Vicksburg, MS

While evacuated in Jackson, MS for Hurricane Ike, we ventured over to Vicksburg National Military Park to tour to famous Civil War battlegrounds in Vicksburg, MS. We had a couple of car loads, with Blake Bensen riding with us while his mother Suzann, sister Savannah, and their grandmother followed in the car behind.

I wasn't 50 foot into the drive-thru park when, while attempting to read the inscription on one of the hundreds of monuments located along the drive, I jumped the curb onto to the grass, causing screams from everyone in both cars.

The screams quickly turned to laughter while I gathered myself and tried to keep my eyes on the road. The park design makes that hard to do at times, since many of the less-significant monuments are designed to see from the road and have no particular pull-over. For more prominent monuments there are pull-overs where you can park your vehicle and explore. After our earlier trouble, we soon adopted this method of taking in the park's sites.

We also purchased the driving audio tour at the visitor's center, a narrated CD that is timed to the park's speed limits and explains the monuments your looking at as you drive. This proved very useful and helped us get the most out of the few hours we spent there. The park ends at the cemetery, where therer are several dramatic overlooks of the cemetery and the Mississippi River. I got the shot of Alex & Eric, below, atop one of these overlooks.