We just got back from an amazing eight day family vacation in Mississippi. We love love love this tradition – you can read all about it HERE. So be prepared for lots of journaling about our trip!
Let me just start out by saying this may have won the award for must frustrating trip to plan. Holy smokes it was a doozy. Even I, who loves planning trips greatly, was getting done with the whole thing. The biggest frustration is that seemingly everything had strange hours. So many things were closed random days or at random times and getting everything to flow while trying to work around closures was a tricky thing. We ended up having to cancel something and shortening our trip a little but it all worked out. Flexibility 😉
Early Start
Our first day started early – with Mark and I having a wake up call at 3:45 AM. Luckily, I felt really prepared this trip and it made things on our entire trip go so smooth. We got new luggage for everyone which was an investment but also a total game changer. It made things a breeze the whole time.
The kids were up by 4:00 and we loaded things up and hit the road by 4:30. In true Berning kid fashion – NO ONE slept the entire first day in the car. Our kids are usually great sleepers at home but they are not so great out and about. But we plugged along great!
We made our way through Colorado, the Oklahoma panhandle, and into Texas! We were surprised at how quickly it felt like we made it into Texas. But oh geez, Texas is HUGE! It reminded me of our Texas trip a couple years ago when we drove.
We like to plan an activity/stop on these long travel days. We could definitely get there faster if we just plowed ahead, but it is nice to have something to look forward to and get a break from the car. Our stop on day one was Alibates Flint Quarries!
Alibates Flint Quarries
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is outside of Fritch, Texas in the Texas panhandle. Alibates flint is colorful, durable, and smooth and only found in this region. It was used by mammoth hunters thousands of years ago and later by a Native American group known as the Antelope Creek people. It was crafted for several purposes but it seems it was mostly used for creating beautiful spear points to hunt big game like bison and mammoths. They have found points of Alibates embedded in skeletons of mammoths throughout the southwest which means it was most likely traded with other groups.
The Antelope Creek people built masonry structures close to the flint outcroppings along the river. You can still see dozens of shallow pits where they dug with sticks or tools made from animal bone to look for this useful flint.
You can only hike up to the quarries with a ranger and they were not doing any hikes the day we were there – which we expected and probably wouldn’t have had time to do anyway – but we learned a lot and it was a fun stop. It was also VERY WINDY!
Lake Meredith
A stop we weren’t planning on making was to Lake Meredith. It seemed crazy not to because we were so close because it is right next to the Alibates flint quarries. In all honesty, there wasn’t much to see. The lake was barely there at all because of how late in the season it is. We did see some turkeys and we learned it is a popular place for hunting and camping.
Ending the Day in Wichita Falls + Fantastic Mr. Fox
We left the Texas panhandle and continued our trek across northern Texas. I read Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl out loud to everyone and we all had a good giggle. It’s a quick fun read that helped pass the time. We stayed the night in Wichita Falls and we were all very happy to find our pillows that night!
Mississippi Family Vacation 2024 Itinerary:
- Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
- Lake Meredith National Recreation Area
- Cane River Creole National Historical Park
- Ship Island
- Fort Massachusetts
- Natchez National Historical Park
- Emerald Mound
- Vicksburg National Military Park
- Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
- Rowan Oak Estate
- Natchez Trace Parkway
- Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site
- Tupelo National Battlefield Site
- Elvis Presley’s Birthplace
- Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
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