Vicksburg, Mississippi

 

As I mentioned in my last post we stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi for a few days as part of our southern swing.  We left Vicksburg yesterday, Tuesday, and are now just down the road a bit in Vidalia, Louisiana.  We did some sightseeing while in Vicksburg as it is the site of one of the most important battles of the Civil War.  But before I get to that I have to mention our meet up with a former co-worker of mine.

On Monday afternoon a motorhome pulls into the space next to ours and, as I usually do, I look out the window to watch them set up.  As I see the guy setting up his utilities I say to myself that he sure looks like Dennis Wilson and then I notice the license plates on the vehicles are Indiana, which is where Dennis lives.  He then turns around and my observation is confirmed, it is Dennis and his wife.  I go outside to say hi and learn that he had read my blog and Facebook check-in and decided to stop in Vicksburg on their way back to Indiana from Texas (they are snowbirds).  What a surprise.  They stayed a couple of nights which allowed us to spend some time catching up. 

As for Vicksburg, the town touts a historic downtown area which is nice but so many of the shops are vacant.  It appears the town is trying as it is a nice area, but they need to get the businesses to come.  There are 5 casinos in the area, plus the military park, so I would have to believe that they do get a fair amount of tourist traffic.  We drove the town then headed to the military park. 

As background, Vicksburg was where an important Civil War battle was fought by General Grant of the Union and General Pemberton of the Confederacy.  The defeat of the Confederacy in this battle allowed the Union to take control of the Mississippi River and cut the confederacy in two.  The military park is one of the most organized ones we have visited. The tour road takes you first through the Union lines with the areas of encampment clearly marked with markers explaining who was there.  You then end up on the Confederate side of the battle lines with their markers.  You get a great appreciation for the field of battle, the terrain, and how close they were.  Throughout the park are markers and monuments for tribute to the various units that fought and died in the battle.  Very interesting place to visit.

Entrance to the park.

This is the largest monument in the the park.  The Illinois monument.

A restored Civil War gun boat, the Cairo.  The display includes many pieces actually from the sunken boat.

In search of warmer weather!

 

It has been a couple of weeks so lets get caught up.  When I last left you we were in West Memphis, Arkansas trying to organize our new trailer.  I think we have finally succeeded in getting that done.  We are still opening cabinets to find things but slowly we are getting into a routine.  While in West Memphis we identified a couple of issues with the rig that we needed to get resolved.  The first involved one of the window shades.  I went to pull down one of the shades and it came down but would not retract.  It sounded like a spring had snapped inside.  I took the shade down to see if there was a way to roll it back up and get tension back but was unsuccessful.  I called the company that makes them and they decided the shade needed to be replaced (under warranty) and would send us one within a week. 

The second issue was with the slide that the TV is in.  The slide was crooked when it was out causing a gap of over an inch and not allowing the slide to seal properly.  This concerned me if it rained.  I contacted our dealer to get their thoughts and how to handle it.  Fortunately there was a Jayco dealer just 20 miles away outside of Memphis in Mississippi.  Our dealer made arrangements with the Mississippi dealer to look at our slide.  This past Monday we packed up and drove to the dealership where they adjusted two of our slides so that they seated properly.  I had already made reservations at an RV park across from the dealership for us to stay a couple of nights in case the repair took longer than anticipated.  We were in Southaven, Mississippi.  The weather warmed up slightly, into the 60’s, but was still close to freezing each night.  Our plan was to continue south to find warmer weather.

On Thursday we left Southaven to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Just before we got to Vicksburg I stopped off the highway to use the restroom in our trailer and noticed that the TV in the living room was sticking out of the cabinet.  This is a 60 inch TV that is on a motorized mount that goes down into a cabinet.  I went back and checked and saw that one side had come off the mount.  Oh boy, this did not look good!  We were only 30 miles from the RV park in Vicksburg and the TV seemed secure so we moved on.  We arrived at the park and set up then I took a look at the TV issue.  We were able to get the TV off the mount and figured out what happened.  It appears the mount was not properly seated when it was installed causing one side to jump off when we hit a bump.  Fortunately it did not cause any damage to the TV but it was a chore to get the TV off and then properly seat it back on the mount as the cabinet is high and the TV is large.

