Our plans for the morning were to travel Route 20 to Vicksburg, Mississippi, then leave the Interstate to spend a couple of hours at one or more of the museums to be found there. Stopping just a half dozen miles outside the city, we did some Internet searches and decided that the museum we'd like to visit was the one that displayed the Union gunboat, Cairo, from the time of the Civil War.
To quote the pamplet, 'Armed Ready for Action,' by Helen Schwartz, "USS Cairo was one of seven vessels of the same design built specifically to cruise the Mississippi river and its tributaries. Those seven warships were designated city-class gunboats. Cairo, Carondulet, Cincinnati, St. Louis (Baron de Kalb), Louisville, Mound City, and Pittsburg, were named for cities and towns along the upper Mississippi and Ohio Rivers."
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"The city-class gunboats were state-of-the-art warships in 1861. Cairo and her six sister ships combined several features that enabled them to change the strategy and tactics of naval warfare on the western waters and impact the duration and outcome of the Civil War. Steam propulsion, iron armor, rifled artillery, a dual rudder system along with a recessed paddlewheel, and the physical characteristics of a riverboat were combined to bring increased protection, maneuverability and firepower as well as give more consistent mobility to these gunboats."
"But now the gunboat was on the bottom of the Yazoo River in 36 feet of water. Over the years, the gunboat was forgotten, and her resting place was slowly covered by a shroud of silt and mud. Protected by this protective ‘cocoon,’ Cairo became a time capsule in which her priceless artifacts were preserved in a largely oxygen-free environment. Her whereabouts became a matter of speculation as members of the crew had died and local residents were unsure of the location."
"Starting in the mid 1950s interest began to grow in launching a search for the nearly century old relic. In 1960 one of the Cairo's canons was located and eventually the entire wreck was found. In 1964 efforts were underway to lift the hull with large cables, but this effort succeeded only in damaging the fragile timbers. Finally, the wreck was lifted from the river in three separated sections and taken to Vicksburg."
"In 1972, the United States Congress enacted legislation authorizing the National Park Service to accept title to the Cairo and reassemble the remnants for display and preservation in Vicksburg National Military Park. Delays in funding halted progress until June of 1977, when the Cairo was returned to the park and partially reconstructed on a concrete foundation near the Vicksburg National Cemetery."
Today Concetta and I had the pleasure of visiting the reconstructed wreck at the Vicksburg National Cemetery Museum grounds. The massiveness of the ironclad is what strikes you first. To quote Helen Schwartz again, "Cairo weighed 888 tons fully loaded, which is 1,776,000 pounds. Her iron armor contributed 122 tons of that weight while her load [canons, stores, coal, and crew] provided 376 tons. Yet Cairo drew only six feet of water, which enabled her to navigate the shallow watercourses of the Mississippi and its tributaries."
We were not only able to photograph the immense vessel, we were actually allowed to go aboard in some places. When onboard you can more clearly view the canons, boilers, and the mechanics of the paddle wheel. We were also able to walk completely around the vessel as it sits in a sort of craddle beneath a giant tent that protects it from the elements.
Inside the small museum we were able to view the myriad of archeological finds from the boat. Everything from weapons of all sorts, to everyday living essentials were skillfully displayed. The Museum devoted to the fascinating boat certainly proved to be well worth a visit
By the time we retreated to the RV it was lunchtime. Little did we know at the time that while we sat enjoying our noonday meal fate was busy plotting quite a different kind of afternoon for us. It actually all began before we arrived at the museum when Concetta programmed her iPhone to choose a route to the Vicksburg National Military Park where the Cairo was on display.
At first I ignored the directions when we were approaching the area as I actually SAW the Visitor Center and pulled into the parking lot. Unfortunately, not only was the iPhone not happy with our choice, but once at the Visitor Center, I could not see a path that would take us to the boat. I did see what I thought was the correct road, but there was a chain baring access.
So, I backed the rig around, and headed back to the entrance. From there we let the iPhone take us to where it thought we needed to go. Unfortunately, after turning this way and that way on a series of tiny residential roads, we ended up facing a weed-grown wooden bridge across a creek.
The bridge clearly said "NO TRUCKS" and stipulated a weight limit of 10,000 pounds. Concetta and I looked at each other, then looked at the bridge. "What do you think?" I asked her.
Concetta just shook her head.
So, with a sigh, I put the truck in gear and sped quickly across the old bridge. We didn't hear any sounds of splitting timbers, so we continued up a steep hill and around several more twists and turns, and finally we arrived at the museum site just in time to see two tour buses descending a hill in front of us, obviously having taken the correct route.
