Too Much See, Too Little Time

We headed off wishing we could spend more time with the cousins, but also looking forward to grabbing a couple more "High Points". We had to decide whether to go through Memphis, where we could check out Graceland, but more importantly grab some delicious ribs which Uncle Mace made sound oh so delectable or swing south into Mississippi and climb Woodall Mtn, Elev. 806 ft, to stand atop it's highest summit.

Ain't No Mountain Tall Enough

Our latest quest won out and in true Danniells fashion we were poking around the back roads of rural Mississippi. We finally found signs, leading to a gravel road that seemed to "climb" to a summit.


We past this sign at first because we came at it from the other direction. It was a one-sided sign so you can understand the error.



The next sign was easier to find, but did little to convey any level of significance to summit.



But once we got there, we couldn't find anything that said highest point or even Woodall Mountain.



I took lots of pics and today went onto the High Point website and did confirm that indeed the almost unmarked circular drive was indeed the highest point in Mississippi. Apparently they had more important things to spend the state's budget on.

Mississippi

Our first drive through Mississippi was through it's heel and took like 15 minutes to drive. OK, an exaggeration, but today we started across it top to bottom, actually top to half-way down. Because of our high point detour we ended up on various smaller highways and by-ways, including the Natchez Trace Parkway. Unfortunately as beautiful as it was and it was really gorgeous, we really didn't have time to meander, we were supposed to get to Shreveport to have dinner with friends. Friends who by the way put us up in their apartment in New Orleans and were offering us another night's stay in Shreveport where he was working on a movie. Also right off the highway along the way was Louisiana's high point. There was no time to lose.

Vicksburg National Military Park

We had held off having lunch as long as we could. We thought we'd grab a bite in Jackson but ended up jumping on a highway that circumvented the city and on the outskirts of town was nothing worth stopping for, at least not what we could see from the highway at 80 mph.

We pulled off at Vicksburg, desperately needing to eat, but the first thing of the highway was a Civil War memorial boasting the National Park Shield. Well since I had paid for the year membership and it was coming close to expiration I decided to squeeze a bit more out.

We flashed the card, got in for free and before we knew it we were on a one-way road on a 16 mile driving tour of an incredible battlefield. The park was about to close and we were still way behind schedule, but this memorial was awesome. It helped flame an interest in the Civil War for Skye that had been sparked in Atlanta at the Cyclorama. This was just much grander, more real and full of magnificent monuments and canons and the wow, it was awesome and frightening, very, very thought provoking.



Skye dwarfed by one of the many memorials.



This one honored the soldiers were from Wisconsin.



When we traveled through Ireland and Spain and Skye was but a toddler, I have series of shots with her and canons. This is sort of a continuation.



Headed towards the visitor's center to get an idea of what we had just witnessed.

After short-cutting the battlefield, we raced into and through the visitor's center(something I had not planned to do). Our appetites had taken a backseat to history and we were better off for it, no doubt. So we made due with our bag of snacks and water.

We had to skip the Louisiana high point, but since it was so close to Shreveport, we planned to come back for it in the morning, regardless of how much I hate to backtrack.

The evening ended with a wonderful evening out with old pals, reminiscing over the many times we'd worked together, wonderful tales, but a tad boring for Skye.

I have stayed up too late tonight working on this blog, so must go