Travel day was (thankfully) nice and smooth this year. No cancellations, no postponements – on time and on the way! WooHoo!

The Shreveport airport is much like Greensboro – big enough for the planes and small enough to get checked in within 5-10 minutes.

We made it for the first leg to Charlotte… I always feel like we’re okay once we hit NC. We can get home from anywhere once we hit North Carolina soil 😀

While we were waiting in Charlotte, I checked my memories on Facebook… wow! The boys have done a bit of growing since e started these trips!!

One last meal on the go…

And home we go ♥️

We made it!

Here’s our stats!

Traveled through 2 states covering

1,096 miles;

2 loaves of bread;

2.25 pounds of turkey;

1 pound of ham;

1.5 pounds of various sliced cheeses;

2 heads of lettuce; and

8 avocados.

Not to mention the bags of cookies, chips, queso, salsa, cases of water, and other meals.

We stayed in 1 AirBnB, 6 different hotels and ate some of the best food we have ever had. Everywhere we went, we made nice folks and saw things we would never see in North Carolina. 10 states to go and only a few years left before the boys head to college 🥹 So thankful for all our travels and so thankful to come home!

Last full day of vacation and we packed it full. We started the day in Vicksburg exploring the National Park and Battlefield.

Vicksburg, like Gettysburg (and probably many other battles), was a turning point in the Civil War. The control of the Mississippi River was central to the Battle of Vicksburg… If Vicksburg went to the Union, the Confederate States would be cut in half and cut off from supplies. The battle began on May 18, 1863. Conditions were harsh with the heat, and food and supplies running out. On the plaques listing the soldiers’ names, you could watch the divisions shrinking as soldiers were killed and unable to be replaced. By the end of the battle, a letter signed by “Many Soldiers” was slipped under the door of the commanding officer of the Confederacy and said “If you can’t feed us, surrender.” The Confederate Army did surrendered to General Grant on July 4, 1863.

Inside the Visitor’s Center, we walked past a kids-area as we picked up our travel tree ornament. A few minutes later after Mike and I watched the movie about Vicksburg, guess where we found the boys…

While the park had an audio tour on the NPS App, we had our own tour guide, who was much better😁

Several States have monuments within Vicksburg NP. Each was different, some very ornate and some simple. The southern states were not financially able to add monuments immediately following the Civil War. Tennessee didn’t add their memorial until 1996. Kentucky actually has two monuments: one for the Kentucky Union troops and one for their confederate troops. Kentucky’s confederate Monument was the most recent add to the Park in 2010.

These trenches were everywhere where each side dug them out for shelter and strategy throughout the battle.

The USS Cairo is here as well after being discovered in the 1962 at the bottom of the Yazoo River. The ship, an Ironclad (meaning it was steamboat ship covered by Iron for protection), was the first ship to be sunk by a mine that was hand detonated.

Now if I hadn’t read it on a plaque, I never would have believed that a bottle of pepper sauce found on the ship was unopened, edible and delectable! But, it was on a plaque, so its gotta be true! (Wonder who the person one who taste tested 100 year old pepper sauce? 🤢)

Last service at Mom’s Cafe until June… 😢

Mike said it was the greatest day – with his family, reading about history in a national park and eating chocolate chip cookies ♥️

The cemetery in Vicksburg is for union troops only and accepted soldiers and spouses for burial up until the Korean War.

The red markers throughout the park represented confederate troops and the blue were union troops… sometimes they weren’t shooting from very long distances.

We loved the story of Adeline Shirley. The Shirley House, known as the white house by soldiers sat right in the middle of the Battle of Vicksburg. When the Confederacy was looking this section of the Battle, a confederate soldier was sent to burn the Shirley house to prevent union troops from using for shelter. Adeline Shirley met him at the fire and fought for the protection of her house. She argued with him for so long, Union sharpshooter was able to get close enough the kill the confederate soldier sent to burn her house. The guy should have known, you don’t mess with a southern woman… especially while standing on her porch!

We said goodbye to Mississippi and hello again to Louisiana…

Brains full of American history, it was time for some pop history. A true “only in America” story…

They’ve a few visitors, especially from the East Coast

The Duck Commander tour was awesome – you watched a movie about Phil and Si’s upbringing. The story of Phil and Kay’s relationship, Phil’s college football career at Louisiana Tech (playing 1st string QB over Terry Bradshaw), and the early years of Duck Commander.

We did not know that LONG before Duck Dynasty fame, the Robertsons were famous for hunting VHS and DVDs starting in 1988. The boys couldn’t understand while people would buy these. This was pre-YouTube. There wasn’t an app for everything then. If you wanted to watch something, you bought the VHS Tape or DVD, or you waited until it came on TV somewhere and tried to figure out how to program your VCR.

