Vicksburg-Clarksdale

We enjoyed our 2-night stay in Vicksburg and gave our friends Vince & Lisa a chance to visit a museum on Monday. We all enjoyed dinner on Monday night at Walnut Hills restaurant and took home cake from their in-house bakery.

Tuesday, Julie and I had lunch at The Tomato Place while Vince & Lisa visited the Vicksburg National Military Park. We got together for dinner and enjoyed the 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill. The bar & grill is in historic downtown Vicksburg with a great view of the Mississippi River, Yazoo Diversion Canal and Centennial Lake.

We left Vicksburg yesterday morning on our way to Memphis. We stopped in Clarksdale, Mississippi to see the Devil’s Crossroads. It is a trio of electric guitars on a pole where legend says that musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil for the ability to play the blues. It’s located at the corner of Highway 61 ("The Blues Highway") and Highway 49 in Clarksdale.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Natchez

We spent this past weekend at River View RV Park in Vidalia, LA, right across the Mississippi River from Natchez. We had a great view of the river barge traffic going up and down the river and the RV park was very nice.

On Sunday morning we went to the Natchez Visitors Center and decided to take an “open-air” tour (in a large golf cart) of historic Natchez. We enjoyed seeing several antebellum homes (pre-Civil War). The houses with red doors indicated that their mortgages were paid off. 

After lunch we visited the Forks of the Road Historical Site, the National Cemetery, and Emerald Mound, a historic site built and used by Mississippians about 1300-1600, ancestors of the Natchez Indians.

From Emerald Mound we went to Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. It turned out they were having a Pow Wow with tribes from as far away as Oklahoma.

We enjoyed dinner our last night in Natchez at Magnolia Grill on Silver Street in historic “Natchez Under-the-Hill” right next to the Mississippi River.

We left Natchez yesterday and drove 70-miles north up the road to Vicksburg for a 2-night stay and more sightseeing.       

Steve & Julie Cornelius

New Orleans

We spent the weekend in Biloxi and enjoyed meeting our friends Paul & Darlene for dinner on Saturday night. They introduced us to Patio 44 where we enjoyed Cajun creole cuisine.

On Monday we drove to Belle Chasse, Louisiana, a community on the west bank of the Mississippi, to spend the week visiting New Orleans. We picked up our friend Wendy at the airport who we’d invited to spend the week with us in New Orleans to celebrate her birthday.

We also met up with our friends Vince & Lisa and we all stayed at a Navy joint reserve base campground. I mixed up some Steve-o-Ritas to kick off visit as we hadn’t seen our friends from Colorado since last August.

Tuesday was our first day to explore New Orleans and we started by having lunch at Mothers Restaurant. Then we visited the Confederate Museum, Lafayette Cemetery and drove through the Garden District. We were very lucky as we found on-street parking and could park for free for up to 3-hours with my handicap tag. 

Wednesday, Julie stayed home to recover from her cold. The four of us ate breakfast at The Ruby Slipper and then spent the entire day at the National World War II Museum. It had very detailed, informative displays, and was well worth a visit.

On Thursday, all of us began the day with French coffee and beignets at Café du Monde and they were all very tasty. Next, we did a two-hour riverboat cruise on the steamboat Natchez followed by a two-hour city tour by bus. We walked a few blocks over to the French Quarter for dinner. It was a fun day.

We got up early today and drove to the airport to drop off Wendy for her flight back to Denver. Tomorrow we head to Natchez with Vince & Lisa for a 2-night stay and some more sightseeing. It's our first time to visit Natchez.       

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Leaving Florida

We stayed six nights in Seffner, near Tampa, visiting family and friends. Last Saturday we spent the day at my sister Cathy’s new home helping her unpack and putting things back together. Her new townhome is very nice, 3 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths, and a double car garage.

We spent last weekend resting as I caught a nasty bug, I think while at Disney World. Sore throat, coughing, congestion. Two trips to the MedExpress and two different doctor diagnoses. I believe Julie was right…that I had a “bad cold”. The second doctor diagnosed acute bronchitis and finally prescribed medications to clear it up.

Julie visited her Aunt Jo last Tuesday. We enjoyed dinner with our friends Carol & Mike at the Columbia Restaurant in historic Ybor City. We especially enjoy the Sangria de Cava, a sparkling white sangria made tableside.        

On Wednesday an old friend Bill stopped by the Lazy Days RV Resort to see us and we enjoyed hearing about his downsizing from a large house to a villa in preparation to retire.

We left Seffner on Thursday morning and drove up to Tallahassee to spend a night on the road. In the RV park I met a couple across the road from us. From Poland, Mark & Tina had an interesting RV. They told me they had already travelled to Africa and Australia. They planned to travel around the USA for a year, including a trip to Alaska this summer, before they head to South America. Mark showed me photos of when they got stuck in the mud in Australia and they were 300km (about 180-miles) to the nearest town. They had to be winched out by another big truck.  

We enjoyed the warm weather while in Florida, mostly in the 80s during the day. We ran into rain and cooler temperatures when we travelled to Alabama and Mississippi.

We enjoyed dinner here in Biloxi with our friends Paul & Darlene at Patio 44. It was very good, especially dessert, the chocolate-filled beignets in a special bourbon sauce.

We head to New Orleans on Monday morning for a 5-night stay.  

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Walt Disney World

We drove up to Disney’s Fort Wilderness last Sunday from Labelle. As we were checking in, we saw my sister Marcia and my brother-in-law Mike in their motorhome just ahead of us.

The four of us picked up our Disney 4-day park hopper passes on Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed dinner and catching up as we hadn’t seen them since Christmas in Sacramento in December 2016.

After dinner, we planned out our 4-days at four different Disney parks and linked our tickets for our FastPass+ selections for attractions each day. 

Magic Kingdom

On Monday we went to Magic Kingdom, just a short boat ride from across the lake from Fort Wilderness. We rode the Peter Pan’s flight, saw the Haunted Mansion, and enjoyed the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. We spent about 10-hours at Magic Kingdom and walked over 5-miles.

Animal Kingdom

We went to Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. Our first stop was a 3D attraction called “It’s Tough to be a Bug”, housed inside the Tree of Life root system. Next we enjoyed watching the Festival of the Lion King and then took the Kilimanjaro Safaris. Just after dark we watched a new attraction called Rivers of Light. It was another 10-hour day with almost 6 miles of walking.

Epcot

We went to Epcot around 11AM on Wednesday and saw the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival. We enjoyed lunch at a U.K. Fish & Chips stand. After lunch we watched “The Seas with Nemo & Friends”. We called it a day and rode the shuttle bus back to Fort Wilderness for dinner, as we planned to go to Disney Springs. We bought a few souvenirs and stopped at Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop for dessert.   

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Our last full theme park day we rode the shuttle bus to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The new attractions here were Star Wars and Frozen. We opted for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show.

Later Mike, Marcia and I rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I clearly remember the ride from our visit two years ago so I don’t know why I got on it again. The haunted elevator is a dark ride that drops 13-stories at a speed of 39 mph, goes to the top of the building and drops again. Although we are sitting in seats and are buckled in, it’s pretty scary. You can see us in the upper right-had corner of the photo below.

We drove 65 miles to Seffner today for a 6-day stay at Lazy Days Resort near Tampa to visit family and friends. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius