30 was interesting! Did not expect the grades/curves.

We stayed at Hollywood Casino Campground a total of 5 nights. Four of them were free, and we had planned on leaving after 4, but because of weather predictions (which did not come true) we decided to stay another night.

Joy and Alan stopped by for a short visit during their daytrip from NOLA to Biloxi, MS. It was very nice meeting them. Shortly after they left, a boat came into our little bayou. We didn't think boats could get in there, but if they have a flat bottom, they can.

A couple pix:

Tom,
Gettysburg would have been included in our trip up to Nova Scotia a couple years ago, but we had to scrap the trip because of health problems in our family. We've never been farther east than ohio in the northern half of our country.

Yes, a very nice campground and a couple to. We rerally loved the surroundings. Plus, we got to see first hand some of the Wildcat's many improvements. We had a great time.

We're at Tallahassee West KOA in Chattahoochee, FL. We'll be here until tomorrow or Saturday. Today we are going to drive down to the gulf to Apalacchicola to do some sightseeing. Will take pix.

Scruffy and Tater wrote:We're at Tallahassee West KOA in Chattahoochee, FL. We'll be here until tomorrow or Saturday. Today we are going to drive down to the gulf to Apalacchicola to do some sightseeing. Will take pix.

I've been told that Up The Creek is THE place to eat in Apalacchicola.

TC

We actually didn't get as far as Apalacchicola. We were coming from the east, stopped in Eastpoint and ate at The Hut, which was recommended by the campground owner. From there we drove across the bridge to St George Island, and spent quite a bit of time there. After that, we headed back home. We saved Apalacchicola for another trip. We'll go to Up The Creek for sure.

Some photos of our daytrip to St George Island, FL.


Driving Hwy 98, heading west. I actually was taking a picture of the bridge in the background, and didn't even know a boat was in the pic until I loaded them into the laptop.


When we were on the way back to the campground, I took this picture of the same boat.








A row of houses - all with a view


St George Island business district

Tater, haven't heard from you in a few days. Must be having too much fun to update.

TC

We were able to visit Apalacchicola and ate at "Caroline's Dining on the River." Gibson's Inn was highly recommended, but the kitchen was under renovations.

St George is a neat little island.