When we laid out our trip, my top request was to get to Jul’s on Saturday so we could have time with the grandkids. Number two was to get a full day in Vicksburg. We just had our full day. It was fine, butt still a bit of a disapointment. We hired a tour guide for the battlefield. In my mind, the tour would go something like this:

“On such-and-such a day, Grant sent a zillion troups up this hill. They got so close that they had hand-to-hand fighting before the confederits pushed them back. Half a zillion federals lost their lives that day.”

What we got was a commentary about which state put up this or that monument plus the names of several generals. The guide realized this, but he just didn’t know what I was most interested in. It didn’t help that we also “learned” that the whites treated their slaves well, the slave issue could have been settled by a vote in congress, yada yada. We thanked him for the tour and he gave us a substantial discount. At least I got to see where many of the battles were fought. Our expectations for the other museums were pretty low, which matched reality.

We decided we wanted to have a little wine-and-snack party this evening. This turned out to be our one unqualified success. Our favorite snack is Snyder’s Honey Mustartd and Onion pretzel pieces. On our fourth store, we found exactly what we wanted. Woo-hoo.

Tomorrow we drive to Bessemer. Bessemer is important because it is half way between Viclsburg and Atlanta, where Danita’s cousin Darlene lives. The hotel is supposed to have an indoor pool. If the pool is open, we will achieve all our hopes and asperations for the day.

Vicksburg has some levy walls with painted scenes. Here’s a picture of the painting of the twin bridges over the Mississippi river. The foreground bridge is for the railroad. I hope this finds everybody doing well.