Our day in Natchez

We are both awake early with one thing on our minds ...getting out of here. It was a peaceful quiet night where even boat traffic didn't keep us awake. We can't make a turn around but do make the tight turn to head up the hill. I stop traffic coming down until Bob has the RV facing up. Into 4 wheel drive and I hop in and up we chug. Ole Bertha does her job with the able assistance of her driver and passenger, lol.
That was "Natchez below the hill". We park on the high side of the bluff very thankful to be on the top side and set out on a walking tour of old downtown Natchez. It is a very quiet Friday morning. Most shops don't open til 9:00 - 9:30. One woman is just opening her shop and has a few comments about Bob in his shorts. For them it is cold and everyone is dressed warmly. We still find the temperatures to be warm enough for shorts, capris and bare feet but we are from the Great north:!
The shop owner is a great example of Natchez hospitality....she gives us an insight into life along the River after Katrina. A minimal crime city, Natchez endured the migration of New Orlean's displaced persons increasing their crime rate substantially.
She gave us her best advise on going to New Orleans. She was a woman that I had to hug. One of Natchez's best:) ..next we went to Darby's, an eclectic shop of everything from 'the best' fudge I have ever tasted and $42 Xmas pjs for children.

We walked the streets looking at old homes, beautiful churches and a shop called "Jack and Stella" a children's store. I went in to get a business card. The owner, a young woman, has named the shop after her son Jack and her niece Stella.
We head back over to the Pig out Inn for a quick lunch which we ate in the RV before heading over to the Walmart to do some shopping. We decide despite the fact it is busy we have the best camp spot available.
We need an afternoon to decompress, do fingernails, pluck eyebrows and generally have a quiet time. We are eventually surrounded by other Rvs ...3 from Quebec and one fromOntario...go figure...that's the most Canadians we have seen in our whole trip. We cook Halibut with some New Orleans
spices we bought and a coleslaw to cool the burn ....night night,:)
We are sitting quietly, ready to settle down for the night when we hear fireworks and a broadcasting voice. It is Friday night football....across the highway from Walmart. I can see the stands. It's like a movie. I wish we could scoot over there to watch but it is really quite a ways away so we will just listen to the action:)

 

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To Natchez

Some rain showers overnight and a bit windy and cooler this morning . We leave Grand Gulf and set out one last time through the streets of Port Gibson onto the Trace on our way to Natchez. This last section is only 38 miles long but very pretty. Not many historic points of interest along the stretch. We are passed Mt Locust..the oldest remaining 'Stand' or Inn along the Trace before we see the signage. The road is narrow with no shoulders so we cannot turn around.
It's a National Park land so there is no commercial advertising, no residences just pure peaceful driving with only the ghosts of first the native Indians that used the trails for hunting and trading, then the 'Kin-tuck' boatmen that floated their goods on barges down the Missipi to sell at the Gulf ports. They then sold their boats for the lumber and walked back to the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys along the Trace.
Some parts of the trails were so well used that the trails are, in some places, 30 feet below the adjacent land.
Into Natchez and at once we are among antebellum homes. We stop at Melrose, now a National historic Park. It was originally built in the 1840's as a family home for the McMurrans. Although it was on 80 acres it was not a working plantation. The family had several other properties and holdings that did produce cotton. They thrived until the Civil War when economics and the ability to produce their cotton declined and sent them into bankruptcy. Their home and property was sold for $50,000 and they had to move in with the inlaws:)
For a $5 fee we went on a tour with a National Park guide. An interesting look into the lives of both the landowners and the slaves that looked after the land and the family. Every room had a bell on a rope, each with with a different tone but all connected to the slave quarters so that they knew where there services were required.
After we wandered through the grounds under huge live oaks and Magnolia trees, (which is the state
flower.) Unfortunately it's not the season to see them in bloom but if the seed pods on the ground are any indication of the size of the blossoms they must be an awesome sight to see.
Natchez is described as "a progressive city on the River, with a rich cultural history and old world manners".
Everyone talks about the time of owners and slaves, the Civil War ....it is a fact of life. But as a woman in the National Park display in the Visitors Center told me in her honey sweet voice "We try not to talk about the Civil War anymore", something about being politically correct. I'm not sure why but again my inquiring mind will continue to ask the questions. As Canadians they don't expect us to know a lot of their history, surprise! The Ranger that conducted our tour of Melrose today told us about local school classes that come on the tour and don't even know when the Civil War happened.
We continued into town looking for a place to stay for the night. The Walmart was busy, noisy and pretty ugly so we decided to try the Magnolia Bluffs Casino. We should have known that the word 'bluffs' meant bad news for us but the Casino told Bob that there was a turn around spot and 'semis' came down the hill. Wrong, wrong, wrong but once committed on the steepest hill yet encountered we are at the bottom and in a small empty parking lot right on the river. The afternoon sun is starting
to set behind the Missipi River double span bridge over to Louisiana. Push barge traffic is going up and down, sometimes waiting their turn, other times passing side by side. It is exciting to see the volume of traffic that we had heard about when in the north where one barge would sometimes take 6 hours to pass through the lock. It is an amazing mode of transportation. One tug can push a minimum of 15 barges, 3 wide and 5 deep.
We cook our last Manitoba perogies for dinner, watch the evening lights on the bridge and across the river twinkle on like Christmas icicle lights. It is a beautiful setting and we will worry about getting up the hill in the morning, maybe even during the the night.

