Well after a day of family, fun and rain in Pensacola, we headed out on the second leg of the trip: Pensacola to Vicksburg. We went to sleep Saturday night to rain, thunder and thinking Sunday might be a bad day to travel. Woke up early (being in the Central Time Zone helps) and got on the road under clear skies.

We drove from Pensacola to Jackson, Miss via Mobile and US-98. I once again passed by the USS Alabama in Mobile. One day I want to stop. I’ve wanted to visit the USS Alabama since I was about five years old and we used to go to Loxley, AL to visit my aunt. At that time I-10 was plastered with “See the USS Alabama” signs. I never could convince my Mom to go, and I’ve never gotten off my lazy butt as an adult to go. One day.

We stopped in Jackson to visit Millisaps College. This is the place that Lady CurbCrusher headed after high school and spent some time. Since I’ve made Little CurbCrusher visit the University of West Florida on more than one occasion, Lady CurbCrusher only thought it was proper to make a stop at her favorite college. There was really no place to park the motorhome, but the nice folks at the Cabot Lodge which is located adjacent to the campus were kind enough to let us park out back for a couple of hours.

After that stop, it was short trip over to Vicksburg. We put in to the Ameristar RV Park, which is associated with the Ameristar Casino right across the street. The park seems nice enough, all the sites are pull thrus and have water, electric and sewer. You get a picnic table and there is a small pool by the office. The only drawback seems to be the railroad tracks that run behind the park. It’s only eight-thirty and I hear the third big train of the night coming through. This might be a long night.

We got here early enough to head over to the Vicksburg National Military Park this afternoon. We had planned this for tomorrow morning, but our early start this morning let us go ahead on over today. We visited both the main Visitor’s Center and the USS Cairo, along with driving the road tour. While I’d heard of the Battle of Vicksburg, and was familiar with the park being here, I was unaware of the USS Cairo. This is an ironclad river boat that was sunk during the Battle of Vicksburg. It was recovered in the 60’s and restored. The exhibit of the boat itself is impressive, but even better is the collection of artifacts that were recovered from the boat.

Tomorrow starts the third leg of our trip, which will take the next three days: Vicksburg to the Grand Canyon.