We saw Willie’s office (I think Mike is getting decorating ideas for his office); the duck call room where a video by Jas taught us how to assemble our duck calls (Guess how Michael and Leo are getting up Monday morning 🤣); the sets from the movie “The Blind”; had a cooking lesson about biscuits from Mrs. Kay; and Phil Robertson prayed our the visitors as we left (Leo found a replica of Phil’s recliner and made himself comfortable).

Lawd, I hope they don’t want a car like this 🥴

LOVED THIS TOUR – it was heartwarming, cheesy and just fun!

We said goodbye to our bearded friends and headed back to Shreveport for our flight tomorrow. Still frozen fish was unpacked back into the freezer and what remains of Mom’s Cafe supplies are unloaded for unlimited snacking tonight. Michael headed to the gym to work out, and Leo headed to the pool so I could throw a ball at him as hard and fast as possible… no, not out of meanness 🤣 for goalkeeper practice ⚽️

Then we headed out for dinner. The boys have been dying to try Raising Canes and since there isn’t one in Greensboro, it qualifies for a vacation restaurant.

The chicken was pretty good but the Cain Sauce was delicious! We played a few more hands of card to finish off our game of Garbage while we watched the Iowa/UConn game.

Tomorrow we head back to reality, but 2 states closure to 50!

Last morning in our little AirBnB in Gulfport. It was a great little house with 2 front doors? There were so many of these 2-front door houses, that we had to find out why. A little research later, and we learned that 2 door house was a sign of prosperity – you had enough rooms that guests would enter into a formal parlor and residents into the “front room.”

Our plan today was to travel back roads to Natchez and end the day in Vicksburg. So, to break up the drive, we started checking out our locations on the RoadsideAmerica app. One site caught our eye in Hattiesburg, Mississippi… the world’s tiniest museum known as The Hattisburg Pocket Museum. The story goes that the Pocket Museum started during Covid Lockdowns. The nearby Saenger Theater was closed due to Covid and the local convention commission was looking for a way to help people escape from the isolation of the lockdowns.

The group selected the nearby alley and created a few “miniature scenes” and the museum grew from there. Since its creation, the Pocket Museum has had over 300,000 visitors many of whom stick around to explore other parts of Hattiesburg. The tiny scenes are everywhere so you have really look to see them all.

Prepare for picture overload because this place was just AWESOME!

Absolutely worth the stop! Back on the road, Michael and I switched seats, and Mom’s Cafe was once again a mobile eatery.

RoadsideAmerica.com also suggested we check out The Malt Shop in Natchez, Mississippi. The Malt Shop has been in business for 70 years and the milkshakes were amazing!

I have been reading a book called “The Deepest South of All” about the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez is home to the most antebellum mansions in all the United States. Natchez did all it could to remain neutral throughout the Civil War, and allowed Union troops to occupy homes without a fight. In return, the Union troops did not burn Natchez as they had other cities. The town is beautiful with at least 50% of the buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Every Spring the “Spring Pilgrimage” takes place where members of the Natchez Garden Club and the Pilgrimage Garden Club open up their old homes to visitors… in other words, its a glorified parade of home. Apparently in this little bit of the world, it is very important to be in the right garden club. Friendships and families have stopped speaking due to this. Clearly these women don’t have enough to do! 🤣 I couldn’t resist snapping a couple of photos of these ladies in their hats walking the Spring Pilgrimage. But in their defense, the houses were gorgeous.

Our next stop in Natchez was St. Mary’s Basilica and the surrounding garden. The cornerstone of the Basilica was laid on February 24, of 1842, and the first mass was held on December 25, 1843. I don’t know if the pictures can truly convey how gorgeous this place was. It was like stepping back in time. I cannot imagine going to check here every week.

And look, a plague!

Priest’s Prayer Garden:

Right outside the city limits of Natchez, we stopped for a small memorial called the Forks of the Road. Due to cholera outbreak prior to the Civil War, slave traders were forced out of the city limits. These traders then leased this plot of land to continue their brutal commerce. This small area became the second largest slave market in the deep South. One gentleman in Natchez was dedicated to preserving this site, and worked tirelessly to do so until, finally in 2018 this property was dedicated as the Natchez Historical Park. More buildings are planned, but for now this simple marker conveys the horror of this time.

As we drove on toward Vicksburg, Mike asked if we had time for another stop… yep, so off we went to a side adventure to find the Windsor Ruins. This is the site of the Windsor Plantation. The story goes that a successful cotton planter named Smith Coffee Daniell, II constructed this massive 23 room mansion in early 1861, and died a few weeks after construction was finished. An accident fire detroyed the house in 1890 leaving only these mammoth columns. A sketch of the house by a union solider was discovered by historians in 1991 and is thought to be the only drawing of the original house.

