Hey Ladies and Gents-

I'm planning a cross-country road trip of anywhere between 4-8 weeks, leaving some time in mid-late April.

One of the states I'm going to be visiting is Mississippi.

So far, I have the following on the list of things to *potentially* see in your state.  I'm not sure I'll get to all of them, but I want to solicit suggestions about things I should see or avoid.
I'm particularly interested in stuff that people might not know about or remember that has historic significance.  For instance, in Louisiana I'm visiting the site where Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down.  In that case, it's just a small monument on a dirt road, but it's an interesting part of history.

• Vicksburg Battleground

Any advice at all is welcome.  Things to see, places to avoid, roads to use and not use, trails for off-roading, camp sites, etc.

One thing I won't be doing is shooting, and I don't really intend on visiting FFLs or anything like that.  I have a limited amount of time for certain states and can't waste that in gun shops.

I plan on sleeping in the back of the car for 2-3 days, then getting a hotel for the night, then going back in the car.  As a result, I'll need recommendations for cool camp sites with views, etc.

Any information about Covid restrictions is also helpful with regard to closures of parks or businesses.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Go to the website, only in your state. Itll hell you out a good bit.

You mentioned Vicksburg. Are you going to be in the lower part exclusively? If not, ride the Natchez Trace up to Tupelo and see Elvis' birthplace.

I'm not set on anything in Mississippi at the moment.  It's wide open, and any recommendations are welcome.  Thanks for those ideas.

Spend some time in Natchez, just to eat if nothing else.

We don't have any "covid restrictions" in most of the state, but Natchez has a lot of carpetbaggers so they might still be in panic mode.

I would not sleep in my car in Jackson. Most of the suburbs are OK though. If you are in the metro area shoot me a message and we can grab a bite or something.

The middle of nowhere gas stations will have some of the best food around also.

Great advice, thanks.  I'll keep you in mind

  Holler if you do come up to NE MS, hopefully we can grab a bite and a beer or something.

The Vicksburg Military Park is huge. Getting in and out of your car and walking to look at the first dozen monuments can take a full day.
If you have never been there before,  do not stop at any of the first monuments. Stop by the visitor's center and get a map.
Drive directly to the Illinois Monument.  It is the one with all the stairs and the dome roof  Go inside it.  It is a work of art.
Second, drive to the Cairo Museum to see the gunboat Cairo and the attached museum with all the artifacts that came up when the Cairo was raised.
Third, And I cannot remember whether it is before or after the Cairo, go up on Fort Hill to see the magnificent views of the Mississippi River and approaches.
Then drive back all the way through the park again and see the less important things that would have wasted all your time.
Sometime around the late 1960's, Yankees reversed the traffic flow through the park, so that visitors would waste all their time going through the Federal sides lines and run out of time before they got to view the Confederate lines and monuments.  In the old days, you exited through the memorial arch that you now enter the park through.  Most people never see the Confederate lines.
Sadly, the last generation of real historians that worked at the park have retired and the present employees do not seem to know anything about the history of the park.
Edwin Bearss spent the first years of his career there as a guide for VMP and was instrumental in raising the Cairo.
Pack a lunch and eat in the park.  You will not have time to go out to eat in town.
I have not visited the park in quite a few years.  I live about an hour away.
Message me if you want a local to tour with you or if you have any questions.
A friend of ours was a certified guide for the park and can do the tour in three different languages.
The trouble with his tours is he wants to take three days and start at Port Gibson where the campaign really started.
He might tag along too if you wish to have your brain loaded with more history than most people can stand.
There are some cool bed and breakfasts in town that survived the war but are rather pricey.
There is one that still has the cannon ball hole through the main hallway.

(One thing interesting about the Bonney/Clyde site is the people in the town where they stopped to get sandwiches at a café just before the ambush were shocked at the bullet holes in their fairly new car.  I always wondered if this was really the tip that put the Hamer group in the right place at the right time and not Melvin acting as an informant.)

Also, Jerry Skinner on youtube has many videos about little known historical events and places in Mississippi.

Here is an example of one of his videos.

Will do!  Sounds like it could be a good time.



This is fantastic intel, thank you.  I know I'm going to come back to this post when I really start to hammer out some specifics as far as a route is concerned.




I'll check some of his videos out, thanks!

UPDATE:

I've postponed the trip until around mid-June.  I currently have covid, which makes a postponement absolutely necessary.  My father also has it and is in the ICU.

I'll touch base again on this when I get through some of this.

Prayers sent for your dad.

Fellas, the trip is off.  My father passed away from Covid a few weeks ago.  My spirit for this sort of thing is just smashed, and I have no idea when I'm going to get around to thinking about it again.  

I want to thank everyone I've talked to in this thread and via PM for their recommendations and information on your state.  I hope that maybe one day, I can plan this again and meet up with a few of you along the way.

My best to all of you.

So sorry for your loss.

Sorry about your father.
Offer will always stand for the VMP tour even if it is years before you can make the trip.

  Sorry for your loss. Prayers.