So, after lunch, we decided to not leave via the road on which we had come, but to leave the way the tour buses had come. In retrospect, we would have been better off taking the tiny, winding road with the ancient bridge, for as we ascended to what we thought was the way out all we did is get completely lost in the rolling hills of the Vicksburg Civil War battlefield.
At one point we thought we where headed the right way because the iPhone insisted that we were. But at the end of the road we reached a dead end complete with a gigantic tree that looked as though it might thwart any attempts to manuever around it. Happily I was able get turned around and we retraced our steps to try another route.
But there was a bigger problem brewing. While navigating the route to the giant tree on the tiny park road, I moved aside to let a car pass and accidently clipped the edge of a culvert with the passenger side rear tire. As we continued searching for the route to the entance gate, the tire lost all its air and we were running on only the inside tire of the pair.
When we finally found our way through the park maze to the front gate, we were so happy to be out, that I neglected to check the condition of the tire that had clipped the culvert before proceding. This oversight came back to haunt us before we'd gone very far.
Since the Military Park lay quite close to Interstate 20, we were soon zooming west toward the Mississippi River bridge. But because I have become quite sensitive to the rig's behaviour at speed, I suspected that we had a problem. By the time we passed over that mightiest of American Rivers, I had begun to look for a place to pull over.
Fortunately, we only had to travel a very few miles and the Welcome Center and rest stop for Louisiana came into view. I pulled in, parked, and got out to view what I knew was not going to make me happy. Sure enough, the sidewall of the brand new tire purchased in Tennessee had a shredded sidewall and we had instantly become stranded.
Our current highway rescue service is the same as our auto insurance, and so we picked up the phone and called the Allstate Emergency Roadside Services. Within seconds a nice chap with an East Indian accent took all my information, located our rest stop on his map, and had called a local Vicksburg tow service to come rescue us.
In a little over an hour the tow truck operator had arrived, assessed the problem, and exchanged our shredded tire for the spare. The spare was a little low on air, so once we were on the road again we set our course for the nearest truck repair business where a great guy named Jake filled the low tire and sent us on our way.
But Fate was not done with us yet. It was around this time that I noticed that the running lights that I had just repaired the day before were again not working. Yesteray I thought it was a cracked reflector that was letting in water when it rained. I replaced that reflector, replaced the fuse again, and all the lights worked fine. But that didn't keep the fuse from blowing today.
I told Concetta that we needed to find a camp pronto so we wouldn't be out on the highway after dark with no taillights. So Concetta asked the iPhone for camps in the vicinity and it came up with one called "Sand Lick RV" located just ahead.
Here Fate was about to have great fun with us. The iPhone said that we needed to go to the town of Rayville and get off the Interstate, so we did that. Then it said we needed to go north just 11 miles on Route 425 so we did that. Then it said turn right and go four miles west on Route 134 so we did that. Then it said turn right and go four miles up Route 138 so we did that, too.
At this point, all we could see in every direction was farm land. There were no people, hardly any cars, and the whole expanse around us felt pretty lonely. So when we had done the 4 miles on Route 138 we began to get a bit skeptical. The iPhone then said that we needed to turn right and drive toward the tiny village of Collinston which came complete with a "Speed Trap Ahead" sign in some farmer's field.
When we got to Colliston, the main street was sort of stair-stepped, which made it hard to keep up with the iPhones commands. But we soldiered on. But when our electronic navigator told us to turn left down this dusty track into the woods just outside of Colliston, we called it quits and turned around. The device had just sent us on a twenty mile wild goose chase.
Naturally by this time I was in a cold sweat that we would not be able to find a camp before dark. Hastily we retraced all of our steps until we got to Route 134, then we turned west in the direction of the town of Monroe whose name I had seen on a highway roadsign.
When we got to Monroe, I pulled in for gas at a tiny convenience store and while pumping I asked the customer next to me if he knew of any RV camps nearby. He sort of scratched his head and finally told me no. But when I got back in the cab, Concetta had located a camp in Monroe that proclaimed it didn't have anyone in the office on Sundays, but that we might be able to find a place there.
It was getting toward dusk by then, and we hurriedly headed to Concetta's find before night fell. Naturally, Fate was NOT going to give up on the game quite yet. Just a couple of blocks from the camp, she threw a mile-long freight train in our path just to test how high my blood pressure might rise.
But somehow, when the train had passed, we managed to pull into the "Ouachita RV Park" just before the streetlights came on in the neighborhood. Quickly we found a vacant site, got set up, and breathed a long-awaited sigh of relief. Tomorrow we'll have to find a good tire dealer since I didn't want to drive too long on the spare or be without a spare to use in emergencies.
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