An Adventure on the Way to Vicksburg, Mississippi

March 25, 2024

On Friday (March 22), we left Dry Creek Water Park in Mt Olive, Mississippi at 11:09 am. The plan was to reach Quilly’s Magnolia RV Park just past 1:00 pm, check in time.

We started down Hwy 49, which is a 4 lane divided highway with full access. Just past Mendenhall, Mississippi, brake lights flashed and we came to a full stop.

After 15 minutes of being stopped, Bruce turned off the truck.

Nox woke up when we stopped and started looking around.

As we sat, we saw a black car being pushed onto the shoulder of the road by the passengers. As an ambulance drove towards us on the shoulder, the young men pushed the car off onto a pull off to get the car out of the way.

The ambulance passed us on the shoulder. On the other side (southbound), we would see some traffic come down the road. Most people had diverted to the service road. The service road was stop and go. The service road stopped having traffic for a bit, which we thought was odd.

We noticed northbound traffic heading north on the southbound two lanes of Hwy 49. At that point, we realized the service road had only southbound traffic.

We decided problem up ahead must be big and the first responders were routing traffic around the problem.

While we were sitting at a stop, I took some pictures out the window of the truck.

After an hour and a half, the cars stuck in the jam with us turned onto the shoulder and headed south to a crossing. In the rear view camera, we could see them crossing over to head north in the southbound lanes.

A man stopped and jumped the black car that had been pushed off to the side. The black car drove down the shoulder followed by the helping car.

After all the cars were out, the trucks started backing up. We backed backed up with the trucks, since we are 63 feet long and there was no turning our rig around. Bruce backed several hundred feet down the highway, making small corrections as he backed.

He had some minor trouble and had to pull forward a bit to get the truck lined back up with the trailer. One of the trucks in front of us didn’t realize Bruce was pulling forward and kept backing. I said something, Bruce blew the horn and the truck next to backing truck also blew a horn. The truck stopped and Bruce got our rig sorted out. The trucks left more space between us and them after that.

I let him know the pros were also having problems as well. I kept an eye on the the trucks backing up in case they did something that might impact us while Bruce focused on the backing.

Once we got to the crossing, a policeman had what became the right lane, blocked so traffic coming from the blocked road could easily get onto the southbound lanes and head north.

As we headed north, we saw a large wrecker heading north on the shoulder of closed northbound lanes.

Traffic was slow. We passed the wreck. It was two big trucks, with cargo scattered all over the road.

Traffic picked up speed after we passed the wreck. We reached a crossing and we were directed back onto the northbound lanes. Fire trucks blocked the southbound lanes and the police directed southbound traffic to the service road. The northbound traffic was diverted back to the northbound lanes.

Bruce drove to Jackson, Mississippi and we picked up I-20, heading to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

We arrived at Quilly’s Magnolia RV Park at 2:30 pm and after check in, backed into our spot.

It was an easy back in spot. It would be nice if the pad was wider. Even with the RV positioned on the pad more to the utility side, there isn’t room for me to easily get to the door from the front of the RV. If the ground wasn’t slippery clay, it wouldn’t be a problem.

While we had a bit of an adventure on our trip, we luckily weren’t involved in the wreck. It was a quarter mile ahead of us. I admire the dedication of the first responders in keeping the traffic moving safely.