Second Day At Vicksburg

Wasn't so hot today. I think it topped out at about 98 degrees. Went back to finish the Confederate side of the battlefield park. Actually a good chunk of the Confederate lines were outside the national park part of it. That's what happens when you lose the battle. You get the short end of the stick and they leave half your stuff outside. Kind of like divorce. However, there were still a good many Confederate monuments inside the park because there were a ton of monuments in general all over the park. One of the more interesting ones was the Alabama one. It was a little surprising because as my father pointed out, it didn't include Bear Bryant as we expected it to. I'm sure they'll rectify that situation once they realize he's not there. However, there was a non-soldier in it. Apparently, Alabama officials saw the Minnesota monument and decided they needed a statue that included a woman with big knockers too. And they did which furthered my obsession with bronze boobage.

I thought Kentucky should have something nice there because only Kentucky and Missouri included entire units in both the Union and Confederate armies. Missouri was a lot more fun because they placed the U.S. units right across from the C.S. units. I think I may write to some Kentucky officials because of the Kentucky monument. To begin with, the location sucked. The other major monuments had a pull off for cars to stop to get an up close look. Not at the Kentucky monument. You parked on the grass of a narrow road. Then you climbed up a hill and had to walk halfway across that section of the battlefield which exacerbated my exercise allergies. Then it wasn't quite as spectacular as some of the other ones. Maybe because they had to carry the whole damned thing out there since it wasn't safe for vehicles. It had a nice little wall with the unit names on it, but otherwise it wasn't much. It did allow me to have my picture taken with both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Well, with statues of them. And no female statues with cannonball breasts.

Now, Vicksburg isn't just battlefields and statues of stacked women. There was also a museum dedicated to John Beidenharn who was a local resident who did a wonderful thing for the country and history itself. He was the first person to bottle Coca-Cola instead of simply selling it at the soda fountain. To be able to have such easy access to such a quality product has truly made the world a better place. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why there are those lowly imitators trying to improve on perfection. The museum was actually pretty interesting with loads of old bottles and memorabilia. It was probably a little more interesting for my father since my memories of Coke bottles takes me back only to the glass 32 ounce bottles of the '70s. He could remember back a bit further. And when I say they had loads of bottles, I mean they had loads of bottles. Some going all the way back to 1894 when Beidenharn started. There was also shelves of full, commemorative bottles for everything from sports teams to tournaments to festivals. And I did find one local representative.
There was a commemorative UK bottle. They stuck it next to ones commemorating an Azalea festival. It probably means something, but I'm not sure what. Probably something about Billy Gillespie's sexuality.