22nd April...Lower Mississippi River Museum & The National Military Park, Vicksburg...

First visit today is back to Downtown Vicksburg and the Lower Mississippi River  Museum and Interpretive Site...
Very interesting and informative film before a self guided tour of the museum...a really good insight into the geography, the peoples who lived and worked not only on the Mississippi but also the other rivers in the Mississippi Delta and the role of The Corps of Engineers who maintain and develop the river...
This is the Motor Vessel Mississippi IV which served as a workboat for the Corps between 1961-1993, now an interactive exhibit.....set up much like HMS Warrior & Victory in Portsmouth....

Hmmm...disappointment for Yorkieman as the bridge docking simulator is not working today...

From The River Museum we move on to the vast National Military Park on the outskirts of the town.....
Vicksburg was a strategic port on the Mississippi during the Civil War...

First stop is the U S S Cairo Museum....

The Cairo, pronounced K-ro, in these parts, was a Union ironclad gunboat sunk in 1862 during the Civil War and raised from The Mississippi in the 1960's....... 

The Cairo and this area remind us very much of Historic Old Portsmouth and Portsdown...

It's a 16 mile drive interpretive drive through the park...information boards, state regimental markers, monuments and tablets.... 

The Illinois Memorial...there are 47 steps up to the memorial, one for each day of the siege of Vicksburg....

We were really surprised when we entered the building that the "ceiling" is open to the elements...we have not been able to discover why this should be but does not seem to have any detrimental effect on the marble floor...

The Shirley House....Union troops called it "the white house" it is the only surviving wartime structure in the park....

Each state has placed a memorial in the park....the Union states being the first to fund memorials as the southern states were bankrupt after the war......

We've had an interesting, informative and enjoyable day, helped by a beautiful day weather wise...home for a cup of tea  and the most amazing thunder storm with rain so heavy we had a river under the trailer, thank goodness for being in a good campsite with concrete pads.... very windy too, we can see how tornadoes can develop so quickly....the river under our rig swept away our outside doormat and one of the wheel chocks, both recovered later.....
Meanwhile I happen to switch on the kettle with no water in it !! Something to be said for a cheap Walmart kettle, it is still working perfectly.....I am not sure I would recommend this form of cleaning the calcium from the element but it worked for us !!!!
More soon all being well from
The Soggy Campers.....