Natchez in the Rear View Mirror

Guess its time to move on. We were planning to travel on to Biloxi area on Monday, but weather forecast was not good, with heavy rain forecast for the next 2 days, so we just decided to sit tight and vegetate until Wednesday when the weatherman says it is to be sunny. We have no timetable, so sitting an extra few days has no impact on us. And rain it did!! Extremely heavy during the last two nights.
BUT IT"S BETTER THAN SNOW, THAT YOU FOLKS BACK HOME ARE EXPERIENCING!!!
When we originally checked in at this RV Park, the lady at the counter, recommended that we sign up for "Passport America", that give 50% rates for over 1500 RV Parks in the US, Canada, and Mexico, with some stipulations about week-ends and holidays. Becoming a member costs $44/year, so she showed that if we had been a member we could have paid for the membership during that 1 week stay. So, after some deliberation, the next day we went to the office and signed up. Now when we decided to stay another two days, we were now members, so the rate was only $22/night, rather than the $44.

Now, what we did for the last period of time since my last Blog.
Lets see, the last I did was on the 4th. On the 5th we drove up the Natchez Trace. Woke up to some snow, but went anyway. Phiedeaux thought it tooo cold to go, but we just covered his ears and took him anyway!!

This is a scenic 2 lane highway that extends from Natchez 444 miles to Nashville, Tennessee, Of course, we were not able to drive it all, in fact only about 65 miles, and that took us from about 10:00AM until 3:00PM.

Yes, that is snow!! 1/2 inch of the stuff!!

There is just so much to see and so many stops to check out things. One of the unique things about it is, that it travels through what appears pristine forest land, and wetlands, where Spanish Moss and Vines cling to all the trees. But unknown to the traveler, there are rural communities all along the route only short distances from the road.

An old Indian Pyramid. It is huge, almost on the scale of the Aztecs.
Some great planning must have gone into this to hide it from those that use it. Also just a few miles away, is highway #61, a super interstate highway for those that are in a hurry. Speed limit on the Natchez Trace is 50 mph. After our 65 mile drive we jumped onto the Freeway and were back home in an hour. Well,we took a little unplanned detour that added another 1/2 hour. Never Lost!! Only taking the scenic Route!! Thats my story and I'm sticking to it!!

The Old Original Natchez Trace. It was the route that the settlers used to return home from taking their product to market down the Mississippi to Natchez. They would boat their product down, but were unable without power to return upriver, so would sell their boats at Natchez and walk home up the Natchez Trace.

A harvested Cotton Field. Looks like a lot left there yet?

Looks like Gator country to me!

Then the 6th, 7th, and 8th, we did very little, but rested, shopped for groceries one day, and just generally relaxed. I, for one never get tired of seeing the big tugs pushing their barges up and down the river. For a landlubber like myself, I find it really intriguing. Had a chance to talk to an old neighbor RV'er today who had spent a lot of time on the river as a deck hand, and he filled me in on a lot of details, that I did not know. Most of the river traffic consists of grain going down the river and Oil up. Big barge groups go from New Orleans to Alton,IL, just up river from St Louis. The reason being this as the stop point, is that from there upstream there are locks, that require splitting the load. Downstream there are no locks. Some of the tugs take as many as 21 barges per trip. That is 3 wide by 7 long. In fact, we even saw one group that 2 tugs had joined together pushing their load of 42 barges before them. Now that is a lot of freight!!

My informer told me that each tug is equipped with 2 diesel electric power units of about 7800 hp each. Crews on one of these big tugs number about 18 members. They work 6 hours on and 6 hours off, with only 2 crews. He says that although some of them look a little rough on the outside, each captain is very proud of his boat, and they are extremely clean inside. He likened it to a first class hotel, complete with cook and helper. Return trip from New Orleans to St Louis is about 15 days. There is a interesting page about the Mississippi at this link:

http://www.caleuche.com/River/RiverFacts.htm

And of course a sunset to end the day!!