We didn’t plan to drive through Vicksburg, MS on this trip. It just sort of happened. Actually, what happened was we had decided to try to make the drive from DeLand, FL to Dallas, TX in 2 days rather than 3 days. This is a distance of about 1,100 miles which means a couple of long consecutive days in the car.
We stopped Monday a little over halfway to Dallas at Slidell, LA. This ended up being a very good choice for both location and logistics. On Tuesday morning I happened to think to check the traffic situation down the road ahead of us for Baton Rogue and discovered that our interstate highway was shut down completely due to a bad accident. Traffic was backed up for miles and not moving. Since we were still far enough away to not run into the back of that parking lot, we took a 50 mile longer route up I-55 to Jackson, MS and then over I-20 from there to Dallas. This route put Vicksburg right in our path and I figured, we might as well make the long day even longer by taking a couple hours to drive through the Vicksburg National Battlefield to see what was to see.
Turned out there was a lot to see. Way more than we could enjoy in just a couple hours, but we did our best to maximize the visit and learn as much as we could absorb in a short time. We’re glad we stopped. It would have been great to spend an entire day there and maybe even longer to see the city and some of the historical sites in the area. We didn’t even see the city of Vicksburg. The topography was different from what I expected. Lots of bluffs and hills. I should have imagined that, but I hadn’t.
Knowing Your ABCDs 