2018 01 24th Around Shreveport and Shreveport Aquarium. 26th Barksdale Global Power Museum

Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - Tour of Shreveport, LA with my cousin, Marie.

This is a mural on the side of a downtown building. The artist "sketched" the mural and then allowed people in the community to complete the painting.

KWKH radio announcer Frank Page introduced Elvis (statue on right) on his first radio broadcast from the Louisiana Hayride inside Shreveport, Louisiana's Municipal Auditorium, October 16, 1954. To the right is James Burton a Shreveport Native who created a famous Fender Guitar. 

RCA Dog Art. Lights up with colorful spots at night. This little guy is about 20 feet tall and sits outside a firehouse. 

The Strand Theater, Shreveport. 

Marie took us to lunch after our grand tour at SALT restaurant which is connected to the aquarium on the riverfront. 

One of the art projects that recycled water bottles found at the aquarium site.  

Lion fish. 

Marie inside a tank bubble. Kind of a small space to access for such a tall gal. 

Bob always enjoys getting into his activities. An enormous jaw of a great white shark. Geez, check out those rows of teeth. 

Usually I keep my hands in my pockets at these "hands-on" activities but I just couldn't pass up the chance to touch a jellyfish. 

They had a tube I could stand in surrounded by a tank of jellyfish. 

Japanese giant crab which can reach up to 25 feet across. Thankfully, they live 3 miles under the surface so not likely to find one at the beach. This is a baby at only 4 feet.  

Jellies upside down because they are fed from the top of the tank. 

Walking trail near our RV campground. Red River on the left. Kind of reminds us of the walking path near our apartment in Sioux Falls.

Friday, January 26, 2018 - Barksdale Air Force Base Global Power Museum

We didn't really know what the museum name meant just like we have no idea why there was an old British telephone booth there. Figured out the name refers to the air power developed by the US from WWI thru the present. 

A poster detailing the cruise missile bombing of Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait that left from Barksdale AFB in support of Operation Desert Storm, remaining classified for a year. The official name of the mission was Senior Surprise was dubbed by all those involved as Secret Squirrel. 

Blackbird Strategic Reconnaissance plane developed as a black project from Lockheed at its Skunk Works division. Standard evasive tactics if a surface-to-air missile was launched at it was to simply accelerate and outfly the missile. Fun fact - "Skunk Works" was the official psuedonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs. It was derived from the moonshine factory in the Li'l Abner comic strip and used in technical fields to describe a group within an organization with a high degree of autonomy tasked with working on advanced or secret projects. Logo - white striped skunk.

P51 Mustang considered the best plane during WWII. 

B-29 Superfortress. 

Russian MiG

After all strenuous influx of information and walking we needed some refreshment. While Pennsylvania has those silver aluminum diners everywhere, here in Shreveport this quirky little establishment is their version of a diner. Inside the "main" building are 5 tables. So we had to sit in the annex which is the space to the left where the tree actually was incorporated into the dining area. There are two very long picnic tables where everyone sits together. We all had fried butterfly colossal shrimp (2) on either french bread or bun with special "buster" sauce. No idea what was in it and the staff was not talking. 

2018 01 19 Walnut Hills Restaurant and USS Cairo (Civil War Ironclad)

Friday, January 19, 2018

Lunch today at the Walnut Hills Restaurant in downtown Vicksburg. Good food off the beaten path and not as popular as those commercial operations. Famous for their round table family style.  Seats at least 8 and a big lazy susan is in the middle of the table. 

This is the recovered, restored and reassembled USS Cairo, an ironclad for the Union which sank in the Yazoo River during the Vicksburg campaign. 

The paddle-wheel brackets in the middle of the ship.  

Behind Bob is the section of railroad rails which were attached to the ship's prow to protect the forward guns and crew. 

The capstan was used for winding ropes and cables to move cannon and anchors.

This is the 2.5 inch plating on the side of the ship. 

Railroad rails where added later to protect the prow of the ship. 

All 7 of the City Class ironclad ships looked alike so each one had colored stripes on the smoke stack for identification. 

Reconstructed rudders and two stern cannons. The captain's quarters were between the cannon and the paddle-wheel. 

The lighter wood on the outside and under the cannon is support for the original wood which survived over 100 years being submerged in water and encased in mud and silt. 

2018 01 14-16 Vicksburg MS. National Military Park and River Town Campground (SNOW)

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Vicksburg National Military Park. Similarly to Gettysburg, the park has received dozens of statues, busts and monuments dedicated to the men of the Union and Confederacy who fought here. After several attempts to take the city, US Grant chose to lay siege which lasted 47 days.  

Vicksburg National Military Park. There are more types of cannons here than you can see. Guess how many? Some are land cannons while others were used on the gunboats and ironclads. Click the link below to count them. 

Link to Facebook for video of cannon row.

