Vicksburg, Mississippi Day 6 (GA457)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.

Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

---

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Monroe, Washington. I’m scheduled to depart September 24th.

 

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

  In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

This entry was posted April 11, 2013…

Note: I’m now expecting to arrive in Memphis around April 14th….about 250 miles north of Vicksburg. Mary has made her flight reservations. She’ll meet me in Memphis on April 16th.

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The motorhome is parked at Moose Lodge #1581. I expect to depart here tomorrow.

 

 

Vicksburg has a very interesting history which you can read about by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicksburg,_Mississippi

 

 

Yesterday I showed some of the murals on the city side of the levee wall at Vicksburg, Mississippi. If you missed that entry, here’s the link…
http://wp.me/pDCku-7KO

 

 

Today I’m going to start out by showing the river side of the levee wall…

 

 

When I was there, the America Queen had just arrived and was tying up. I first saw her in Natchez about three weeks ago. If you missed that entry, here’s the link…
http://wp.me/pDCku-7sG

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The riverboat behind and to the left is a casino. It appears to be sitting on a floating platform and can rise and lower with the river…

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another view. Take note of a grayish panel on the wall directly under an electrical pole…

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the photo of that panel that shows the levels of past floods. By looking back at the above photo you can see just how high the river rose during those floods. That’s sure a lot of water…

 

 

 

 

 

A river tour boat…

 

 

 

 

 

A nearby sign…

 

 

 

 

 

Then I drove south along the river for about three miles where I came to the top of a rise and took these photos. Just yesterday I was reading a book about how the ships in 1862-63 had to run the gauntlet. Some of the fiercest naval/land battles of the Civil War took place here… (double-click to read the printing on the sign)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the river is the State of Louisiana…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short drive further south brought me to the Visitors Information Center where I took these photos…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis…

 

 

 

 

 

General John Pemberton who surrendered Vicksburg to General Ulysses Grant after a 47 day siege…

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t hard to picture scenes such as this one below these cliffs…

 

 

A visit to Vicksburg is a very emotional trip back into history…especially the Civil War. The Vicksburg National Memorial Park is unlike any other Civil War battlefield. I visited the park while here in 2007. If you are not familiar with it, here’s the official government website link…
http://www.nps.gov/vick/index.htm

 

 

And a Wikipedia informational link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicksburg_National_Military_Park

 

 

If you have never visited Vicksburg, I highly encouraged you to do so. It’s a place you will not soon forget.

 

 

Enjoying historical sites is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Mississippi. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

Mary did not post this date.

 

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is thunderstorms and 64 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

 

 

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

Vicksburg, Mississippi Day 5 (GA456)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.

Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

---

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in La Conner, Washington. I’ll depart here later this morning.

 

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

  In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

This entry was posted April 10, 2013…

Note: I’m now expecting to arrive in Memphis around April 14th…. about 250 miles north of Vicksburg. Mary has made her flight reservations. She’ll meet me in Memphis on April 16th.

————————————————————————————————————–

The motorhome is parked at Moose Lodge #1581. I expect to depart here on Friday

 

 

Vicksburg has a very interesting history which you can read about by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicksburg,_Mississippi

 

 

Yesterday I drove the Bronco downtown to Levee Street to view the Riverfront Murals painted on the about 16 foot high levee wall built to protect Vicksburg from a flooding Mississippi River.

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the murals has a plaque describing the mural like this one…

 

 

 

 

 

describing this mural…

 

 

 

 

 

The murals are mostly 12 x 20 feet. Here are some others…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The story of the Sultana in the following mural is really sad, You can read about it by clicking this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a number of other murals which you can read about by clicking this link…
http://www.riverfrontmurals.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Directly across the street is Catfish Row Childrens Art Park where children have done the paintings. There are a lot of them. Here are a few…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vicksburg has done a great job of beautifying the downtown riverfront area.

 

 

Enjoying beautiful murals is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Mississippi. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

Mary did not post this date.

 

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is rain and 66 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

 

 

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

DEVILS LAKE, N. DAKOTA

Cross country Highway 2 is a road warriors dream. The road is good, much less traveled and not full of chain restaurants and mind numbing miles on a noisy, truck laden interstate. Yesterday’s stretch of it had nothing more interesting than the calming green fields, barns, and, trees. I managed to catch a crop duster looking like a plane crashing into the woods, through the window of the motor home while driving.

