Chinook RV

Xatlatc - I see you are working your way West and I'm assuming that your next stop will be my home town, New Orleans. Make sure to try the muffaletta sandwich from the Central Grocery across from the French Market, beignets from Café du Monde (also at the French Market) and oysters at the Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter.

Thanks for the updates - we're watching (and jealous!)

Paul

Paul I’ve considered going into New Orleans but I may wait until January when we really head west. But I will do some research on where to park for the night while there. I want to eat my way through the French Quarter. Ha.

We spent a few days in Bay St. Louis, Ms. The Visitor Center has a great collection of folk artist Alice Moseley who lived there for 34 years.
Currently staying at Fairview-Riverside State Park in Madisonville, La. about 30 miles north of New Orleans. Leaving tomorrow heading towards Baton Rogue.
I bet I could have sold my Concourse three times in the past four weeks.

Every time I read the title of this topic I am envious. I enjoy both the great pictures and narrative. My wife and I were fortunate in 1999 to take 6 months leave from work and travel the Western U.S.in our motorhome and towed Jeep so I have a taste of what you are experiencing. Keep the pictures coming!

Natchez, Mississippi. What a cool place to visit. The old downtown area has nice parks along the river to park and walk around. Old Antebellum houses to tour and a very large city cemetery plus a National Cemetery too. We had a great view of the tugboats working on the river. The barges are massive and the tugs have so much power the water provides strong currents behind it. Cotton was king here and it made some people very wealthy but most lost their wealth during the Civil War.
The house below is called the Longwood mansion. A cotton king named Haller Nutt had this eight sided home built in Natchez. The architect that designed it brought 70 skilled workers from Philadelphia down to build the house. Eighteen months later the war started and they didn’t feel comfortable in the South so they went back home with plans to return after the ‘ skirmish ‘ was over. They never returned and the family had to live in the ‘ basement’ of 10,000 square feet because Mr. Nutt had his fortune and plantations taken from him by the Federal government near the end of the war. Then he gets pneumonia and dies leaving his wife and eight children broke and in a unfinished 30,000 square foot house.
If I’m going to get to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, I need to put some miles on in the next few days. Last week we moved from one park to another,,, 2.5 miles away! Ha.
Tomorrow we’ll be driving the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Thanks the words Steve.

Saint Mary’s Basilica in Natchez.
Chinook parking spaces.
Monument dedicated to the fallen Gray. Facing north of course.

I've been mostly out west for awhile and those photos look so exotic! Sounds like you're having a great time. I bet the Natchez Trace is going to be a great drive (and some nice campgrounds right on it, too).

Natchez-Trace Parkway is a mostly two lane, 444 mile long road from Natchez, Ms to somewhere near Nashville, Tennessee with no stop signs or stop lights. At least I haven’t seen any on the 200 miles I’ve driven on it. There are free campgrounds along the Trace with paved pads and paved roads. Very nice. If you’re a bicyclist this is place for you. Relatively flat and smooth road. Bicyclists get to use the whole lane not just the side. Vehicles are advised to pass to get around them.
Then I saw a sign for Vicksburg...

So we got off the Trace and went to Vicksburg,Ms. to check out the ironclad Civil War ship USS Cairo. The Cairo was a Union ship with 178 men on board and is known as the first ship to be sunk by a ‘ torpedo ‘. It sank in a manner of minutes but no loss of life occurred. The Cairo sat on the bottom of the Yazoo River until some amateur history buffs found it 102 years later. It was raised out of the mud a few years later and as it was lifted up it broke into three sections. A wooden ‘ brace ‘ holds the ship together today. The Yazoo mud preserved almost 5,000 artifacts in near perfect condition which are on display in the museum.
Vicksburg National Cemetery holds over 15,000 Civil War soldiers and the area has over 1,500 monuments dedicated to the fallen. Very moving, just like Gettysburg and Arlington.