Monday June 27

We are packed up and ready to leave Lake D’Arbonne at 7:30 this morning.  Wonders never cease! The cicadas are quite this morning.  We wonder what is happening or if they just don’t get up this early and stay up late.   We wandered through the bayous and villages, on country roads as Rosemary leads back to Interstate 20 E to Vicksburg MS. 

In a little while we tried to find a place for breakfast and Rosemary took us to Tallulah, LA.  A very small town, but once again we struck out.  (I think that Rosemary enjoys these extrusions off the Interstate). 

Rolling along on the interstate, we near Vicksburg and one huge river.  We are sooooooo dumb it is the Mississippi.  Wow is it huge and fast.  Cross over from LA to MS and into Vicksburg.  We are trying to stop each day at a museum and today we decide that the Court House would be our destination. 

The stately Court House graces the top of a hill in downtown Vicksburg near the Mississippi River.  The bell tower is perched on top of the building like a ballerina of a girls jewelry box.   The Court House was rebuilt in 1856 and stands proudly as a monument for a city that withstood a 47 day siege by the Union forces. 

As we entered the Court House, a young man (Rusty) at the front desk engaged us in conversation.  We kept talking just to hear his accent.  He suggested that we start in the “Confederate Room” (Not surprisingly we never found a “Union Room”)  We walked in holding many western prejudices about southerners and their reluctance to give up slavery and walked out with a new sense of sympathy for the people caught in that horrible war.  In this museum there was much more than rifles, bullets and cannonballs in the display cases.  The stories of the heroism of the citizens as well as the soldiers was told through newspapers articles and personal letters.  The southern perspective was never laid out like this for us in school. (History by those who won.)  This is not to suggest at it changed our mind about slavery just that there was more it than that. 

Upstairs was the court room.  (There were very comfortable swivel chairs for the jury and church pews for the observers and the prosecution and the defense attorneys sat at the same table.  I am not sure but there seems to be a message in the layout of the room.) 

Also there was a room devoted to Jefferson Davis and his wife, the only president of the Confederacy and his 1^st Lady.  He was elected President without his running for the office.  He reluctantly accepted and took on the task proving to be a very capable politician and president.  After the war he was imprisoned and released after 2 years.  He never recanted the cession of the south because he had been taught at West Point that this was a legal process and he had done nothing illegal.  Because of this he lost his Constitutional Rights (to vote, etc.) but was still elected and served in several public offices including Senator.  

After looking through the museum we asked Rusty about a place for lunch.  He sent us to an eastern/southern chain called Heavenly Ham.  They make sandwiches and actually had a veggie sandwich.  The to-go box lunch suited our need to get on the road.

We are driving Lake D’Arbonne ½ way through Louisiana, all the way across Mississippi, and ½ way through Alabama today to Kathy Sproles house in Tuscaloosa.  We are amazed at how many states one can travel through in a day.  Everything gets greener and greener.  Pine woods line the highway. 

Around 4:30 we pulled into Kathy’s house to hugs and kisses.  Then it was off to Wintzell’s a favorite fish house along the river.  Great food (Fried Pickles and Key Lime pie) and then back to the house for more conversation and eventually off to bed.