It was hot and we moved the motor home near a VFW within walking distance of the old part of town.  This 1905 building is on the historic registry along with 46 others in this area.

Devils Lake’s Historic Federal Building is now a Post Office Museum, but only one floor was post office. The upper floor held a Federal Court, a single cell jail and administration offices.

The museum was full of stuff, really full, but almost everything was under glass and hard to photograph. Tribes of Lakota inhabited the area and Dakota I suspect is a Native American name. The docent said they have Indian Pow Wows every September and Native Americans are very active locally. The beaded dress above, for instance, was hand beaded with porcupine quills. Quite a skill. The beads are so small you can’t see them.

Pictures of Sitting Bull and some of the more famous Apaches you can find easily. But Tiyowaste was an important Lakota Chief. There are others in the museum but photographing them under plastic covers gives poor results, but, the museum is worth a visit. Spirit Lake was interpreted by Europeans as a negative and thus was named Devils Lake.

Rather late in the century, someone decided to photograph piles of buffalo bones from the mass slaughter of these magnificent beasts designed to starve the Natives into oblivion.

The museum has a skull, a vertebrae and a third bone (left of skull) that I could not identify. The museum recently hired a professional curator to sort some of the information out.

The docent told us the Federal Courtroom we saw was so new looking because they didn’t have many Federal Lawbreakers. In 1934 it was big news when the first man from North Dakota went to a Federal Prison.

Devils Lake floods often, but over the last two years the lake has grown to thirty times bigger than its original size. Flooded farmers are losing their shirts and they don’t know if they will ever get their farms back. Downstream areas don’t want the silty lake drained into their watershed. N.Dakota legislation is attempting to solve the problem. One tongue-in-cheek organization is trying to get extreme storms named after climate deniers, as in Hurricane Mark Rubio pounded the shores of…or Tornado Michele Bachman destroyed … Of course, that wouldn’t help the farmers but it might wake up some of these anti-scientific mind sets.

I found two items I’d never seen before, this cod liver oil bulk container with a pump. Arrgh!  We had to swallow a teaspoon of that stuff in grammar school in Escanaba. Some kids puked and couldn’t take it. You were instantly given a piece of hard candy afterwards to help.

And, this wooden paddled batter mixer. Wouldn’t do you a bit of good for bread making or cookies.

I didn’t know they had a big ski jump here, but the docent told us it is still used and we could drive over to see it, some distance from town, if we wanted to. I guess in a state where winter weather is 20 degree below every year, skiing and winter sports are big. Brrr! I’m glad I’m now a Californian.

It was hot and I wasn’t up to walking all over town to find those historic buildings. Just what was in my line of site between the museum and the motor home. I don’t know if the building qualified,but the old sign did.

In a store window was this clever picture. These kids used this picture on an announcement. After I returned to the motor home, we moved to the Elks Club for the night. The building owner, a neat lady, allowed us to plug in. Thank you Night Owl Lounge.

STORMING TO MODESTO

Karen and I battled a horrific storm all the way to Modesto Toyota to pick up my Prius with its newly installed battery pack.  The winds and blinding rain made it a slow, careful drive.  It was still raining as we pulled in. And, then the bad news. We drove all that way and my car needs a relay switch and won’t be ready for two or three days. Guess what?  We called and were told the car was ready. I was not a happy camper.

The rain abated somewhat as we headed home.

At one point we had to move to the turn lane because the driving lane was completely flooded. The old truck is high off the ground, but it is never safe to drive through deep water. We estimated the depth at seven to 12 inches in some places.

We decided to seize the day and pulled into a Mexican restaurant, Michoachan. The atmosphere and the food were just right. Cheerful and delicious. Wonderful old pictures on the walls, except they are under glass and none of them turned out very well. This one of Pancho Villa was decent and reminded me of our stop in Columbia, New Mexico earlier this year where we enjoyed the Cabalgata. Especially Mexico’s nearby county sheriff dressed like Pancho Villa with his  marvelous saddle horn in his image.

It is interesting that the picture does not load with the correct pixelation, but it loaded fine in the blog of March 10th of this year if you want to visit the Cabalgata in full.

THREE GORGES

I thought I’d return to  China 2006 with my guests gone for a week. I’m remembering the wonderful buffet breakfasts on our cruise ship. Everything you can imagine. Cold cuts for German tourists, bangors for the English, sushi for the Japanese, bacon and eggs that American’s prefer, and so on.

