On Saturday, we drove about 180 miles from the Shreveport Elks Lodge to Vicksburg, MS.  A much more reasonable distance for a days drive as compared to the last leg of our eastward journey that I wrote about in my last post.

Our AllStays® iPhone app turned us on to the Ameristar RV Park.

Nice pull-thru sites with 50 Amp power, water, and sewer hookups.  We paid $50 for two nights after our Passport America® discount was applied.

On our first evening after pulling into the park, we disconnected the Silverado and drove around Vicksburg to check out the sites…

We followed the ‘Scenic Drive’ signs around old downtown.

Click on this link (HERE) to see more details on walking and driving tours in Vicksburg.

We walked along the Vicksburg Riverfront Murals that are painted on the backside of the river levee wall.  Pretty awesome.

Then we drove back to the Ameristar Casino to check out the buffet and support the local economy 🙂  The casino is located right on the Mississippi river and across the street from our RV park.

After a good nights rest, we drove straight over to the Vicksburg National Military Park (←link).  Be sure to check out the link to the national park service website.

The first thing we did was stop at the Visitors Center and watch the video presentation in their theater.  A must-see for anyone touring the park.

Then we drove through the park to check out all the battlefield sites and monuments.  I think I read somewhere that the driving loops through the battlefield are about 16 miles.

Our driving tour began at this arch (below).

It was a little over 4 hours later that we finished the loop(s) and got back to the visitors center.  It was awesome… a must-see if you’re ever in the area.

We were surprised to see that even a couple of RVers in their 5th wheel trailers were taking the battlefield driving tour (below).

The road first took us along the Union battle lines with markers and monuments at all the trenches and significant battle sites.  Then the road loops around to take you along the confederate battle lines with many stops at the fortifications, i.e., redans and redoubts.

At the northern side of the battlefield loop we visited the USS Cairo museum.

The USS Cairo was one of the first iron clad warships built for the Union Navy at the beginning of the Civil War.  It was sunk by torpedo 7 miles north of Vicksburg and was finally recovered in 1964.  Read more at the NPS website (HERE).

The USS Cairo Museum has two ranger-guided tours daily and we were fortunate enough to have been on time for the 2PM tour.

After the USS Cairo tour we drove through the Vicksburg National Cemetery which holds the remains of 17,000 Civil War Union soldiers, a number unmatched by any other national cemetery.

After our driving tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park we found a Chinese buffet to eat a late lunch/early dinner then we drove around old town Vicksburg some more and ended up at the Cedar Hill Cemetery and Soldiers Rest.  Commonly known as City Cemetery, graves in the sprawling graveyard represent more than 150 years of history in Vicksburg.  A section of the Cedar Hill Cemetery contains the graves of 5,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the Siege of Vicksburg.

I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did.  I wish we could spend a little more time here but it’s time to move on.  Our youngest daughter is waiting for us in Bowling Green, KY.  On Monday we’ll move eastwards for an overnight in Tuscaloosa, AL and then we’ll meet up with some old friends and Alpine Coach Owners (Tom & Johnna Phillips) in their new (to them) homestead near Birmingham, AL.  Stay tuned…