Mississippi HDR

So. Did anyone guess Vicksburg MS? After all those years I spent going back and forth from Marietta GA to Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Austin TX, The Mississippi Visitor's Center at Vicksburg - overlooking Old Man River as you can see - easily became my favorite rest stop. . . and some trips it was the only one! With my Suburban's 600 mile range I could drive from Marietta to Shreveport in one stretch. So, if I was going for a personal best I could fill up the tank (42 gal) and take a couple of turns around the Visitor's Center in Vicksburg and get back on the road with a minimal delay. Anyway, comin' or goin' I always stop in Vicksburg.

This lovely weather was the day after we did a good stretch of the Natches Trace Parkway in a driving thunderstorm then, after abandoning the Trace in Tupelo, ran out of gas coming into Oxford MS. The rain quit when I called USAA - I'm not sure how they managed that, but I appreciate it - and it was replaced by a great rainbow to boot! I guess that was the Cosmic Joker's way of saying, "Aw, shucks. I was just pullin' your leg."

The white bridge is the 4 lane I-20/US80 Vicksburg Bridge, which opened in 1973. The black one is the Old Vicksburg Bridge, a combination auto/railway bridge built in 1929, which continued to carry auto traffic across the river until 1998. Now, it carries the Kansas City Southern Railway and only maintenance vehicular traffic. I remember it as narrow lanes surrounded by a steel skeleton. But, since I don't have to use it anymore and it looks terrific (the American Flag is a nice touch), I hope it continues to serve as long as I'm around.

In this shot, I had noticed the flag standing out perfectly and zoomed in a bit to emphasize it. It may not be the best of the shots, but I love the detail of the bridge itself - as well as the flag. I took all these shots from the comfort of the Welcome Center veranda. I only moved the tripod once, a couple of feet, for the image below. I had just told Mom that I usually saw barge traffic on the river when I stopped and, lo and behold, a barge appeared, making its way upstream.

Oh. The Rangers lost last night (2-1), but beat the Red Sox tonight (5-3) to take the 3 game series.