From Natchez to the house

Friday we drove a little over 400 miles.  We hit the road about 7 from Natchez  and pulled into Decatur, AL about 3.  RV driving is a little slower than driving an auto.  We try to average 58-60 mph.  On good roads it can be done with ease if the bridge connection are relatively smooth.  In Alabama we had neither smooth roads or smooth road to bridge connections.   Alabama roads not only beat us up but also the RV.  In fact, just after we were set up at Point Mallard in Decatur, we heard some kind of a noise outside.  When I went out to check, I found a 10 foot section of trim on the ground, that had fallen from our RV.  This could of happened anywhere along the way and we would not have know it.  As aggravating as it was to have this piece to fall off, I am very thankful that it didn't happen while on the road.  I hope that I have driven my last trip through Birmingham.  The roads are the worst.  I have been through here several times in the last 4-5 years and  I thought  by now the roads would have shown some improvement.

Bob Gibson's Barbeque in Decatur, AL

Mammy's Cupboard south of Natchez

During this trip we have TOTALLY slipped off our diet.  How can you eat at the restaurant the serves the "world's best fried chicken" twice in three days, then to an unusual building serving, what the locals say is the best food in the Natchez area.  At this place, call Mammy's Cupboard, on Thursdays they serve sliced pork tenderloin with a muscadine sauce and some of the best vegetables that I've eaten away from home.  I generally don't eat desserts but some of these places just "forced" it on me.  At Mammy's the specialties other than the main course were all their wonderful homemade desserts.  Jan had a wonderful coconut cream and since I could not make my mind up the waitress split two pieces of pie for me to try.   One of the pieces was chocolate icebox pies and the other was their signature pie, banana-caramel pie.  I will pay for this for weeks.  I say as I let out my belt.   If you doubt me you need to ask Jan, she can confirm it also.  Our last night on the road being in Decatur caused me to remember about a place I had heard had the best barbeque in the country.  This has been confirmed by judges all across the country in cook-offs.  We had to stop by and see how accurate the judges were.  I tried the pulled pork and Jan had the ribs.  After sampling both Jan's ribs and my pork, I am convinced that the judges were absolutely correct with the ribs.  They were fabulous.  They also had more homemade pies to offer.  We lost all resistance, Jan had her standard coconut cream and I tried the peanut butter pie.  No regrets, just guilt.  The only photos, we have, are in our heads of these wonderful foods , sorry I can't share with you.  Just "trust me".

The trip was wonderful .  Driving the Trace gave us a chance to view a little of what the earlier settlers had to deal with returning from Natchez.  It was amazing the money that must have been in this area during the early part of the nineteenth century.  Some of the plantations had over 60 square miles of property.  Since there was low labor expense, the owners made lots money and loved to flaunt it.  They openly tried to one up the others.  Homes of 30,000 to 40,000 square feet with Italian marble, hand carved cypress moldings, and stair cases that were actually past from family to family.

You are probably aware that we travel with our "cat", Frosty.  In the picture above, you can just see just how much fun he has on our trip.  He can hardly wait till we do it again.

We are talking HOT!!!

Who said it is HOT in the south. Each of the towns we were in showed on the bank thermometer 105 plus. Note the photo above.

Today we drove to St. Francisville, LA a small town about 50 miles south of Natchez. We heard that there were several plantations there. One of the plantations was where Jefferson Davis was raise. It was in Woodville, MS. Just north of the Louisiana line. It appears to be a working plantation even today.

One of the plantations was “Greenwood” about 7 miles northwest of St. Fancisville. When we arrived there was no question that we were there. This is what I’ve always thought of for a plantation to look like. Note in the photos Spanish moss hanging from the beautiful live oaks. They were preparing for a movie to be shot there. Originally part of a 12,000 property, it was still being used.

We continued to visit on into St. Francisville where we came upon an “old” plantation that was built in 1790 and is still owned by the descendants of the original family. This place was less of a show place and more of a utilitarian home.

One more stop took us to a state operated plantation called Rosedown. The state chose a beautiful plantation to show the public.

One thing I failed to mention yesterday, was after viewing Springfield, Winsor and Rosswood we were back in the area where we ate lunch on Monday. The Country Store, wow, what can I say but wow. This is the best chicken. Today we were told of an unusual restaurant just south of Natchez. Just so happened that we were in the area at noon. Man, what a lunch. Oh, I didn’t mention the desserts. Suffice to say we waddled out to the car, happy.

