Biloxi, Mississippi May 3 – May 7, 2023
Natchez, Mississippi May 7 – May 11, 2023
Vicksburg, Mississippi May 11 – May 14, 2023
We stopped in Biloxi for a few days. We parked the camper and spent a couple of nights at the Beau Rivage. I sat in the wonderful bath tub every day. I also went to the spa and had an awesome massage. We gambled some and had dinner at Half Shell Oyster House in the Hard Rock Casino. I did not take pictures inside the casinos because I thought I might be arrested! It was a short stop, but we had a good time, and we broke even, which is a win in our book.
Steve and I visited Mississippi on our first vacation together almost 30 years ago. One of our stops was Natchez and we visited again on this trip. We stopped into the visitors center, visited Natchez Under-the-Hill (a strip of shops and restaurants close to the river), and had lunch at The Camp (the food was pretty good). Our campground was right on the Mississippi River and we watched barges going by most days. Steve and I were both recovering from colds (Steve caught the cold first), so we did not venture out as much as we normally would.
Some barges we saw on the Mississippi River from our front door.
Our last stop in Mississippi was Vicksburg, and of course we visited Vicksburg National Military Park. This park was nice. The visitors center was a little short on information, there were no Park Ranger Tours, part of the park was closed for renovations, and the battle itself was hard to visualize because the area changed. I know this sounds like we did not like the park, but we did. The monuments were fantastic. The museum had a few exhibits and a film about the battle. This was less of a battle and more of a siege. Grant described sieges as which side could out camp the other. While Grant won several skirmishes near Vicksburg, Grant forced Pemberton to retreat to the city of Vicksburg and waited Pemberton out until he surrendered. Some think this was one of Grant’s best campaign.
Some exhibits in the museum.
We learned more about the battle/siege after watching a you tube video on the battle (given by Matt Atkinson, the Park Ranger we met in Gettysburg who is from Mississippi) and going to the Depot Museum that had a diorama of the area. The Museum had exhibits of miniature trains, planes, helecoptors etc. It also had a diorama of the battle/siege.
Here are some pictures of the trains.
This is the diorama of the battle field.
We stopped at Key City Brewery and Eatery while in town. The beer here was okay, but the food was delicious. The historic downtown had a cool vibe.
This was our last stop in Mississippi, and now we move to Arkansas
“Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers