A BIG storm brewing
We woke to a hazy but sunny day in Memphis and after breakfast in the Peabody Club Lounge, hit the road again for Natchez.
We drove briefly alongside the Mississippi River before heading inland slightly to join highway US 61, known as the “Blues Highway”. A lot of the legends of Blues music were born or learnt their trade in various towns along this highway.
As we headed south we could see clouds up ahead and as we continued the clouds got blacker and blacker, the lightning got brighter and brighter and we had visions of a tornado heading our way !
Guitars at the Crossroads US61 and US49
Luckily we seemed to skirt the edge of the worst of it but we still got a tremendous amount of rain on a couple of occasions. One being during our first stop at Clarksdale – which is a mecca for the Blues. At the corner of US 61 and US 49, there are 2 crossed guitars on a post (sorry about the poor picture but it was bucketing down at this point) which legend has it is the spot where Robert Johnson, said to be one of the founders of the Blues style, sold his soul to the devil for a guitar. I tell you with the lightning and thunder we had, the devil could easily have been making a return ! Clarksdale also has the Delta Blues Museum and a Blues club called Ground Zero which is owned by actor Morgan Freeman.
USS Cairo at Vicksburg
We didn’t get into either of these with the rain – besides the area ain’t the most attractive and with the devil around as well ……
Anyway we headed on and got past the rain into a sunny southern Mississippi and arrived at Vicksburg for a late lunch (Macca’s).
Vicksburg (along with Gettysburg) was a major battle in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln called it “the key to the war and the war would not be won until that key was in his pocket”. The area is a National Park – and I can imagine to thousands of American families who lost their forebears in the fighting there, a place to match the significance of Gallipoli or the Western Front to Australians. We drove around the battleground scenic loop and stopped at a few of the exhibits – one being of the remains of an ironclad gun ship that the Union Army used to get past the Confederate blockade on the river.
Our “Slave Quarters”
We continued on down US 61 – this is not an interstate so there is a lot more “back country” scenery to look at. One thing we found almost immediately in this part of Mississippi was miles and miles of cotton fields which still give the area a lot of its economy. The road is still pretty good although it was down to one lane each way at a couple of points – not a common occurrence on our trip so far.
Miss Adrienne
Arrived in Natchez about 4.30 and after being greeted by one of the owners in the plantation mansion – Twin Oaks, we were shown to our rooms – what were formerly the slaves quarters. I doubt the slaves had free wifi though !
Almost immediately we were in the door, Adrienne found the “dress up drawer” – Scarlet O’Hara’s hand me downs – in the wardrobe and just had to try them on. I’m not sure whether this or Disney has given her the most fun so far !
For dinner we went across the road to another plantation mansion called Dunlieth. That family made its money from cotton and it is one of the most photographed properties in Natchez. They have a nice restuarant (in fact Twin Oaks guests share it for breakfast as well) which was a former carriage house and stables for the property. We again tried some of the southern delicies – Adrienne had collard greens, we sampled another version of fried green tomatoes and Liam even tried grits !
Memphis to Natchez
We hope to see a bit more of Natchez and other plantation mansions in the morning before we head to New Orleans. So y’all have a good evening now !