Day Twelve, May 2, 2015

Pensacola to Vicksburg MS



Pleasant surprise ALERT, enroute to Vicksburg is a tiny Mississippi town in Jefferson Davis County named Prentiss.  I did not plan to find this town on our trip but when I realized we were passing nearby I insisted on visiting.

Prentiss MS is the birthplace in 1888 of my maternal grandfather Granville Cylvesta Wilkins.  I am pretty sure I am the only one of his descendants who have ever visited the place of his birth.

Just 4 hours northwest of Pensacola is Vicksburg MS the site of the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863.  It took enormous Union casualties to finally conquer Vicksburg and rout the Confederates to retreat to the east.  Only after starving the citizens and the CSA army were the Yankees able to take control of Vicksburg and thus ensure a Union victory overall.  The surrender happened on July 4, 1863 and the city of Vicksburg refused to celebrate Independence Day for the next 81 years.

I slept here.

In Vicksburg we stayed at the historic Cedar Grove Inn with sister Cheryl Grove Mooney and Tim Mooney.  This inn built in 1844 witnessed the siege and has cannonball embedded in the parlor wall.

John, Cheryl, Tim
Ulysses S. Grant slept in this room and so did Cheryl and Tim.

Jasmine fragrance hung over the air...gave us the vapors.

County Courthouse

Tom, John, Cheryl, Tim

Trivial Factoids Followers Should Know

As of Mississippi we have been in 15 states.

We cracked our windshield when a stone hit us between Atlanta and Huntsville AL.

The cheapest gas thus far was in North Carolina($2.19/gal), the most expensive in Florida ($2.65/gal).

We have been in 9 of the 100 most populated cities in the U.S.

Of the 25 smallest states in geographical size we have been in 15 of them.

We have been in 9 of the 11 states that seceded from the Union and soon we will be in the last two.

We have done laundry 3 times and always at the homes of family members.

We have eaten hush puppies in NC, AL, FL, MS, LA.

A truck stop on I-55 south in Macomb LA has fresh flowers in the men's room.

If you follow The Serial podcast we believe Adnan did really murder Hay and should remain in prison.

We witnessed an RV burn to the ground at Pensacola Beach.

Riots broke out in Baltimore less than 24 hours after we visited.

We have observed that Southerners are definitely very friendly and extraordinarily polite....at least to our faces.

There will be a test at the end of the trip