Blogs from Natchez, Mississippi, United States, North America - page 2

Wednesday, July 31, 2013 dawned another beautiful sunny day with highs forecast to be in the low 90s. I got an early start with hopes of completing my Pilgrim set-up before the heat of the day had arrived. The trip from Baton Rouge LA to Natchez MS via US 61 is only about 90 miles and is designated in my atlas as a scenic route for the entire distance. Scenic is a subjective term, but I will concede the drive along the mostly 4-lane divided highway was relaxing and enjoyable with minimal reminders of human intrusion. I arrived at the Plantation RV Park before I reached Natchez. The RV park is in the front end of what appears to be a mobile home community or permanently placed RVs. Although the park is located right on US ... read more

Reluctantly, we left Winter Park, by far our most comfortable stop, both in terms of the weather and luxurious accommodations, and descended the mountains heading east. To give Adina a feel of Colorado's biggest city, we stopped for a walk through Confluence Park and Denver's downtown area before picking up a late morning meal and continuing on our way. Our forthcoming plans were entirely up in the air. Originally we had thought we would attempt to drive to Oklahoma City on this day, but our unanticipated time in Denver put OKC beyond our reach. Instead we drove all day across the parched Great Plains of eastern Colorado and Kansas and called it a night at a motel in Wichita. I'll just say, driving on the interstate in Kansas was frightening. You couldn't help but notice there ... read more

Day 2 of our trip down to Louisiana and no music today - but lots of history. Driving through more farming country we saw lots of mainly uninhabited sharecroppers’ shacks. Sharecroppers were really only one step up from slavery and life was tough. Mechanisation eventually took the place of manual labour and I guess people migrated to the cities to find work. We also saw some places where original sharecropper shacks have been updated slightly (air-conditioning installed etc) and people are flocking to rent them for a holiday. One place near Clarksdale called the Shackup Inn holds regular Blues festivals there so it’s very lively but others are in the middle of nowhere and have nothing to do but relax or fish. First stop today, Vicksburg which has lots of Civil War history. The old court ... read more

Geo: 31.5592, -91.3982We started off with the Vicksburg Battlefield Park which is a 16 mile drive through the actual area of the battlefield and there are monuments and markers to the various commanders, divisions and states involed in the battle. Twenty thousand lost their lives in the battle which is considered the deciding battle of the civil war. The Union forces prevailed and it was the end of the Confederacy. Inluded in the drive is a look at the USS Cairo which was raised from the Missisippi River several years ago. There is also a large graveyard. Apparently only 3000 of the graves are identified. We then visited the towns of Vicksburg and Port Gibson. By chance we came across the Jefferson Military College which was originally a military school but later became a prep school ... read more

We started our day of touring by going to the Emerald Mound, a Native American temple mound built by the Natchez and used from about 1250 to 1600. The mounds were used for ceremonies and sometimes the chief lived on top. Some local mounds were being used when Europeans came and they observed some of the ceremonies, including human sacrifices at the funerals of high ranking people. The mound was built by people carrying baskets of dirt until it was 770 feet long by 435 feet wide and 35 feet tall! It was flat on top, except for a few mounds built on top for platforms for buildings. There wasn't much to look at now, but it must have been something in its day! Next we drove to the Springfield Plantation, but it had recently been ... read more