Road Trip Day 6

2006 Road Trip Vacation – Thursday 2006-09-28

• Thursday morning I’m on my way out of the bug infested travel lodge and gonna see what to be seen in Natchez

• Riverboat gambling seems to have taken this place over too
• Natchez is a city of contrasts – beautiful old homes built in the 1830’s right next to run down pieces of crap – amazing

• Just so you know – Natchez isn’t some back water pile of sticks – they have pretty much all the stores you’d find in any mid-size town in the Midwest – just that the downtown area is a mixture of history and dishevelment
• I got onto 61 south and I see a sign for Natchez national historical park – so there I go!
• It turns out that the national park service acquired this civil war era estate in the 1980 and has restored it as close as possible to it’s condition in the 1850’s, even to the point of bringing in archeologists to examine the grounds to determine which plants were being grown at that time… it’s really beautiful

• Ok I need some coffee, water, some diet Pepsi and some food – probably not in that order – I have needs lol
• I bailed out on the coffee – went to see the Natchez grand village – or burial mounds – they called their chiefs “suns” – or whatever their translation was for the sun I guess is what they called them – when each “sun” died, their families were, according to this place, ritually “choked to death” and their bodies and house were burned on the mound. On top of their ashes would be built the home of the new “sun” and the process would repeat itself until…. I guess until the mound got too high J there are several ritual mounds in this area – the park service also rebuilt a grain drier since they (natchez people) were farmers too – so yeah – instead of coffee I bought waters, soda and sausage biscuits!

• And I’m heading south on 61
• Well you knew they had to grow them somewhere… I just saw a blueberry farm!
• I think I just saw a dead armadillo… is that possible?
• I was expecting the landscape here to be more boggy-marshy-swampy- than it is – the fact is that I’m 30 minutes or less from Louisianna and it’s a lot of pine trees and no swamps… grrr
• Fresh Cracklins….. what’s a cracklin?
• Despite my better judgment I’m taking 24 west out of Wooddale and see what’s there
• This area of Mississippi is very thickly forested
• So while 24 on the map show up on the map as a road that goes into Louisiana, state maintenance ends at Port Adams and uh… turns into dirt with no signs and no sense of where you’re actually going to wind up… so I’m going turn around and head back. Most of the structures here are on stilts, so …
• It’s about 11:30 and I’m back on 61 south
• Welcome to Louisiana!
• Getting off 61 that says historical district in Baton Rouge
• Looks like somehow I’m driving around a college campus
• Yeah, I’m not thrilled with where I’m at right now… I’m gonna try to get back on track…
• So somehow I accidentally figured out how to get back onto 61 south…
• It says Southern University – same as LSU? Probably not – I think LSU is Louisiana State…
• As I keep moving south through Baton Rouge on 61 South… I stopped and got some more water and gas and looked at the map, one of the things that appears to me is that Baton Rouge is basically connected to New Orleans so I’m running into traffic and crap like that… I still haven’t really decided if I was going to make my return trip west or east of this route – the weather is playing a factor as I heard there’s a cold front moving through tonight – west I may be able to get behind it – east I may be able to stay in front – or get stuck in it… either way I’ll need to decided soon as it’s 1pm on Thursday which means I’ll have about 3 days to cover the ground I’ve covered in 5 days already.
• In that vein I’m starting to question how much I really need to see the gulf… given where I’m at time-wise I’m just basically going to have to turn around unless I want to putz around here for a couple of days then do a mammoth drive back – I don’t even know how long that would take, so I’ll have to do that
• I gotta be honest – I’ve got no burning itch to… holy moly… dude! Wow – semi truck accident just about happened and I could have been in it… anyway – I have no real desire to be in new Orleans so I’m going to break off my Mississippi river chase right here and I’ll take 12 east to see if I can see some shore line in Mississippi or Alabama and unless I change my mind soon I’ll be making the return north through Mississippi or Alabama
• Another thing I notice – southerners don’t particularly believe in rest stops – which is particularly disconcerting for those of us with small bladders!
• In an effort to find a place to pee I’m in Madisonville!
• Here’s another friggin armadillo alongside the road!
• Madisonville is pretty cool – another river runs through it – a lot of docks – neat little resort place – I’m entering Mandeville now…

• That was close – I almost accidentally got onto the causeway to New Orleans – fortunately there was a turnabout I was able to turn around at
• Of course it would help if I knew what friggin road I’m on…
• Apparently I’m on the road I wanted to be on which is 190 west…
• All this area north of new Orleans are basically suburbs and it’s like everywhere else… traffic…
• Just saw a sign at walgreens here for flu shots… do they really have flu problems down here? It doesn’t get cold here does it?
• So… I’m seeing some areas, not many here, but some with the heap of crap piled along side the road I can only assume that it’s left over from Katrina damage…
• I pulled off of the highway looked like there was police activity ahead – I’m into a marsh wildlife preserve, so hopefully by the time I’m done looking around they will have finished what they’re doing…
• I pulled off to the side here – looked around on the ground and at the trees… many of the trees are snapped off and fallen in all directions and there’s clearly things laying on the ground that people wouldn’t haul back here to dump – it looks to me like some of this is garbage carried in here by Katrina…

• Having said that… there’s a fridge in the ditch…
• Of course people could also be using this as a dumping ground… not unheard of… with all the garbage that needs to be hauled I imagine people might be include to just dump it in here
• I just passed another housing development where whole chunks of a 3 foot brick wall were laying on the ground so I think that pretty much seals it…
• I’m back out of the wildlife refuge and I’m on something that I’m hoping is 190
• We heard so much about the flooding in new Orleans with the levee breaks, and that’s pretty much all we’ve heard… but the destruction is just… unbelievable.. .there are a lot of homes still standing, but there is a lot of stuff still trashed… there’s demolition and construction happening everywhere…
• Whatever I was on ran into junction 11…
• Anyway… there’s a wreck in front of me so what I’m going to try is take 11 north then take something else east
• I’m in Sidell!
• I just picked up 190 east again…
• I’m bailing on 190 and get onto Interstate 10 East
• It’s really hot here.. .dunno what the temp is but it’s too hot to wear a damn cap!
• I’m back on 10 east now…
• Observation – people in Louisiana definitely do not drive the speed limit – especially here on Interstate 10
• Back into Mississippi now
• They have a few bridges out here along the gulf which rules out a complete drive through the gulf – so I got some instructions from an attendant at the welcome center and I’m now heading to the gulf to look for a place for tonight
• This is also the home of Stennis space center – at the rest area they’ll bus you there and give you tours – it’s apparently the largest test rocket center we have
• If you’re not going about 90mph here you’re going to get your ass totally run over
• This is apparently a really slow time of the season for the tourist places here… the lady at the visitors center said I should have no problem finding a place to stay tonight (clearly not knowing what to expect)
• Exit 24 and I’m on my way to see the gulf!
• A lot of new homes going up in this area
• Tada! I am here! Wow…
• I cannot believe the destruction I’m seeing… I had no idea things were still as wrecked as they are…

• 2 places I’m looking at are Beau Rivage and Best Western

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