Natchez on the Mississippi

Well I cunningly combined a rather horrible hangover with forecasts for Wednesday of severe thunderstorms across Mississippi and even a Tornado warning for certain areas...........so the answer was I would take the day off, stay in my hotel and let the weather (and the nausea...)pass over me!

of course I know how to work the damn camera....

...see!

200 miles or so north of New Orleans, the hotel is in Natchez, Mississippi.....a little town on the Mississippi river.......man, that is one big river.......it is truly immense!

So the guys in the hotel tell to hit the 'Under the Hill Saloon' and so I duly follow the directions and find myself face-to-face with J.D. behind the bar.......he doesn't actually answer to J.D......his name is John David Montgomery but his friends call him John David! This little guy gave me a beer and while on the phone to someone else basically told me to follow him as he came out from behind the bar. Off we went into a back room, he points at the wall of photos, tells me to look at them and leaves...... I spent a few minutes in there and then head back to the bar to await the next episode....

J.D. is known as the Lil' Godfather....had been to Dublin and Dingle and so I was welcome! He wanted me to book into the guesthouse over the bar for the following night (USED to be a brothel......used to be I tell you) as he was promising a big crowd and lots of fun.....even got the owner to show me the rooms available.........

There was a some live music in the bar.....Barefoot Necessities.....a 3 piece (all playing semi-acoustic guitars and not a drum machine in sight!) and these guys were brilliant.....Gerry you would have loved it.....all 3 sang and played solo and in 3 part harmonies.......faultless.

So I had a good time there and then on the way back up the hill to my hotel I pop back into the bar I had dinner in......a couple of Chicago guys (headed for New Orleans and Mardi Gras) adopt me.....and we are chatting and having a laugh. I come back from the gents at one point and there is a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale in front of me......sitting beside my bottle of Heineken! Some american guy who I have not spoken to or seen all night is now telling me he bought this for me and as an Irishman wearing a Guinness t-shirt I shouldn't have any problems drinking a dark beer.......

....now I was drunk but not that drunk.....so I said thanks but no thanks as politely as I could and eventually (he didn't go easy!) he simply turned his back on me mid-sentence and ignored me.....I took that as my cue to leave......

So Wednesday is a write off but a day off couldn't hurt!

Thursday I headed north from Natchez to the Natchez Trace Parkway.....a route which runs parallel to Highway 61 and follows an old pioneer/indian trail and goes north for over 400 miles......the traders would boat their goods down past natchez headed for New Orleans.....sell the goods and the boats for lumber when they got there and then head home using the Natchez Trace.......it started as a trail made by roaming animals and then used by the native americans of the area and grew from there.

No commercial traffic is allowed and it runs through State Park so is basically deserted......I spent a couple of hours on it and saw maybe a dozen other cars as I made my way to Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was lovely but man it was cold.......the thunderstorms of yesterday took the warm weather with them.......was single digits C until mid-afternoon.

90 more miles of this........still on the right side of the road too!



Don't you recognise me Mom? Just a shadow of my former self....


Does my bum look big in this?

Well I must admit I expected great things of Vicksburg......hugely important in the Civil War and indeed there were a few cannons on the road into the town but it was also the first place where Coca Cola was bottled.....so there you go! I left it very disappointed indeed......was hardly worth stopping......except that I needed gas at the time!!

So I decided to get in the Interstate (I20) and cut across Louisiana and make my way into Texas. Got talking to 3 guys at various lunch/gas/rest stops along the way......all very friendly and interested in the trip.....one guy offered me his road atlas but I had to refuse as it was so big and heavy.....he also gave me his business card and said to call him if I needed any help or advice while in Texas.

While stretching my legs after filling the bike up with fuel I noticed my main bag was open.......it looks like the zip popped open on me at some point.....so I undo the zip and reseal it without a problem......have had problems with it before in that it doesn't lock when I zip it and I have to retry a second or maybe a third time but it usually remains closed once I shut it. Only thing I can think of is that I hit a serious bump in the road outside Monroe, Louisiana......I mean this thing lifted me right out of the seat (was doing 65-70mph) and shot pain right through my wrists and shoulders......and maybe that impact caused to zipper to open.

It looks like I lost a map of Louisiana (not something I will need again), the rain cover for the bag (would rather have held onto it but can live without it) and a 350ml bottle of Coke (just hope it didn't cause anyone any problems.......it was full and will have come off the bike at serious speed!)....so could have been worse I guess!

So I made it to Texas along I20 and then turned south and got on Route 70. I have made camp in Jacksonville for the evening. The girl at the hotel reception didn't know what the country of U.K. was (using my driving licence as I.D.)......she didn't know what United Kingdom was either so I had to explain things.......