Trip to Vicksburg, MS

This morning we decided to head toward Vicksburg, MS. Since we had heard so much about it, we wanted to see its battle field. Along the way we knew of some plantations that we hoped to get a glimpse of. As we left Natchez we hopped back on to the Natchez Trace Parkway to get to a side road. This road was beautiful. No other traffic with beautiful trees overhanging it. About 5 minutes on the road and we spotted an old plantation called “The Cedars”. Since the gate was closed and it set off the road about 300 yards over looking a large pond, it was time to pull out the big lens.

Down the road about a mile was a beautiful old (old is everything here) church that sat on top of a hill. Coincidentally the community was called Church Hill. This church is the oldest Christ Church (Episcopal) in the State dating back to 1790. As much Spanish moss as there is here, it is very hard to put it into a picture.

Another mile or two down the road is the oldest remaining plantation within Mississippi. It is called “Springfield” and was built in 1790. In 1791 a young general from Tennessee by the name of Andrew Jackson married a young woman named Rachel Donelson. Since it turned out that Rachel’s divorce was not finalized, they had to remarry in Tennessee. Currently the plantation is owned by a realtor from Knoxville. He uses it as a get-away retreat and has it open to the public on Wednesdays.

Again on further down the road are the ruins of a plantation that had been built in 1861. This plantation had over 21,000 acres (over 30 square miles) associated with it. In 1890 it burned and what is left is a very startling reminder of what was standing here. There is no town close. This was a working plantation, where most are in town show homes.

Traveling on toward Vicksburg, we came upon another community, Grand Gulf, that was devastated in the “War”. The one thing that stood out here was a small church that was nestled into to the hillside. I always thought of this area of Mississippi being flat. NO WAY. There are hills, that if we were going to run here, would make me wish to be back home. Along this area is a soil that is called Loess and it has built up in this area from sediment deposited from the Mississippi river and from dust storms that deposited here on the eastern edge of the river.

The Vicksburg Battlefield is unbelievably hilly. It is completely on the Loess deposit. This deposit was a great fortification for Vicksburg. Gun placements completely prevented the river from being over taken by the Yankees. However, US Grant had other plans. After many sieges and a long wait finally the city of Vicksburg was handed over to Grant. I can’t go into the whole battle but you might find it very interesting. If sickness and the lack of support had not held the confederates back, Grant would have lost. He lost many more soldiers. This is also where the confederates used an electric bomb to destroy and “ironside” ship called “Cairo”. The remains have been pulled from the bottom of river in 1964.

Tour of Natchez

With Natchez on our agenda today, we started by stopping at the visitor center to get a plan together.  Our tour begins with one of the most noted homes in Natchez, Stanton Hall.  Even the entrance hall in this home was unbelievable.  It had 1600 square feet in it.  Ceilings on the main floor were 17’ and the second floor was 14’.  No photos were allowed in any of these homes but, I really want to show the crown molding.  It appeared to be close to 18” in depth.  Stanton was truly impressive.

Across town to Rosalie.  This house was the Union headquarters here during the civil war (war of northern aggression).  Its location had an unencumbered view of the Mississippi River.   The Yankees even liked this house.  They didn’t do any damage to it.

Longwood is the largest octagonal home in the US. It was to have nearly 30,000 square feet but the war began and the house stopped construction, since the workers dropped their tools and return to their Pennsylvania homes. The family took up residence in the basement and remained there for over 30 years. They lived there in only 10,000 square feet. This is a home to look up and see more of its history. The reason that the home was never finished is that the 42,000 acres of cotton generating land across the river in Louisiana became unmanageable without slaves.

Dunleith to us was the most beautiful of all on the exterior, columns and porches all around. Set on a knoll, it is very stately. We did not get to tour this home today. Our goal is to try and get back to it before we head home.

Jackson, MS to Natchez

What a beautiful morning.  Sky was perfectly clear with a slight breeze of the lake next to us.  We arose late and had breakfast before walking about 5 miles along the shore.  As we proceeded on the Trace this morning, we came to a ghost town from the mid eighteen hundreds.  All that is left is a Methodist Church complete with old cemetery and some traces of establishments (old safes and cisterns).  Nearly 2700 people lived there then.  Of these people 2000 were slaves.  Poor management of the land allowed for erosion and over use of the land.

From there we went on down to a place called “sunken trace”.  This was an area where the constant use of the Trace dug into the ground.  The depth was about 15 feet.  For those of us in Tennessee, it was like being in a big “wash or ravine”.

Our next stop was a couple of miles off the Trace in a town called Lorman.  This was our lunch stop.  It was in an old country store that had been converted into a restaurant.  I saw this while watching Alton Brown on the “Food Channel”.  The “Country Store” is billed as the best fried chicken anywhere.  Jan and I added two more votes to this billing.  WOW!!!   This was GREAT.  They had collard greens, black-eyed peas, green beans, boiled corn on the cob, potato salad, cornbread….  You get the idea of our choices.  I suspect this would be like dying and going to “hog heaven”.  As we waddled out and got back into our RV we were only about 30 miles from Natchez.