Illinois built the grandest monument which inside has panels listing all the officers and men who participated in the offense of Vicksburg. 

Today's terrain makes it difficult to imagine how this battle played out. Fortunately, there was a National Parks movie which helped to clarify the movement of the different armies and what was happening within the city.

Monument for the battalions of Missouri. 

Sunset over River Town Campground near Vicksburg, MS. 

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Good morning. Let's take a look outside. 

The snow "FINALLY" found us. We have been getting alerts for "severe winter weather". Schools and businesses are closed. City officials requested everyone stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. Bob and Tori are trying to make a snow angel. a bit of a challenge with only a half inch on the ground. 

Link to Facebook for GIF of Snow Angel

Then there are those who do not feel the need to investigate the quality or quantity of winter weather in Mississippi. 

2018 01 05-07 USS Alabama, Beauvoir and Audubon Bird Sanctuary

Friday, January 5, 2018

Toured the USS Alabama. 

These are shells for the front two "big guns". We are in the turret barbette which is the protective circular armored support for a heavy gun turret. We didn't get to see this area in Hawaii when we toured the USS Missouri. 

It was a nice sunny day but still chilly in the 40's and 50's. 

Bob "working" the machine guns. 

Behind me is the original teak decking throughout the main deck. I asked why a wooden deck. The Navy believed a wooden deck would be less slippery once it got wet. But is it not more dangerous from exploding shells. The guide says teak shards do not cause infections.  

Glad we were not on this Duck tour. When it tried to leave the dock the front end got stuck in the mud. They rocked it back and forth trying to rev the engine enough to clear the mud. By the time the Duck was free the engine was smoking in two places.  

Late lunch after the ship tour. Wintzell's has been in business for 75 years and is an historic landmark. 

The waitress was so nice to mention that she would hold off on running the tab until Happy Hour when our plate of "naked" oysters would be half off. They were very good spritzed with lemon, resting on a cracker and dabbed with cocktail sauce. 

Beautiful sunset at the beach. Neither dog seems to appreciate the views.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

We decided to travel to the neighboring state to visit the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Reserve. Initially we thought this was a NWR in Mississippi that housed Sandhill Cranes. Cool. But we were wrong. It is a NWR for the Mississippi crane which is different from the standard crane. We were psyched to see something that does not exist anywhere else. Sadly, when we spoke with the ranger he said they have only 100 birds in 28,000 acres so the possibility of seeing one was nil. Such a disappointment. 

We visit the summer home in Biloxi which had been purchased by Jefferson Davis. The original owner named it Beauvoir which means "beautiful view" which was what she saw when she opened the front doors and saw the Gulf of Mexico just on the other side of her front lawn.  

The raised floor is to allow air to cool the rooms above. All of the windows are floor to ceiling and open with three sections, again to allow the breeze from the north side (the back) to cool the house. There is many fine furnishings left by Jefferson Davis' daughter, Margaret. We were sad to hear that Hurricane Katrina did break through the front door, shattering the original glass and flooding the entire house with 18 inches of water. The furniture has been restored, the walls have been replastered and the door glass has been replaced. 

The front (south) veranda. You can see the front door on the left and the triple sectioned window. 

Reproduction of the Hayes Pavilion which was built as a haven for itinerant Methodist circuit riders. The original was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. This one and Fort Morgan across the mouth of Mobile Bay were designed to defend the bay.

Our girls really like to explore the fort except for the stickers (burrs) in the grass that get horribly tangled in their fur and are very painful in their paws.

One really nice feature of this campground is that it backs up to paths accessing the beach and the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. After lunch, we decided to seek the protection of the trees from the wind and see if there was any wildlife. 

The osprey was so easy to see as he sat above the lake. I doubt it was a fishing perch since the lake was probably not big enough for hunting purposes. More likely he hunted on the bridge side of the island or in the Gulf. 

Bob, what happened to your hand? Didn't you read the sign? Not to worry, folks. There was no alligator...nor anything else that we could see in the lake. We were heading back home and passed the informational sign about the various raptors that visit. I mentioned how I have never seen a Great Horned Owl and really wanted to see one in the wild. Five minutes later we heard hooting. We thought it was another hiker but as we kept walking it sounded again and this time it was definitely closer.

Lo and behold, we spied this Great Horned Owl in his roosting place. We watched for about 30 minutes without any movement. Suddenly, a group of small warblers became agitated by his presence and were flying by twittering angrily. The owl  began hooting again and raised his "horns" but never did turn towards us. It was still awesome. 

In the swamp area we saw a male Pintail, Great Blue Heron and a couple male Mallards. 

Huey, Dewey and Louie. Two female Mallards and one female Black Duck. Good thing we ran into a few guys on the way back home. One of them was an ornithologist by profession and had seen the swamp occupants or we might have thought the middle one was just a hybrid mallard.