Last night, our Weather Underground app indicated we were in the line of some thunderstorm activity starting right after dark and they were right. We had beautiful blue skies, balmy temperatures and light breezes right up until the front passed through and everything changed right after that. The wind came up to about 50 mph and some serious rain started to fall, giving us about an inch in maybe 15 minutes. We even developed a leak in our trailer where the whistling wind drove the rain right through our living room window. Once the wind dropped down to a velocity that was conducive to standing up outside, the window leak quit and the rest of the trailer was as dry as a bone.
Today we left Vidalia, LA, and headed into Mississippi. We drove north up US-61 toward Vicksburg, MS, and, other than where there were people, it was quite beautiful with abundant roadside wildflowers, great forest scenery and a road making gentle curves through a sylvan landscape. The pastures are emerald green except where it is flooded and there is a bunch of underwater real estate. Where there are people, it is pretty plain that the folks in this portion of Mississippi are not affluent. In Port Gibson there are some spectacular buildings that Union forces made the decision not to burn because it was just too pretty but the rest of the settlements and little neighborhoods along the road appear to be the result of grinding poverty and are ugly.
About 60 miles after crossing the Mississippi River, we pulled into the Rivertown RV Park 5 miles south of the city of Vicksburg where there were numerous skirmishes and some truly horrible battles during the Civil War. Vicksburg itself was the subject of a 49 day siege that ultimately ended up with the locals surrendering before they were pounded to dust.
The Rivertown is a well-kept park with gravel roads, full hookups and wifi of an unknown quality overlooking a small regional airport or alleged airport because, so far, we have seen one helicopter and no planes. The horrible thunderstorms of last night have given way to gorgeous skies but cool temperatures in the 60’s. We will go exploring tomorrow.
There are two pictures showing the two types of terrain we encountered on today’s drive. Click here