Vicksburg and Dallas

Saturday July 11

Cole, our little rooster woke us all up around 5am. We were planning on getting up then anyways because we had a long day planned. We drove several hours to Vicksburg, MS and went to the civil war battle site. The had several cannons displayed near the parking lot. We thought the cannons would make a great prop for a photograph.




Outside, there were men dressed in replica military uniforms worn during the war and the talked about the different types of cannon balls used during the war. They had an old cannon that they fired twice a day. We found out it would be going off in about 20 minutes. We definitely wanted to be there for that. To kill time we went into the visitors center/gift shop. There was a little room that had a small replicas of the hospital tents, the uniforms, and the tents they lived in. We listened to a narration of how the Union defeated the Confederates. There was a map of the area with lights representing the two armies that illustrated what was heard on the narration. It was getting to be close to the time of the cannon being fired so we went outside. We knew it was going to be very loud so we stayed pretty far from it. We were standing on the sidewalk outside the visitors center. In front of us was a small grassy hill which Avery and Shalyn climbed up on. Zane started to climb up it too but, then for no apparent reason he started screaming. We looked and his arms were covered in Army Ants and they were stinging the crap out of him. Rob and I quickly brushed them off of him, but between his arms and legs he'd been stung about 50 times. His poor little body was covered in welts. When he tried to climb the hill, he stuck his hand in an ant hill. Today, more than two weeks later, the welts are still there, albeit smaller. A few minutes later, the cannon went off with a thunderous boom. After that, we got into the van and went on the driving tour of the battlefield. After the tour, and a quick potty stop, we hit the road again, destination, Dallas Texas.

After taking a quick look at the map and seeing that we weren't going to be too (ok so it's all relative) far from Arkansas and Oklahoma we decided instead of heading straight for Dallas that we'd take a detour and drive to Arkansas and Oklahoma. From Mississippi, we past back into Louisiana. At Shreveport, we turned North and drove into Arkansas. We drove to Texarkana and had a late lunch/early dinner at Church's Chicken (think KFC). Then we got on interstate 30 and drove west passing into Texas. After a ways, we turned north onto a two lane highway that took us back into Arkansas for about 20 miles before we turned onto a small little road going west towards the town of Tom, OK. We drove about 5 miles past the Oklahoma state line before turning around and getting back onto 30. The whole detour added about 2.5-3 hours onto our day. It was weird going from the beautiful southern landscape into the dry flat lands of Texas in the same day. It was also a trip seeing dead armadillos on the side of the road.

We got to Dallas at about 7pm. Our hotel was literally across the street from six flags amusement park. Avery and Zane wanted to go so badly. But they settled for watching the roller coasters out our 7th floor window. Our Hotel, the Sheridan was really family friendly and we wish we had gotten there earlier. The grounds were beautifully manicured, and there was the biggest hotel swimming pool I've ever seen. That night, they were showing the Jungle Book on the big outdoor screen by the pool. We're mean and didn't tell our kids about it and made them go to bed instead of staying up late and having fun. Cole was being a stinker that night and didn't want to sleep. Rob put him in his stroller and walked the grounds trying unsuccessfully to get him to bed. We finally got him down after 10, and Rob and I followed suit shortly after.

Vicksburg, MS getting ready to light the cannon

Zane's welts