Little Rock, Arkansas to Vicksburg, Mississippi

Today, we spent the morning looking at some of the highlights of Little Rock. Before we checked out of the Capital Hotel, we walked the short distance to the Old State House which is now a museum.

 There was a special exhibition of Arkansas military flags from the Civil War.

The rooms of the Old State House are very impressive and have been beautifully restored.

We particularly liked the sweeping staircase and the circular balustrade surrounding the roof light in the upper floor.

We walked back to the hotel and checked out. What a wonderful hotel it is and definitely one we will return to.

We drove down the street to the Riverside Park where La Petite Roche is located. The rock was part of an outcrop that was used as a landmark by the early users of the river. The town gained its name from the rock.

We then drove to see the new State House, whose design is an exact replica of the Capitol in Washington D.C.

From there, we drove the short distance to see Little Rock Central High School that played such a large part in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. We saw the steps at the front of the building that were used in 1957 by servicemen from the 101st Airborne Division, as they entered the building to enforce desegregation.

Opposite the school was this wonderfully restored 1940s Mobil gas station. The pumps reminded me of those that still exist at a now defunct Shell site near our house in East Preston, West Sussex.

Our final place to visit was the Big Dam Bridge. It is a pedestrian bridge, reputedly the longest in the world, that spans the Murray Dam across the Arkansas River.

We have both been most impressed by Little Rock, which has turned out to be quite different from our expectations. It is a city that we really want to visit again and which we would recommend to anyone coming to this part of the States.

We left Little Rock at about noon for the 200 mile drive south along the western banks of the mighty Mississippi River.

We crossed into Louisiana just before the town of Tallulah.

We came to Tallulah on our drive across the States in 2007, because one of our granddaughters is called Tallulah. We drove through the town and I took this photo of the water tower.

The final 25 miles into Vicksburg, our overnight stop, included the crossing of the Mississippi River into the state of Mississippi.

Our hotel, the Cedar Grove, is a lovely early 19th century building.

Our room, named after General Grant, has a wonderful four poster bed made in 1843, in which he actually slept!

We unpacked our bags and then drove to the heights overlooking the Mississippi River.

The bridge spanning the Mississippi with the state of Mississippi on the left bank and the state of Louisiana on the right.

Finally, we drove along to the centre of Vicksburg and saw the American Queen, a beautiful riverboat that has only recently been brought back into service.

It has been another marvellous day of sunshine and heat. The temperature now is around 90 degrees, but thankfully not humid. Tomorrow the drive takes us into Alabama, the final state for us to visit out of the fifty states. Champagne will be the order of the day!

Finally, we will be meeting up again with Bob and Thelma in Mobile. They have booked us into their hotel, the Malaga Inn, an old traditional Deep South hotel.