 

 

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Port Gibson/GrandGulf

We go to the edge of the Missipi and a push barge going downstream is our first picture of the day.
We are on our way to explore Port Gibson.
We need sour cream for dinner and the 2 grocery stores are M and M's and Piggly Wiggly.....also looking for wine and there are only 2 'package stores' but neither have any Franzia Merlot....not wine drinkers in these small southern towns....beer and Southern Comfort maybe?
We see colourful murals across from the city hall depicting the civil rights boycotts of the 60's and then today, employees, both black and white, in the Piggly Wiggly discussing the news item about the mother that dressed her 7 yr old son in a KluKluxKlan outfit for Halloween. How do they feel about something like this in 2013? Is it still a common occurrence? We are strangers in a strange land and sometimes we can only quietly observe, although I would like to ask the questions.
We have been welcomed by all people, no matter what colour. We are listening to the old blues music as we travel and we hear their music even when they speak.
Now we have left the Delta Blues trail behind and have entered the history of the Civil War.
Port Gibson, along with Vicksburg and Natchez played vital rolls in their attempts to keep Ulysses S Grant and his Union Troops from taking control of the lower Mississippi. After the Battle of Port Gibson on the 1st day of May, 1863, which lasted until 5:30pm, Grant and his Union troops moved on to Grand Gulf winning the battle and occupying the town as a supply depot for the ongoing campaign against Vicksburg.
We are camped at the Grand Gulf Military Park. It has a small campground, a museum, some artifacts and is all that remains of the town of Grand Gulf, which at one time was a bustling port of 1000 people. Yellow fever epidemics, tornadoes, a changing of the direction of the Mississippi, the final destruction by Grants troops and the town is only a distant memory.
We have toured old churches, antebellum homes, civil war battle sites, grave sites and the "historic", aka "old part" of Port Gibson.
During the Civil War it was a regular practice for Union Troops to burn towns and cities that they had defeated, as in 'Atlanta burning' in the movie Gone With The
Wind. Grant has been recorded as saying "Port Gibson is too pretty to burn" so it's many beautiful homes and buildings have survived.
We are recommended to the "old Country Store" for a lunch of southern fried chicken. It is a 130 year old wooden structure that was once a popular stop for purchasing everything from cotton to work boots. Today it is a combination second hand store 'where everything is for sale and on sale' and a chicken buffet. The owner, Arthur Davis, makes his chicken as he was taught by his grandma. He serves his chicken fresh, hot, well seasoned, crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Add some mustard greens, macaroni and cheese, dirty rice and sweet tea and according to the brochure 'you'll have memories that'll last longer than the length of your trip'.