Chinese tourists eat congee. Wanning Determan, the Chinese wife of Judge Dean Determan, was born in China. She teaches us about typical Chinese breakfast. The average Chinese household  eats congee which is a gruel similar to cream of wheat only made from several grains,  absent wheat or oats or rice. It was kind of bland and sticky and I’m the only one who will try it. The blandness is offset by the condiments of hot spicy pickles, or salty vinegar pickles,  made from an assortment of Chinese vegetables,  and then adding a small piece of dried fish. It wasn’t exactly tasty to my Western palate, but obviously nourishing; the pickles were good.

Also on the trip was Tedd and Audrey Determan. They were a fun foursome and have a fascinating family history. When Poland was overtaken by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia in 1939, word spread quickly through the land. When the boys grandmother got the news, she quickly took Tedd, who was only two years old, (Dean was not home at the moment,) and she broke both of his little fingers with a hammer and then reported to the Priest what she had done to prove that he was a true heir to the Polish throne. “I had heard the story and barely remembered the incident and didn’t give it much thought,  except when my fingers bother me,” explained Tedd, ” until I visited my old village in Poland. A priest knelt and kissed my hands when he realized he was in the presence of the true prince. But, our family had no desire, nor inclination to make any such claims. Besides, Dean is older than me and is the first heir, he just didn’t get the painful “proof” that I did.”

After breakfast, we learned basic Tai Chi and watched a demonstration of acupuncture, and one procedure where  a suction cup is used,  and scrapings of the skin on the affected part is done. The suction cup treatment looked kind of painful and it left a huge red welt on the volunteer’s  back, but he insisted  it felt good. The discussion about Chinese medicine and healing reminded me that in town one day, a healer merely touched Michele Maurer and  told her she had neck problems, which Michele declared was true. The healer spread some oil on her neck and Michele said it felt great and practically everyone on the tour bought some of the oil. (Not me.)

As we cruise the main Yangtze Gorge, we come across a  partially flooded village that has a sign reading 156, the height of the backed up water just reaching  156 meters.

Our guide tells us we will off-load to a sampan for a view of a tributary gorge, one of three that will be flooded by the dam.

This  sampan is much more to our liking than the big ship just lumbering along.

A Chinese man perches in a rudimentary rock dwelling with his camera hoping the boat will stop and allow him to take our picture which he will develop and try to sell to us down the line.  Our boat does not stop.

This group has a portable radio and they sing for us, hoping we will toss them a few coins. Our boat does not stop, but everyone here scrambles to make a living. The Chinese government has not exactly found occupations for all of those displaced by the flooding gorges, we are told. Promises, promises.

The boatman wears rain gear made of a mat of rushes of some type.

Our tour members enjoyed trying on the rain gear and attempting to paddle  the boat up the gorge from a standing position.

Tomorrow, the controversial dam.

IT HASTA BE SHASTA

Its so brilliantly white, just popping up in front of you from the surrounding green, its hard to believe its real. Even through the bug spattered windshield, Mt. Shasta is an imposing sight. We moved from Redding to Rogue River, Oregon. Driving over the Siskiyous is always a beautiful, scenic trip at this time of year. But, Shasta…is Shasta. The most snow I’ve ever seen on her slopes at this time of year.

Lake Shasta, usually has a red soil  line beneath the trees from its all time high level. This is the first time I’ve seen it with the water sloshing up to tree level.

As we got closer, I couldn’t resist shot after shot of this gorgeous mountain.

And the startling Black Butte was equally beautiful, with more greenery than I can remember, and with a slash of snow in a crevice as well.

The State of Jefferson has a bigger sign, freshly painted, most likely reflecting new activity from the proposed new leadership such as Mark Smith who has gone to Washington D.C. three times as a delegate to push their cause.

On my own property in Rogue River, the river was deep and wide with only a small section of white water and one downed tree with a root ball sticking up in the air.

I got my fire suppression arranged so I can sign off when the work is done. Oregon wants a personal certification from the land owner that you’ve complied with the removal of any endangering vegetative fuels. There is plenty of that this year. All is well. I love this place on the river, despite the fact that about half of my   seven acres floods every now and then  according to the neighbors. The mobile and well house have never been under water, though as far back as anyone can remember.