another Road Trip!!

Senior missionaries do have a lot of "flexibility", and are exempt from most of the strict mission rules that the young elders and sisters have to obey.  They figure that if we haven't learned how to be good servants by this time, that there's no hope for any change.  Today one of the young elders asked how we could travel outside the mission boundary - I told him that we just asked the President, and he gave permission - and that he could ask for himself if he wanted to.  HAHAHA

In fact, we are encouraged to visit and learn about the local and regional history.  This is only our 2nd (and last) side trip since we have been here.  We made a 2 1/2 day trip to Vicksburg and Natchez, with a quick dash to Tallulah, LA.  There is a lot of Southern and Civil War history around these areas.  Look up:  Battle of Vicksburg, May 18 - July 4, 1863.  At this time, Vicksburg was the only major site on the Mississippi river that was not in Union hands.  New Orleans, Natchez, and other strategic places had been taken.  There are high bluffs (about 300ft high) right against the river.  Vicksburg had been reinforced by the Confederates with heavy artillery that could prevent Union ships from passing.  Any attempts to slip through were usually made at night, but it was like sailing through a shooting gallery.  U.S. Grant was commanding here and he had W.T. Sherman with him.  The Federals couldn't take the Rebs after several bloody attempts, so Grant started a siege/blockade that lasted about a month, before the rebel troops and the city were nearly starved out, then they surrendered.  Now the Confederacy was cut in two, and the entire Mississippi river was controled by the Union.  Note that the Battle of Gettysburg was going on at the same time:  July 1 - 3, 1863.  Bad, bloody days for America.  From here, Sherman started his famous (or infamous) March to the Sea, through Atlanta, where he burned or destroyed most everything he came across in an attempt to deny the Confederacy the means to continue the war.  He is still hated here, more than any Union general.

Anyway, as you can see, Sister Johnson is always interested in the local flowers and plants, and of course the Antique Shops, of which there are many.

One of hundreds of guns that the Confederates had in Vicksburg.  There is a National Military Park here, with a visitor's center and 17-mile driving tour around the entire length of the Confederate defensive line protecting Vicksburg. 

Our missionary badges attract attention.  The occupants of this car thought that missionaries have lots of money, and that we should give some to them.  Unfortunately, we get this type of request occasionally, and we feel bad that we can't solve their problems.  There are means in place from various sources to assist, but handing out money on the street isn't one of them.

Here we are enjoyin a Coke, in the Coke Museum.  Down here, all soft drinks are "Cokes".  When we first got here, this was the conversation when we went out:  Waitress:  "What would you like to drink?"  Me:  "A Coke".  Waitress:  "Ok, what flavor Coke do you want?"

This is the former All Saints Episcopal Girls School in Vicksburg, where our good friend Carol Vogel went to high school.  It was a boarding school.  They started admitting boys in 1971 (must have been their downfall, as they closed the school in 2006).  It has since been sold, and is now either a super-secret CIA training facility, or an Americorps campus (domestic Peace Corps).

The Mississippi is a "working" river, and still a major transportation route for goods moving to/from the Gulf to the interior of the country.  Many heavy barges are constantly seen going up and down.  It's also used for recreation, as evidenced by this launch area for fishing boats. 

Note the "Steamboat" in the background.  It's really a casino!  The laws say that if a casino is located on a navigable waterway, that exempts them from some state regulations, and makes licensing and operating easier.  So the clever operators build casinos shaped like old-time steamboats (for nostalgia) on the water to get around whatever laws prevent their being built on land.  There are "floating" casinos like this all up and down the major waterways.  Some are actually on boats.  The hotels associated with the casinos are all built on land, adjacent to the floating casinos, as building costs and engineering considrations are obviously more favorable.