He visits the tables and breaks into song about hot mamas and corn bread. He has a few lines that he uses pretty regularly. The food is good, but his pricing is a little on the sly side, which you don't know until the bill is presented. I guess we are paying for the singing and the uniqueness of the place.
Unfortunately it leaves a little sourness after a great blackberry cobbler with ice cream.
It's hard to get motivated after a big lunch but we continue our day of site seeing. Our next destination is back to our camp site area to look at all it has to offer. Driving in yesterday we had seen a sign for the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant but didn't look any further as we were focused on finding our camp spot. Today we went to the plant for pictures. I have never been that close to anything nuclear. It is a little disconcerting to see the size of it but I guess they are a fact of life here in the US with their need for power for the country.
We are bushed and make a pretty feeble attempt to tour the remains of Grand Gulf.
It's 3:00 and we have been on the road since about 8:00 this morning. The first hint of the rain that is predicted hits the windshield. Bob hooks up the RV ready to move on in the morning. The warmth of the south is hitting us. 77 degree high today but it has a humidity to it that you can almost taste.
The landscape has changed from wide open cotton fields to a more dense, closed in feeling with huge oak trees that have long strings of hanging moss, trees where the branches don't just grow out from the trunks but hang and twist like vines. A lot of Kudzu that grows up the tree trunks, along power lines and telephone poles and covers the hills like a blanket. "The weed that is eating the south".
We are coming into the steamy, warm gulf area and I'm not sure if I will like these kind of temperatures. It's one of the reasons I like Arizona so much, the dry wide open desert. I will keep an open mind and after today's muggy heat tomorrow is predicted to be a lot cooler. It is after all the fall going into winter season.
Tomorrow we continue south along the last section of the Natchez Trace Parkway
For me its like the trip to the Yukon, you can't be here and not be changed by your experiences with the places, the cultures, the people and also the food, lol. Louisiana here we come...shrimp, gumbo, zydeco music and whatever else they have to delight us. Bring it on!

 

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Delta and Moving South

Some days my thoughts gel into a recording of our day that makes sense and flows...today is not one of those days. This is just a disconnected list of events.
Waking up early so on the road by 7:30, over the bridge to Arkansas and back just to see the bridge, beautiful double span like Lions Gate.
Leland, 6 blues markers.
Farms are still called plantations.
Generations of changes
People hand picking cotton vs. John Deere equipment that is reminiscent of our prairie wheat fields.
75 deg, very warm day
In and out out of Vicksburg, a disappointment for me to not spend time here but it is not RV friendly. I look forward to Port Gibson.
Fuel the cheapest, cos we're getting closer to the Gulf?
Piggly Wiggly, Sunflower, grocery stores...lots of poultry, chicken and turkey....legs, wings, necks, tails? Lol, gizzards yuck!!! Butcher says you stock what people buy, I guess that is the way everywhere.
It's getting harder to find familiar food...a lot of cheap processed foods.
Glad we have a freezer full of good steaks, fish and perogies:)
Camped at Grand Gulf Military Park about 10 miles north west of Port Gibson.
Having to adjust to the time change....it is now dark by 5:30 and so we are awake early which is ok as it's our best time.
Bobs eating some of those smoked "turkey legs" I spoke of earlier:) I'm having cheese and crackers. We are both having wine and an early night.

Hwy 1, the Blues Trail south....

We are waking up early because of the time change. It's OK because we are at our best in the mornings. It is a beautiful sunrise with lots of pink sky, not quite the Arizona desert sky, but beautiful in its own right. We are showered, dumped, filled with water and on the road by 10.00am.
Down Highway 1 along the Blues Trail. The trail is a series of markers in towns throughout Mississippi that celebrate the blues music and the musicians that have created the music since the early 1900's.Each marker tells the story of a blues legend from the area.
We have a map that tells where each marker is and we cross match with a road map as we travel. Some are easy to find and others take us through back streets looking for markers that were often along the rail lines and depots where the musicians played for travelers paid by the hotels and rail lines or for tips.
Our first stop this morning is Friars Point, home of Conway Twitty. I have a post card for Stella and as I got near the post office an elderly black lady stops me and says "honey, you must be a tourist, come give me a hug, we need more of you down here". Postal lady tells me that "Nawleans" is a party, party place and we should have a very good time there, lol.. Lots of Monday morning activity around the post office. Everyone notices us and everyone waves and says hello.
As we travel south the levee is continually to our right or west.....next stop is Rosedale in search of Joes Tamale shop, unfortunately it's closed:) I am a tamales addict. Tamales don't really seem like a southern food but apparently were brought to the south by soldiers who had fought in the Mexican  American War and then by Hispanic workers brought to work the fields later in the 20th century. Sad to say I didn't get any today.
A quick stop at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store looking for some lunch. Their deli was only serving chicken and we are very tired of chicken in our diet.
Went into the RV and made a plate of crackers and cheese, carrot sticks and summer sausage and ate on the road. We are always happy to eat our own food instead of trying to eat out.
Next stop is Benoit for two more Blues information markers and again are welcomed to town by a local resident.
She introduces herself as she stops in the middle of the road asking if we need any help. I tell her we are looking at the blues trail markers and are following the Missipi. As we talk a big truck turns into the road. I point out he might need to get by...she smiles and says, "we do things different down here, everyone stops in the middle of the road if they need to talk. It's just the way it is. And true to her word the truck went by on the other side of the road without a word said. She wished us a safe journey and a "y'all come back now...."
Our planned stop for the night is a casino in Greenville. Staff told us we could park in the valet parking area and we would be safe and watched over. This was after we met Atilla the security guard at the welcome Center. Her first bark was the worst. She turned out OK but our own information was as good as there's. A quiet night despite being close to the bridge traffic heading across the River to Arkansas.

