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Places We Visited on the River |
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Memphis, Tennesse |
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Greenville, Mississippi |
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Vicksburg, Mississippi |
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Email: Sue@PrintsPublishing.com HomePage: www.PrintsPublishing.com |
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As we were approaching Memphis, we wondered if that was the Mississippi River out the window. |
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Since we came from the heaviest February snowfall in Minnesota history, it was nice to see green spaces. |
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Our steamboat, The American Queen, could not get up to Memphis because of high water, but as long as we were there for an overnight, we checked out a couple sites. One was the pyramid, which was built to be an arena, but became the largest Bass Pro Shop. |
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The ticket to the top is $10 per person, round trip. We learned the skyway restaurant is filled every evening. |
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It seemed there was water everywhere. |
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Once inside, we learned this elevator to the top is the tallest freestanding elevator in the world. It’s 300 feet to the top and taller than the Statue of Liberty. |
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A view of the Bass Pro Shop from inside the elevator. |
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It’s an amazing place with several indoor ponds stocked with fish, fancy boats, even overnight accommodations. |
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Staff at the Sheraton, where we stayed, recommended Westy’s for supper. This unusual hole in the wall served excellent bacon wrapped shrimp. |
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A three-hour bus ride from Memphis took us to Greenville, Mississippi, where our ship could dock. We learned the city is named for General Nathanael Greene, a friend of General George Washington. The city was destroyed by the Union Army and rebuilt on a highest point along the river. |
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It wasn’t easy to get the entire boat into the picture. This one shows the paddle wheel in back. |
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The two gangway planks are propped in front of the boat. We took a short tour of Greenville and then stayed on the boat and tried to learn our way around. |
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There was also flooding in Vicksburg and roads were under water. |
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The Hop On Hop Off bus took us to the Anchuca Mansion which was the city’s first columned house and its first antebellum residence to open as a tour home. Our guide up front with the mic informed us that antebellum means the first 50 years before the Civil War. |
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We also hopped off the bus at an Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity where they have five original Tiffany windows. |
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We learned that the Union Army during the Civil War gained control of the entire Mississippi River after the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. |
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Because of a canal that General Grant’s troops began digging during the war, the Mississippi River left Vicksburg but returned via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as they diverted the Yazoo river into the old channel to rejuvenate the city’s waterfront. |
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Some people didn’t know how the Teddy Bear got its name. |
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The one in the middle is a Tiffany window. Tiffany windows are not painted like other stained glass windows. |
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The colors and textures in a Tiffany window are internal to the glass, not painted. Louis C. Tiffany lived from 1848 to 1933. |