On the one lane road to and from Windsor Ruins, we passed this perfect little Presbyterian Church built in 1824. We wanted to make sure we got a picture as they celebrated their 200th birthday!

To round out our travel to Vicksburg, we drove for a while on the Natchez Trace… think of it like a Mississippi version of the Blue Ridge Parkway (without the mountains). It was beautiful.

Sidenote: We decided not to ship our fish home and instead, try to keep it frozen and ship it home with us… so we froze about 20 water bottles and froze the fish solid. Our last 2 hotels have full-size refrigerators in the rooms, so we can keep them frozen. But Mike and boys did a great job with the insulated packing…

Fish unpacked and back in the freezer, we had a little pool time to work off some energy.

Then it was off to Palmer’s for dinner… not sure what we will do next week without fresh seafood. Food was great, and you could keep you plastic cup with Palmers Seafood on one side and Palmers Maintenance on the other. We wanted t-shirts but they were sold out

Tomorrow is our last full day of Spring Break, so we’re checking out some history…both real and pop. Let’s see where the adventures lead…

Wednesday morning and we headed out for a little fishing with Capt Sonny on the Salinity Matters. Since a couple of us don’t do well with too much motion, we fished in the Mississippi Sound. The storms yesterday pushed our start time back a bit (which was fine with us to get another hour of sleep 😴), to avoid choppy seas. We ended up with the calmest water we’ve ever had but we kept a wind that seemed like it was coming out of an air conditioning unit 🥶. But given the choice between seasick or cold, I’m going cold everyday! .

We literally dropped our lines in the water, and the trout were on our lines! The larger fish were not as active as the smaller ones due to the colder water, but they were large enough to keep… and eat! 😉

We got tickled that the bait was as large as the fish 🤣

Leo wins for weirdest fish caught!

After 10 or so modest trout, Michael hooked a monster and the fight was one… he fought until finally this monster popped up – a 30 pound red drum!

Not to be outdone, Leo did the same thing… wrestling this 20 pound beast!

Mike caught an “eatable-sized” flounder that we kept, and good size catfish, who we threw back. (Delicious but slimy 😝) Otherwise, Mike and I just caught little trout.

And a tiny fish that was so fancy, you had to hold up your pinky finger 🤣

Perfect fishing for us… in the ocean, catching fish, and no sea sick! And even the wind cooperated and died down enough that we didn’t freeze. It was a great 4 hours on the water!

Back at the dock, the boys unloaded their monsters and posed for a few photos before Capt. Sonny took over with cleaning (well worth the money for this added service!) The trout were the perfect size for fish tacos (see later photos).

We headed to Walmart to re-stock Mom’s Cafe and prepare for tonight’s dinner special “Fresh Fish Tacos.” Then we headed down to enjoy the beach. The boys tossed a ball around, found a stingray and jellyfish, and reminded me that they are still little boys at heart by literally burying their head in the sand and diving into the pier trying to catch a ball 🙄🤣

Not the ideal beach day… It was a little chilly and that blowing stinging sand, BUT I got a few hours at the beach with my boys – yes please, Anytime!

Back at our AirBnB, it was time to repack and freeze most of the fish for the trip back to NC, and then open Mom’s Cafe Special Edition – Dinner Time! For everything the lunches have become, this dinner was AWESOME! (And yes, I do say so myself 🤪)

Bellies oh so full – time for a few hands of garbage, and then we were done for this day!

Tomorrow we are heading up to Natchez, Mississippi and then on to Vicksburg. Nothing definite planned so we will see where to road takes us…

We said goodbye to N’Orluns this morning and hit the road with the strongest coffee we have ever tasted. Seriously, we were afraid to pour it out on ground for fear that genetically modified supergrass would grow or that the spot would be dead for carbon half-life… Look, there is a skull in the coffee if you look closely 😳

We crossed decades-old bridges and watched the New Orleans riverfront fade away.

Our last stop for now in Louisiana was in Slidell, Louisiana for the Cajun Encounter in Honey Swamp.

Should we be nervous that the boat’s name is Gator Bait?

The tour was definitely less dramatic than our last gator interaction, but it was fun and pretty interesting (Leo said we couldn’t get too sciencey on Spring Break… of course, he also asked why I took him to museums and made him read on break too 🤦🏻‍♀️). The guide, Capt. Matt, was a former marine who was stationed in Jacksonville, but originally from Slidell (properly pronounced SLY-Dell)

And then the alpha predator showed up, and started swimming right to us.

These alligators were much smaller than the ones we saw back in Natchitoches, but these are wild and not fed hotdogs on a daily basis. We also learned that if we came back in about 3 months, these gators would be about 30 pounds larger. When the water is less than 70° the gators don’t eat. At less than 70°, the gators stomachs can’t metabolize food so anything they eat will sit in their stomach and rot. In light of this, the gators were not terribly interested in the food we were throwing out.

