The hotel I was in didn’t have breakfast on the weekend or at least Sunday – huh? Whatever, I got going a bit earlier and was out the door about 8:15 headed north on 22 towards NOLA. Stopped for a quick breakfast and was on the road right around 9.

My destination today was Vicksburg, MS. Looking at the normal routes it is about a four to four and a half hour drive. Experience from the past couple of days would have me believe sticking strictly to the Great River Road would likely add 3 hours to the trip. Frankly I’ve seen enough of levees for a few days.

Therefore, I cheated a bit today. Once I crossed the river I instead got onto US-61 which is the bulk of the route anyway. So basically I just skipped all the curvy bits between NOLA and Baton Rouge. 61 is still a US highway so goes through towns and subject to stop lights etc. so I think was the right balance for today.

I made it to the Mississippi border just before noon and made it into Vicksburg about 2:15.

The reason I planned to stop here was to visit the National Military Park dedicated to the battle and siege of Vicksburg. You could certainly spend considerably more time here but a couple of hours was enough given the 90F plus temperatures. Was very interesting.

Additionally the park is home to the U.S.S Cairo an ironside that was sunk in 1862, found in 1956 and raised in the early 60s. Amazing to imagine living aboard one of those – I can only imagine how hot, humid, stuffy, and loud that must have been!

After that I checked into the hotel nearby and then headed to dinner. Had a seafood boil with shrimp, crab, potatoes, and corn. Delicious!

Plan for tomorrow is to reach somewhere in Tennessee but still need to review the route tonight.