The Great River Road

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The day started in Vicksburg with a stop by the Cedar hill cemetery. We came upon it quite by accident and it was interesting.
Cedar Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the United States that is still in use today. It is also the final resting place for the Confederate Soldiers of the Civil War. A section in the Cedar Hill (Vicksburg City ) Cemetery was set aside to provide a fitting burial place for Confederate soldiers who died of sickness or wounds. Known as "Soldier's Rest," the plot in Cedar Hill Cemetery is the final resting place for an estimated 5,000 Confederate soldiers.
Once again we picked up the Great River Road. It's interesting that it's called the Great "River" Road because we saw the Mississippi only once during the day. The road passes through very flat open farmland where there were miles and miles of corn, soy beans and cotton. Other than farms, there is nothing out there. No gas, no bathrooms. Actually we did find one bathroom in the park of a tiny little town. It was the some thing or other memorial park and I have to say it was memorable alright but for all the wrong reasons. It was one of those type of bathrooms where you hold your breath and don't sit. However, when one is desperate, anything will do. If we came across a town it was incredibly tiny. The town of Grace for example consisted of one farm store. We couldn't see anything else around. An old joke comes to mind. "The town was so small that the welcome to and come again signs were back to back".
At one point we saw a little lake or reservoir that had hundreds and hundreds of white ibis. I've never seen so many in one place.
It was a very hot day with hazy but sunny skies. The highest temp we saw on the car temp gauge was 94 and the car was in the shade. It's a much more dry heat than in Florida but still hot.
I saw an old shack which was literally falling apart and yet had laundry hanging on a line across the front porch. Another broken and abandoned house had a little cemetery beside the house. The grass was freshly mowed and the cemetery looked well cared for but we wondered by whom because there was nothing around for miles. Another odd thing was a little row boat with two mannequins holding fishing rods. It looked as if they were on a green lake.
Frank was seeing different things. He remarked that the power lines had triangulated cross arm construction with the neutral framed 40 inches below.
Now that didn't mean anything to me but he found it quite interesting.
Mississippi has a lot of casinos and is also a "smoking state". It took me by surprise when we were asked if we wanted smoking or non smoking seating in the restaurant. We drove about 350 miles from Vicksburg and have stopped for the night in Southhaven just south of Memphis Tennessee.
Tomorrow we plan to see Graceland before we travel on.

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