Next we came to an old home that was built around 1780 for a plantation from a land grant.  As the Trace became more used, it became an inn.  A descendent from the original family still works for the park service there now.  He will be retiring this fall at 72 years of age.  He was one of the last to be born in the home.  What a beautiful setting on a hill (of sorts) overlooking the Natchez Trace and their surrounding lands.

A couple of miles further we came upon the second largest “Indian mound” in the states. From end to end it stretches over 700 feet. The base mound is about 35 feet tall with a flat top and a couple of smaller mounds on top of that. These mounds were being used when DeSoto first visited this area. But about a hundred years later they had been abandoned. The thought is that DeSoto’s explorers brought diseases to the Indians that they could not fight, making them weak and unable to defend themselves.

Finally, arrival into Natchez! The road down has been lightly traveled and thankfully uneventful. This is one of the hardest trips (so far) to photograph. Everything is so similar to home. Tomorrow we visit some of the Natchez homes (they aren’t found much in our area), so photos may be some better (I hope).

Tishomingo to Jackson

As I have been told over and over, Mississippi is not a good place to be in August. It is beautiful and the Natchez Trace is so peaceful to drive. THANK GOODNESS for air conditioning!!! We started the morning with a hike in Tishomingo State Park. The park was nearly all ours. Very few people were around. It was hard to believe how little use this park was getting. The trail was nice along Bear Creek and into the rock bluffs overlooking it. We began the hike crossing Bear Creek by way of a tremendous swinging bridge. This bridge made me nervous since it was built back in the CCC days.

Seeing the Indian mounds awakens my history background. We pasted by two different locations today and I know tomorrow we will go by the second largest in the US. Not being from cypress country, I find these trees beautiful. Their knees surprised Jan. She wasn’t familiar with this feature.

Tonight, being in Jackson, we went to see the movie “The Help”. This is where the movie was based. And since we are nearly old enough to remember the sixties, a lot of the history was well remembered.

From Cookeville to Tishamingo MS

From Cookeville to Tishomingo


We began leaving Cookeville a little before 6 this morning. Waking up a little early I got to watch the “space shuttle” skim the western sky. Like last year just before Nashville we ran into a shower creating a mess on the tow (Jan’s car). We arrived at the Loveless Motel/Café for breakfast with Allie, Cindy and Vic. Great breakfast and off for our adventure. The Loveless is at the northern entrance with easy access. My apprehension of driving so slowly and being bored was quickly put to rest as we wound through the hills. One very exciting part for us was driving across the arched bridge where the Trace crosses highway 96 outside Franklin. Vic went ahead of us and shot a picture as we crossed it. Bicyclists were out in style this morning. I would have guessed somewhere around 250 bicyclist dotted the trace for the first 50 miles. We looked at them with amazement and then remembering 30 years ago we did the same riding from Lawrenceburg to Nashville one morning.

The old trace still shows itself along the way, giving us the opportunity to walk some of it. The feeling of walking a road that goes back over 8000 years. This is very hard to believe, but it has been documented that at an Indian mound just into Mississippi was used about 8000 BC. We are using a set of tapes to narrate our trip. This keeps Jan having to read to me as we go along.

The animals along the way make us think we have never left home. Turkeys and deer are everywhere. We actually saw one doe with triplets. The one exception to our home animals was the 6’ rattlesnake on the road.

The week before Natchez Trace Road Trip

Well, after nearly a year we are about to begin on an abbreviated trip down the Natchez Trace parkway.  The NT is about 440 miles long extending from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN.  Our trip will begin Saturday morning from Cookeville, TN.  Our first stop will be the Loveless Cafe in Nashville.  More important is that this is the entrance to the NT.   Unlike last year we are going to take our time.  Our first night will be in Tishamingo State Park in MS.  Along the way we will listen to a guided tour of the parkway.  My fear is that it may put one of us to sleep.  There is a lot of history on and along the Trace.  Before steamboats, goods were floated down the Mississippi to Natchez where they were sold to wholesalers there.  This included their boats.  In order to get back up where they could buy a boat and make the trip again they took this old road.  Along the way many were aware that these boaters were carring a goodly sum of money.  A lot of these were robbers and murders.  The trip was rather treacherous.  As we go along I'll try to update you.  Maybe there will be some photos that can be made and added to this.

I hope that we can convey to you a little of what we experience.  Get ready and we will start on Saturday.