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Natchez  
02/18/05 - 02/20/05 - Natchez, MS (Photos)

Visiting old houses, historic downtown Natchez, the Natchez Trace, and a day trip to Vicksburg

 
Leaving Biloxi, the plan was to drive through Louisiana and back north into Natchez, Mississippi, roughly following the Mississippi River. Natchez is a historic town untouched by Union soldiers during the Civil War (due to surrender), so it has numerous antebellum plantations and estates still in very good condition. On the way there, we stopped in St. Francisville, LA, near the Mississippi border, to walk around the Rosedown Plantation. After our un-regional picnic lunch of Subway sandwiches, we walked around the garden and grounds, skipping the tour of the interior of the house. The outbuildings were open to look at, including the kitchen building. In the kitchen, a Southern boy named Brian was putting on a nice cooking exhibition, and showed us how they used the old kitchen implements and how the slaves would cook semi-African cuisine for themselves (it was Black History Month).

We had a good twenty-minute chat with Brian, who is originally from New Orleans, first about the differences between southerners and everybody else, then about what to do in New Orleans. Northerners, we learned, specifically New Yorkers, don’t know how to cook. They only have two spices – salt and ketchup – and think that gumbo is a rice dish! And they’d sooner have a drop-down drag-out brawl with you than carry on a conversation. Southerners, on the other hand - especially those from New Orleans – will strike up a friendship with someone they just got into a car wreck with. And they don’t ‘evacuate’ during hurricanes! They throw hurricane parties, sometimes in the dark (once the power’s out), and just get drunk while they wait it out.

An hour later, we were checking into the Eola Hotel in Natchez. It’s an old hotel in the middle of the historic downtown. There was a big wedding going on there this weekend, with a crowd of rowdy Southerners, and our room was right next to the elevators where we could hear every word and move that they made, and every door that they slammed, throughout the night of the wedding. Scott’s favorite quote of the night came at around 2 a.m., when an obscenely drunk twenty-something-year-old came stumbling down the hall, bouncing off the walls, slurring with heavy drawl “I look like the redneck that I am”. Anyway, the room had a nice view over town and Mississippi river, as we were on the 5th floor.

Most of our Natchez visit was spent wandering around looking at the beautiful old homes. We took a really interesting tour of the Melrose Estate, but the favorite for both of us, by far, was Dunleith, with its gigantic white columns and huge wrap-around porch outfitted with plenty of white wicker rocking chairs. We tried to stay there, as it’s an inn now, but apparently you need to reserve far in advance. Next time. There are plenty of photos posted, as Caroline snapped away while Scott sat in his rocking chair on the veranda. This is kind of a theme throughout our photos of the South.

One afternoon, we went exploring the Natchez Trace, which we’d never heard of until this trip. The Natchez Trace is an 8,000 year old trail that goes from the Mississippi River at Natchez all the way to Nashville, Tennessee. Originally used by Native Americans and buffalo, it became more famous in the 19th century, when it was used by northern traders. Traders used to come down the Mississippi on barges from Ohio, Chicago, and other areas in the north. When they’d arrive in what used to be a large trading center in Natchez, they’d sell all of their goods, break down their barges and sell them as lumber, and begin the three-month walk home via the Natchez Trace. Now there’s a scenic drive you can take the entire length of the old trace. We drove on it for 40 miles or so, getting off at ‘Sunken Trace’, where the trail is at least ten feet deep due to thousands of years of foot/hoof traffic. It’s a beautiful drive, and would be a great place for a long bike ride.

Our favorite part about Natchez was the extremely friendly people we encountered. We went out to Biscuits & Blues one night right next door to our hotel – there’s a second Biscuits & Blues in San Francisco, which we didn’t remember until people at the bar there told us. While sitting at the bar listening to a guitar player give us a little Kenny Rogers and some of the omnipresent Jimmy Buffet, everyone who sat down next to us wanted to know, “where y’all from”, and seemed genuinely interested in chatting us up. Jolly old Charlie, who must’ve been 80 or so, was drunkenly giving us advice on things to do in Natchez and New Orleans. He knows everybody in town, and everybody knows him, as was evident as he talked with every table on their way out of the place. Then the guy on our other side starts up, telling us how Natchez used to be much more fun, but now the po-lice will actually bust you for drunk driving! The nerve… they used to just give you a lift home!

Three nights in relatively sleepy Natchez and we were ready to head back south to New Orleans, where things would be just a bit livelier.

On the last day of our stay in Natchez, the forecast was for rain, so we decided to drive up historic Vicksburg. This part of our trip will only interest you if you are a Civil War buff. The main attraction in Vicksburg, other than the beautiful view of the Mississippi from the back porch of the very nice visitor center, is the 16-mile drive through the Vicksburg National Military Park. We had read good things about in a travel magazine, so we thought we’d check it out. It was nice to see, but the endless monuments get old really fast. At least we got in for free with our National Parks Pass that we bought in Utah (we’ve now visited four national parks since we got the pass)! And it was much better than the awful shopping mall we stopped at so we could pick up some cheap clothes rather than do laundry.