March 2, 2008
We decided to vacate the RV for two days and drive the Jeep the 170 miles north to visit Barb’s Uncle Lewis and Aunt Esther in Jackson, MS. We missed the bypass and drove through Hattiesburg which is the home of the University of Southern Mississippi. Brett Favre’s name was posted in many areas. The main street of the town passes in the shadow of the football stadium, definitely the town’s landmark. The landscape was flat land giving way to gentle hills. Again, land that was dominated by cotton plantations in the early 1800’s, is now covered with pines.
Esther drove us out to the Vicksburg Civil War battlefield. This battle, with fewer losses of life than Gettysburg or Antietum, went on for 9 months and ended with Sherman and Grant finally forcing a Confederate surrender. It was the beginning of the end as with the loss of the Mississippi, the South was then completely surrounded, unable to ship supplies. Then Sherman left Vicksburg beginning his march to the sea using the scorched earth policy that burned Atlanta and almost everything else in his path. A unique aspect of this battle was the involvement of the Navy. The Union lost one of its first ironclad ships here. It was not until 1960 that the ship was raised from the Mississippi bed.
We spent much of the weekend with Esther telling Barb old family stories, many about her father Vic. Esther, in her lively humoresque, bounced from one story to another, keeping Barb and me in stitches. I asked her, “So, besides Katrina, what are the leading Mississippi news stories?” “The best one is our boy, Brett (Favre, he grew up in Kiln, near Biloxi). Didn’t he have a fine year? The sad story is Trent Lott. It looks like he was involved in that insurance deal. It is too bad. He did so much for Mississippi. I hope it is not true.” (Trent Lott’s home is in Pascagoula, near where we worked, and his home was totally destroyed by the storm.)
We found the drive pleasant. However, as in Georgia, the logging trucks speed along at about 70 MPH.
We decided to vacate the RV for two days and drive the Jeep the 170 miles north to visit Barb’s Uncle Lewis and Aunt Esther in Jackson, MS. We missed the bypass and drove through Hattiesburg which is the home of the University of Southern Mississippi. Brett Favre’s name was posted in many areas. The main street of the town passes in the shadow of the football stadium, definitely the town’s landmark. The landscape was flat land giving way to gentle hills. Again, land that was dominated by cotton plantations in the early 1800’s, is now covered with pines.
Esther drove us out to the Vicksburg Civil War battlefield. This battle, with fewer losses of life than Gettysburg or Antietum, went on for 9 months and ended with Sherman and Grant finally forcing a Confederate surrender. It was the beginning of the end as with the loss of the Mississippi, the South was then completely surrounded, unable to ship supplies. Then Sherman left Vicksburg beginning his march to the sea using the scorched earth policy that burned Atlanta and almost everything else in his path. A unique aspect of this battle was the involvement of the Navy. The Union lost one of its first ironclad ships here. It was not until 1960 that the ship was raised from the Mississippi bed.
We spent much of the weekend with Esther telling Barb old family stories, many about her father Vic. Esther, in her lively humoresque, bounced from one story to another, keeping Barb and me in stitches. I asked her, “So, besides Katrina, what are the leading Mississippi news stories?” “The best one is our boy, Brett (Favre, he grew up in Kiln, near Biloxi). Didn’t he have a fine year? The sad story is Trent Lott. It looks like he was involved in that insurance deal. It is too bad. He did so much for Mississippi. I hope it is not true.” (Trent Lott’s home is in Pascagoula, near where we worked, and his home was totally destroyed by the storm.)
We found the drive pleasant. However, as in Georgia, the logging trucks speed along at about 70 MPH.
Pictures, Barb and Aunt Esther on the river, the big muddy, graveyard at Vicksburg, and the Cairo, raised from the mud.
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