After three weeks of “Planes, Streetcars, Ferries and Automobiles,” (OK, so it doesn’t have the ring of the movie by a more familiar name) we were back home from our travel adventures on Jan. 25.

After docking in New Orleans on Jan. 19 we slowly began working our way north. That day we traveled as far as Vicksburg, Mississippi, where we spent the night in the antebellum Duff Green Mansion. Operated as a bed and breakfast, the glimpse into the South’s past was as big a treat as the fully Southern breakfast we were served the next morning.

Businessman Duff Green built the mansion as a wedding gift for his wife, Mary Lake, in 1856. The house was an epicenter for Southern social life as the Greens hosted many parties there. When Vicksburg went under siege in April of 1863 during a key Union battle for control of the Mississippi river port, the mansion was hit by multiple cannonballs.

Hoping to save the home from the crossfires, the Greens offered it as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers. After the war until 1866 it was used as a recovery center. The Greens moved back in and lived there from 1866 until Mr. Green’s death in 1880. It was then purchased by the Peatross family who lived there until 1910.

The home then served as an orphanage, a retirement home and finally Salvation Army headquarters until 1985 when Mr. and Mrs. Henry Carter Sharp purchased it and restored it over two-and-a-half years to its former glory.

After enjoying a short tour of the mansion, we set out for the Vicksburg National Military Park. Midway through the Civil War Vicksburg became known as the “Key City” for both the North and the South.

At the start of the War the Confederates controlled the Mississippi river all the way south from Cairo, Ill. Vicksburg was one of the strategic points fortified with riverfront artillery batteries and a series of forts with 172 guns that guarded all land approaches.

It was the South’s lifeline and the North soon realized it could be their lifeline too. Capturing Vicksburg would mean the North could pass troops and supplies into the south by road, river or rail. After a series of maneuvers in the spring of 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant positions a 45,000-strong army to the south and east of Vicksburg and on March 31 a siege of Vicksburg begins that won’t end until Confederate forces surrender on July 4.

This national park, established in 1899, is a Civil War enthusiast’s dream. While we spent four hours at the park, which allowed us to follow all the driving routes and take in the Visitor’s Center and the USS Cairo Museum, one could literally spend days there following the red and blue markers that delineate the Confederate (red) and Union (blue) positions throughout the siege. Modern technology allows you to access a narrated driving tour using a smartphone and go more in-depth if desired.

But it was time to move on and continuing north we headed for another national park – Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Native Americans had long known the thermal waters in the area provided therapeutic benefits and by the time William Dunbar and George Hunter explored the area in 1804 they found crude huts established.

Congress declared a four-square-mile reservation in that area in 1832 to protect the water for public use, but it wasn’t until 1921 that it was declared a national park. Because the park covers the historic bathhouse area in downtown Hot Springs, there is no park admission fee.

So, after 2,800 road miles, 3,850 air miles, 1,800 miles by ship, over 50 miles of walking and several hours of bus and trolley rides covering five states, one U.S. territory and two stops in Mexico, the Whirlwinding Baties are back in our home sweet home.