November and Mississippi

We survived the rain and wind storm and Halloween. Only got egged once during the night:) This morning we crossed the bridge from Helena Akansas into Mississippi. First place after the causeway is a Casino with RV parking for $15 a night for full hook ups. We continue on to Clarksdale as our destination. After a long stop at the Welcome Center visiting with the employees while we use their wifi to do an iOS 7 update we arrive at the  "Crossroads" of Hwy 49 and Hwy 61. This is the famous junction for the movie of the same name about Bluesman Robert Johnson. We are in Clarksdale, home of the Delta Blues.
Helena, Arkansas and Clarksdale, Mississippi both have their claims to fame and share a deep history of Delta Blues music and famous blues musicians.
It seems that the bridge across the river is more than just a span across the Mississippi. It is a totally different culture and atmosphere. We look into staying at the Walmart but it is very small and very busy. We decide to go back the 20 miles to the casino and set up for a few days. This way we can unhook and Bob can enjoy our forays into old streets without the RV.
On our drive back to the casino we pass a huge "plantation" with cotton fields for as far as you can see. This is the Stovall Farm, which it turns out is known for more than its cotton. It was the childhood home of Muddy Waters. He lived there as a child of sharecroppers working the cotton fields until his music took him to Chicago.
His home site was destroyed by a tornado....some of the old cypress wood is in the Blues Museum recreating his old home.
The band ZZTop also had a guitar made out of a piece of this wood called a Muddywood guitar.
We start out at Walmart looking for our box wine, were sent to Kroger's, no wine there either.....Mississippi state law says no wine or liquor can be sold in anything but a "package" store...government run liquor stores.
Found one finally but it only had 2 red and 1 white, bought his whole supply...no more until Tuesday's order, lol
Walking old town, Blues Alley, Ground  Zero club, bar and restaurant. Owned by Morgan Freeman. Underwhelming.
The Blues Museum, good history but couldn't take pictures. I like to take pictures of the information panels so I can reread them later. It's too much to take in and remember. Overall a little disappointing.
Wandered back to truck, a few places open.
Listened to a bit more music at Hambone's but there was a cold wind blowing so we headed back to the truck and drove  the streets again before heading back to RV.
Interesting place to see but we both enjoyed Helena better.
Helena had a genteel air about it despite so much decay...still so many beautiful old homes and
buildings....Clarksdale is rough and worn down, maybe always has been, a "Crossroads" town,.....
highways, railways and waterways. It's like "the other side of the tracks" only it's "across the bridge" as they say in Helena.
Some days our experiences are beyond our expectations and so we have to be OK when other days our experiences fall below expectations. Today was one of those days. We are left feeling unsettled about where in Missipi we want to go next. Everyday we tell ourselves we can't see everything even though we try  to see it all.