The replacement blind arrived and we got it installed.  Now that leaves one last issue, a gremlin in our microwave/convection oven.  Back when we were in West Memphis the microwave began to act up in that the touchpad would freeze at times and not allow you to input anything.  To reset you had to unplug the unit and plug it back in.  This is a little hard as the plug is high up.  We did this a few times a day and it was annoying.  I went online to Samsung to ask them if there was a setting or something else that I could do to resolve the issue.  They mentioned to do the unplug thing and to check some settings but other than that they gave me information on how to submit a service request.  I changed some of the settings and this resolved the issue for a couple of days and then it came back but now the light and fan under the microwave would come on without us doing anything to the unit.  I have let our dealer know of the issue and how they, or Jayco, want to proceed on resolving the issue.

Meanwhile we have found some warmer weather.  We arrived in Vicksburg and it was around 70 degrees and will be in the high 70’s for the weekend.

From here we plan on doing some sightseeing of the Vicksburg area then move to Natchez, Mississippi to check out that town.  From there we will go to Lafayette, Louisiana and then to New Orleans before we head to Nashville and then Knoxville for a month.

Route: From West Memphis, Arkansas we took Interstate 55 to Southaven, Mississippi.  From there we continued on Interstate 55 to Jackson, Mississippi where we took Interstate 20 to Vicksburg.  In Vicksburg we picked up US 61 south to our RV park.

We made it …… and left!!

 

When I last left you we were almost to Joliet, Illinois to pick up our new rig.  We sped up our trip to avoid a winter storm that was going to hit our route.  We made it to Indianapolis last Friday and spent the night (cold, but no snow).  On Saturday we drove into Joliet with no weather issues and dropped off our old rig at Rick’s RV and then checked into a hotel right next to the dealership.  We got to see our new rig for the first time and we were really excited with how it looked.  This new model is 6 inches wider with a bowed ceiling so the interior feels very roomy.  The plan was to complete the sales paperwork on Monday while they prep our new rig, move the satellite dish from old to new on Tuesday and for us to move all our stuff on Wednesday. 

The storm did come and dumped over 5 inches of snow in the Chicago area.  The route we had taken was hit hard by ice, so we most likely would not have been able to make the drive if we kept to the original plan.

Our plan went off without a problem and the staff at Rick’s did a great job on the satellite install (to my specifications) and were able to make a spot under the sink so we could hide our trashcan (Fran was very happy).  It snowed another 2 inches on Tuesday and the temps were in the teens everyday.

We moved all our stuff on Wednesday.  Amazing how much stuff we still have with such limited space.  Since we had limited time (another snow storm approaching) we did not organize any of our stuff.  We just put it wherever it would fit.  Wednesday night we had a great reunion with our wine group at a local restaurant in Naperville.  We had a great time catching up with everyone.

On Thursday we picked up our rig when Rick’s opened and went in seek of warmer weather.  We did not like the cold!  We made it to Benton, Illinois.  The first RV park we stopped at only had two spaces available as their park was saturated with snow and ice from the storm.  The two available spaces would be a problem in the morning when we went to leave as the roadway would be ice.  We left that park and went to the KOA park down the road.  This is the same park where we first stopped when we started our “Life on the Road:.  This park was in a little better shape and was able to accommodate us.  We set up easily and I was very happy with the automatic leveling system.  Just push a button and watch the rig level itself. 

Our first night we identified a couple of issues, nothing major, but they will have to be addressed by the dealer.  It was still cold in this area and the park was very sloppy from the ice storm so we continued our journey south and made it West Memphis, Arkansas to our favorite park, Tom Sawyer’s.  The park is a little muddy but our site is a concrete pad so not so much an issue.  We plan to stay here for at least a week to organize our new rig.  The weather is in the 60’s with highs in the 70’s next week.  The Mississippi River is high so I don’t know how much longer the park will be open.  As the river rises with the snow melt the park will flood as it does every year around this time.