Now, the raccoons on the other hand were VERY interested in anything we were throwing to them. They were so cute and not at all scared of people, who they clearly associate with food. We were fascinated by them, especially the sibling pair who wrestled over food, and their human like fingers/digits.

Capt Matt told us the story of the Whiskey Tree: Moonshiners and bootleggers used this tree as a marker when they were running whiskey during prohibitions. Of all the places officers were patrolling, Honey Swamp was probably the safest place for a bootlegger.

We saw blue herons who are the biggest threat to baby alligators. These birds will swoop down and take the baby alligators in their beaks. And Woodpeckers who were not the least bit concerned by the boat floating right underneath him (or her?)

These fishing camps can only be gotten to by boat, but this one may have been our favorite. The sign said, “It’s not crooked, you’re drunk.” 🤣 and this one was like a catch-all of all random of yard-art.

Once we finished our tour, the boys went to explore the old drawbridge and Mom’s Cafe opened for business!

State number 40 – Mississippi!

As we drove toward Gulfport, Mississippi, our RoadsideAmerica App suggested a detour to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi to see the Angel Trees. According to the plaque (so it has to be true), in 2005, when Katrina made landfall in Mississippi, seven people remained in the Bay Town Inn. Four of those folks were rescued by the afternoon but 3 people and their Scottish Terrier made to this tree after the storm surge and clung to the tree for hours as the eye passed over. The trees were saved after their and brought to Waterfront to be memorialized. Absolutely worth the stop!

Welcome to Gulfport, Mississippi!

All Michael and Leo have wanted to do since we left home was get to the beach. Once we checked into our AirBnB, and started a load of laundry, off we went. I don’t know how they swam in the water, it was freezing on land. They swam and wrestled, and tried to throw a frisbee which was impossible with stormfront. But they didn’t seem to notice the temperature or the wind.

Showered and ready for dinner (with another load of laundry in the washer), we headed out for dinner at Half Shell Oyster Bar. We all agreed that of all our meals so far, tonight was the best. In fact, we had serious discussions, that this may be the best meal we have every had on vacation… although they have all voted that my picture taking is out of control 🤣 (I love that they think I am going to stop 🤣🤣🤣)

Tomorrow we are headed out into the expected choppy water for inland fishing, so hopefully we are grilling our own fish tomorrow night 🎣Wish us luck!

We started today oh so slowly with coffee and rest… which was nice since it sounded like they were rolling dumpster down the alley by our window at 5am 🥴 After we finally got moving, we headed out for breakfast at the Zesty Creole.

We may not do anything else on our vacations, but we always eat well. The boys had seafood omelets – I think we’ve created some crawfish loving monsters! Bellies full, we headed out to do all the touristy things of New Orleans despite the complaints of the teenagers, “could we look anymore like tourists?” Um, we are tourists.

Canal street ✔️

Street Cars rides ✔️✔️ (Double check for embarrassed teenagers)

Very cool New Orleans architecture ✔️

French Market ✔️

Jackson Square and Saint Louis Cathedral ✔️

Cafe Du Monde ✔️

Aunt Sally’s Creole Pralines ✔️

Bourbon Street ✔️

We have to be the most efficient tourists ever. We had a list of spots, and other than 2 that were closed, and 1 that we decided we didn’t care to see, we saw them all!

We came back to the room and were so so lazy. We watched an ESPN special, the Big Bang Theory, and had an unexpected visit of some folks who were also assigned to room 310… glad it wasn’t the middle of the night. Thankfully, they were really nice and went back down to the lobby to get their correct room.

Since yesterday was Mike’s Disney day, tonight was for the boys as we headed to the Smoothie King Center to watch the Pelicans v. Suns NBA game.

We decided to truly sports’ fan it up and have dinner at the arena – Chicken wings and fries with souvenir cups (we can add that our collection). We checked our wingspan and despite my suggestions, the boys would not get their photo with the Pelican Cheerleaders 🤣 Of course in New Orleans, we have some jazz before the game.

The Introduction of the team was quite the opening especially when Zion Williams came in…

If possible Zion Williams was even bigger in person, and Grayson Allen was even more of a whiny baby.

Pelicans tried to comeback after a 30 point deficient and got it within 7 but it was too little too late. We still had fun and I even caught a shirt they threw into the crowd (although technically I picked it up off the floor when a guy behind me deflected the throw 🤣 but whatever, I still got a free shirt).

We also managed to get a great photo of the Superdome, home to Leo’s New Orleans Saints. We couldn’t tour due to construction and remodeling inside in preparation for them to host the Super Bowl next year, but a great photo nonetheless

Tomorrow, we say goodbye (for now) to Louisiana and head over to Mississippi… one step closer to 50!