Natchez in Review

Time to Post a Blog again. Just trying to keep everyone updated to the Langs Adventures.
Since last blog day before yesterday, we have seen a lot of the sites of Natchez. Yesterday started something like this:
Ahhh Glorious sunshine this morning.
Took a city tour of Natchez today- Denice and I the only ones on the bus so we had service plus!!

Saw most of the Antebellum homes during the one hour tour.

Then came home for lunch and then returned to Natchez for our own tour.

Stopped and did a detailed tour of one of them. It was called Longwood, and was an octagon shaped one with construction starting before the civil war, but never completed because of the war. This taken from their Web site:

No site epitomizes more the rapid rise in wealth that one could attain in the pre-Civil War era, nor the rapid rate of decline in wealth in the post-bellum era. This six-story 30,000 square foot mansion was designed by Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia for wealthy planter Haller Nutt and his wife, Julia Williams Nutt. As it was nearing completion, the Civil War began and the workmen dropped their tools and went home. Haller died in 1864 and his wife Julia continued to live in the finished first floor that today contains many original family furnishings. The upper five stories are an architectural wonder - a magnificent work in progress where time just stopped and stayed. This grandest octagonal house in America is a National Historic Landmark.

one can see more about each of the registered houses at:
http://www.natchezpilgrimage.com/dailytour.htm

Of course no historic site visit would be complete without a trip to the old cemetery. Lots of 1800's ghosts there!! End of the day.

Then today:
Late start this morning
Then about 11:00AM took a drive down the west side of the Mississippi for about 85 miles to New Road (Name of a town), and then crossed the Mississippi on a ferry and returned through St. Francisville and returned to Natchez on highway #61 by 5:00PM

A good trip with lots to see. The west side road is mostly built on the levee that holds the river back. As the ground is sooo flat, the levee is up to 50ft high. Me, being a construction guy, recognize the sheer magnitude of a project like this, to do both sides of the river for hundreds of miles. One of the things that boggles my mind is "Where did all the fill come from?" If the fill is 59 ft high, with a 2 lane highway near the top, and 5:1 slopes on each side, this works out to approximately 2,650,000 yd3/mile!!

Staggering!!!
And no borrow pits. At least it is not evident to me, to see any. Could it be from dredging the channel? I guess it's a job for me to research on the internet.
Denice took lots of pics of water birds. Cranes, egrets, cormorants (at least that is what I called them, but she thought they were anhingas), hawkes, and vultures.

But John Bown, the Roseate Spoonbill, still alludes her. She says, "You wil be eating your words" before this trip is over.
For those that don't understand the last comment about John Brown. He is a good friend of ours that we spend a fair amount of time with last winter down in Rock Port Texas. As you all know how Denice is about taking pictures of every type of Flora and Fauna that she comes across, well while on the Gulf Coast, she was determined to get a shot of a Spoonbill. So, time after time we pulled to the side of the road to try and capture a shot of one. No Luck. She was bamboozeled. Anyway, John sent her a photo of one that he says he took on an early morning walk along the coast. Hmmm, there or Florida? We are not sure!