 

Route:  From Joliet, Illinois we took Interstate 55 south to Interstate 80 east.  From I-80 we picked up Interstate 57 south to Benton, Illinois.  From Benton we continued on I-57 south to I-55 south into West Memphis, Arkansas.

Almost There

It has been more than two weeks since my last post so let me get you caught up.  When I last posted we were in Las Vegas to attend the wedding of our friends daughter.  What a beautiful outdoor ceremony and we decided to go the formal route with me wearing a tux and Fran wearing a beautiful black dress.  Here are the “trailer people” all cleaned up.

The big item, literally, that I wrote on in my last post was that we had purchased a new fifth wheel, a 2015 Jayco Pinnacle, and that we had to drive to Joliet, Illinois to pick it up. So, beginning on January 18th our journey began to Joliet with the plan to arrive on March 4th. 

First stop was Winslow, Arizona.  You know, “Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”  from the Eagles (70’s reference).  Actually we stayed outside of town at an RV park near the Meteor Crater park.  For those of you not familiar with this area there is big hole in the ground near Winslow where a meteor crashed into earth thousands of years ago.  Just off the interstate on the road to the crater is a very nice RV park, so we stopped for the night.  290 miles driven.

Next stop was Albuquerque.  We stayed for two nights here as we had not previously done any sightseeing in this area and we had to do our laundry.  The problem was it was really cold and really, really windy.  The first night there was a wind warning with gusts up to 70 mph.  Fortunately we had no issues.  We did go see the Balloon Museum and walked around Old Town where we had a nice lunch.  Being outside was not fun with the cold wind.  290 miles driven.

Next stop was Amarillo.  This stop was for the entire weekend so I could watch all the NASCAR Daytona races.  The weather was a little nicer during the day, but still only in the 40’s with it getting below freezing at night.  298 miles driven.

As I looked at the weather on our route I decided we needed to speed up as the potential for getting caught in snow and/or ice was a strong possibility.  Our next stop was Checotah, Oklahoma.  We had stayed here back in October on our way west.  This was just an overnight stop and we are now officially into very cold weather.  The days barely are getting to 40 and the nights are always below freezing.  At every stop I have to make sure to keep our water tanks full as we cannot connect up to the park water.  370 Miles driven.

Side note.  The normal route would have been to go north at Oklahoma City to get into the Chicago area but we were taking a little longer route so we could stop in Nashville to visit with our friends, pick up the other two dining table chairs for our trailer that are stored at their house and put some items into storage.

Next stop was our old favorite, West Memphis, Arkansas, Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River Park.  With the weather so cold nobody was here.  We have never seen the park so deserted.  The river level was up but the barge traffic was minimal and it was so cold you really did not want to venture outside.  We stayed for two nights so we (Fran) could do laundry.  350 miles driven.

Next was Nashville, Tennessee.  We made it in on Thursday afternoon and had planned to stay until Saturday morning.  In fact we paid for the two nights but I continued to monitor the weather and a storm, called Titan, was making its way east and would be hitting our route through Indiana into Illinois just as we were hitting the road on Monday morning.  The potential for ice and accumulated snow was high.  As a result we decided to leave on Friday morning.  We had dinner with our friends and took care of our storage needs and moved on.  232 miles driven. 

The storm was projected to hit Sunday evening into Monday morning and the distance from Nashville to Joliet is about 450 miles so I found a nice park in Indianapolis for us to spend Friday night and then we would go into Joliet on Saturday, two days earlier than our revised plan.  270 miles driven.

As I write this we are in Indianapolis and have spent the last night in our current rig.  The weather looks OK for the drive into Joliet although they are getting some snow there today.  If everything goes as planned we will be in Joliet until Thursday, staying in a hotel, and then will head south in seek of warmer weather.

Here is a picture of our new rig.

Route taken:  From Las Vegas we picked up US 93 which took us to Interstate 40 east.  We followed Interstate 40 all the way into Nashville where we picked up Interstate 65.  From Interstate 65 we will pick up Interstate 80 into Joliet.