'Missipi' cotton fields and Casinos

Sunday

We headed out this morning with a picnic lunch traveling backroads to Tunica Missipi, an area known for a casino row that could replicate Laughlin Nevada. We follow old roads twisting and turning around cotton fields and the arms of the river that make oxbows and small lakes. It is a beautiful scenic byway. We know we are following the river because we are between cotton fields, earthen levees and the river. At some points you can drive along the top of the levee leading to boat launches and one time a beautiful empty park overlooking the Missipi River where we had our first break.
As we drove through the flat cotton fields we stopped to take pictures of the bales and buildings that house a cotton gin mill. We see a man checking on the storage bins and he sees us as we drive into the parking area to get better pics and turn around. He comes over and we introduce ourselves. He is a young man, maybe in his early 40's, and he says he thinks we may be interested in the gin mill.....we say oh yes! He tells us to follow him and he will take us on a tour. It is a Sunday morning but everything is in full production. We see cotton that comes from the fields in round bales that look almost white. But on closer inspection you see all the seed coverings, bits and pieces of stocks and other non white material. We watch the bales go through several steps to cull and clean and eventually be repacked in square bales, packaged into plastic wrap, stacked, then forklifted onto waiting transport trucks. These trucks then haul this finished product to brokers where it is sold to millers and turned into cotton material for clothing. That is the best quality, then there is the secondary cotton which is sold for stuffing for cheap mattresses and pillows.

Again we have been exposed to southern charm and hospitality. He and his family run this modern
day plantation. He is addressed as sir by employees, and jokingly as the "boss man". They work 14
hour days, 6 days a week for the cotton season, which may last about 8 to 10 weeks. He has taken an hour out of his day to be our guide. We continue to be warmed by the welcoming friendliness of these southern people. Bob is Sir and I am Miss Karen...it just makes me smile.
He is Gary Bailey of Horseshoe Botton Farms and leaves us with an invitation that if we are in this area again to call him and he will take us on a tour of his whole farm.
Later as we continue our drive we come across farm equipment on a different farm that is harvesting the cotton and we stop and watch the big machinery going up and down the rows gathering the cotton balls from the plants. When there is enough cotton the machine wraps yellow plastic around it and spits it out to sit and wait to be picked up and sent to the gin mill. Today we have seen the complete process from plant to gin mill and on the truck to market.
As we continue we travel roads called Indian Mound, Moon Landing Park, and Plantation Road.
We are cruising to a Charlie Musselwhite cd, an unknown to us until "Sunshine" Sonny Payne gave us 10 of his favourites in Helena. Now one of our favourites too.
We cruise through the casino strip looking for another Blues Museum...which is also a visitor
information center set on Hwy 61 in Tunica, Miss. The building was one of the last railroad depots from Dundee. It was transported and re assembled in 3 parts maintaining all it's original building materials.
Two sweet ladies in the museum/visitor center who laughed at us and the way we spoke when we were having trouble understanding them:)
Had a Dr Pepper which is like a mild Rootbeer while wandering around the museum.
Bought a book about the life and afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson ....'beware of crossroads at night' . Legends say he sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads of hwy 49/61 in Clarksdale, Miss to be a better musician. He died a mysterious death at the age of 27. Some say the devil came to collect his soul in payment. Blues fans have said they believe Johnson to be the best blues man ever.
We are in the "Delta" whether Arkansas or Missipi and the music is everywhere.
As this might be our last day in this part of the delta we continue past our camp and over the bridge back to Helena to visit the Confederate Cemetery which can only be reached without our RV.
Helena was a Confederate city that was taken by Union troops in the Battle of Helena. When Lincoln
was assassinated the Union Troops withdrew back north and slowly the Confederate soldiers retook
the positions they had held before the war and Helena returned to her southern roots. At the top of
Maple Cemetery is a beautiful setting where graves are set for both known and unknown confederate soldiers. The cemetery is up on the highest part of the city known as Crowleys Ridge, a geological high point that runs for 150 miles along the west side of the Missipi. It is a beautiful, quiet resting place that makes you stop and think again of the history of these places. I was always enchanted by tales of the south, like Gone with the Wind. This is the reality and I am eager to learn more about the south and it's Civil War history.
We can't make up our minds how to travel south....there is the Natchez Trace, the Blues Highway in Missipi... Then there is a large part of Louisiana that we will miss going this route. Bob wants to follow the Blues Hwy and I want to see Vicksburg and Port Gibson all ending in Natchez.
We are mapping our tentative route knowing that any day we can be sidetracked.

 

 

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