October, 2017

Three locations, connected only by being part of the same trip.

Alabama

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is the largest motorcycle museum in the world (by a good margin). Each year it hosts a vintage motorcycle festival, which draws tens of thousands of people.

Wall of Death vs. Globe of Death; which is the more entertaining?

There's no telling what you'll see in the parking area...

There are many classes of vintage racers; racing takes place all day.

Some of the bikes in the paddock...

A brief look inside the museum...

Mississippi

I've been here before, but it's such a large area and has such a complex history, that it's worth a return trip.

Vicksburg National Military Park

The Vicksburg Campaign began in December of 1862, and finished with the Confederate surrender on July 4th, 1863. For over 6 months, various armies would maneuver throughout the western theater, and occassionally face each other on the battlefield. Both Union and Confederate armies realized the importance of Vicksburg, but it would take over half a year and over 48,000 casualties before the fate of Vicksburg and the Mississippi River would be determined.

- NPS website

At the visitor's center.

The positions remain well-defined.

Monuments to the fallen (both sides) are everywhere.

Windsor Ruins of Windsor Plantation

Windsor, built between 1859 and 1861, was the home of Smith Coffee Daniell, II, a wealthy planter who had extensive properties in the Delta and in Arkansas. Completed in 1861, the home was the largest house built at that time, the plantation once covering over 2,600 acres. From the elaborate furnishings to the wrought iron staircase, the four-story home was designed to reflect the height of Southern life at the time.

Construction costs totaled $175,000 (not a small sum for that era), which included the building cost and its furnishings. Tanks in the attic supplied water for the interior baths. The mansion contained twenty-five rooms with twenty-five fireplaces, with a basement containing a school room, dairy, and supply rooms. Unfortunately, Smith Daniell only lived in the large mansion for a few weeks before he died.

The home survived the war only to be totally destroyed on February 17, 1890, by a fire said to have been caused by a party guest who carelessly dropped a cigarette. Descendants of the Daniells say the fire started about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The family was making plans for a seated dinner, but had gone to pick up the mail. Riding back to the house, they saw flames shooting from the shingled roof. The fire burned Windsor from the top down, making the conflagration impossible to put out.

Today, all that remains of Windsor are 23 Corinthian columns on the site. The family's descendants gave the ruins to the State Department of Archives in 1974 and the State has maintained the site since. The wrought iron staircase is now a part of nearby Alcorn State University. Windsor Ruins has appeared in several feature films, including Raintree County (1957), which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.

- NPS brochure (from Vicksburg)

last edit: 10/23/2017