How far South did we go?

 Our southern-most point of the trip was Laurel, Mississippi, home of Ben and Erin Napier and the television show Home Town.  And by this time, my southern accent was getting pretty thick, so keep that in mind while reading this post.  If you don't know, the show Home Town on HGTV is a fun one to watch.  Ben and Erin find someone who is looking to buy an old home in Laurel and they give them a couple of options of homes and what they could renovate it to look like, the person makes their choice and then they do the renovation, so they are fixing up their Home Town.  I don't know what we were expecting exactly, but as we drove into town, we thought, "Ben & Erin haven't been here yet!"  Maybe we came in the back way or something, but we were trying to get to Ben's woodshop, the Scotsman General Store.

The General Store was our first stop and we did see the woodshop, but the whole thing is very touristy.  And there were lots of tourists!  So, that small town feel that you get from the tv show really wasn't there.  We did happen to catch the opportunity to take a tour of the town in this beautiful pink stretch vehicle.  Since this was the warmest we had been on our vacation, it was nice to get in the air conditioning, have a cool beverage (water), and a complimentary moon pie.  Our tour guide was very informative, and drove us through the different neighborhoods showing some of the homes that had been on the tv show.  He also gave lots of history of the town and pointed out several more areas where we should not go because those were bad parts of town.  He informed us that there were 80 air b and b's in Laurel, several of which were homes featured on the show and that they were all booked solid for the next 2 years.  So, a lot of the renovations are not for people moving to or living in Laurel, but are for people from New York or California who can buy a cheap old property, have it fixed up on the show, and then make money by renting it out since it was featured on the tv show.  

Anyway, it was a fun and informative tour.  We got to see several homes that we had seen on the show and then David was able to drive us around to look at them again.  You can see the sign for the Rusty Chandelier in the background of the above photo.  This is one of the places where Erin shops for items used in the renovations.  We did go in there and the Southern Antique Mall, but nothing for sale in either place was older than I am, and I don't consider myself an antique............yet.  So it was a little disappointing.  We also went in some other little shops, but again, it was all very touristy.  This little town (18,000 is bigger than Marshall, so not so little in my book) is making some money from this tv show.  Also, with the number of tourists there, they don't have many places to eat.  We did find a nice local seafood place to eat that evening.  

Since Laurel hadn't really met our expectations, we headed out early Sunday morning to Vicksburg.  Our first stop was the Vicksburg National Military Park.  This is a drive thru park which covers a large area  of the battlefield.  It was interesting, but a little difficult to read the memorials or take photos.  We did stop at this lookout point to see the view............

So, this is not the Mississippi River, but it used to be before the channel changed.  The best part of the Military Park was the USS Cairo museum.  The Cairo was one of the first ironclad warships and was the first vessel to be sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo.  It was discovered in 1956, and since it had been covered by sand, silt, and mud, there was a great deal of stuff preserved.  It was salvaged and items recovered are displayed in the museum.  I took several photos, and David really enjoyed this.  So get ready for a photo dump..........

And sometimes my photos started becoming more like the photos we used to try to get for 4-H photography projects...........

A couple more 4-H photography project shots.......

Again it was pretty hot this day.  After leaving the military park, we went to the children's art park down by the river for lunch.  In getting there, we went down a street (hill) so steep that I think it would rival the ones I hear about in San Francisco.  There were several children playing in the fountains.  I managed to get a photo without kiddos so that you can see the big catfish in the pavement.

We also saw the murals on the flood wall........

And behind the flood wall.............

And the markers for how high the different floods got....

We also toured the Lower Mississippi River Museum.  This was a free museum and very interesting.  The main attraction for David was the river towboat that you could walk through.  He got to see the engines, and everything.  

When we came out of the museum, David looked up this hill and wanted me to take a photo of this old house.........

He was very curious as to the plank extending from the upper window.  We pondered the many possible reasons for such a thing on our way to the Coca-Cola museum.

Why is there a Coca-Cola museum in Vicksburg?  This is the first place where Coca-Cola was bottled.  It was a small museum, but interesting.  We then found a REAL antique mall and spent some time perusing the many items available.  It was there that I talked with a nice lady who was adding things to her booth and got some recommendations for supper.  At the river museum, they were very nice and gave us a list of places, but wouldn't recommend anything.  This lady recommended an open air rooftop restaurant.  Of course, she also recommended an ax throwing place for entertainment, so I was cautious about her food recommendation, but we gave it a try and the food was delicious.

The view from my seat.  I was worried that it would be hot, but they had fans running and it was pleasant.  It was in the top of an old bank building, so the whole thing was very interesting.  We didn't try the ax throwing venue, but instead found a movie theatre and saw the new Top Gun movie.  It was excellent and it was our first experience with recliners in a movie theatre.  We highly recommend this experience.  When we left the theatre, I pointed out that we were parked between 2 cars from Louisiana.  Then David pointed out that we were just across the river, so it was logical.  

So, I would recommend Vicksburg as an interesting place to visit.  Just don't hit it on a Sunday as several things were closed, so we were limited in what we could see.............although apparently ax throwing was available on Sundays!

Christi