Natchez and The Big Easy

     After two days driving the Trace, I stayed three nights at Natchez State Park.  Unlike most state parks I have encountered on my previous trips, this one had a shower.  Natchez was one of the first towns established along the Mississippi river in MS.  The town sits some 200 feet above the river on some bluffs, so has never flooded. The surrounding lowlands on both sides of the rivers were filled with plantations growing cotton.  The high spot with less fertile soil was left for the mansions.

     Twice a year THE Garden Club of Natchez runs tours of the antebellum mansions. Natchez is known for its mansions 90 % of which are still standing, because they were not burned by Grant during the Civil War. Apparently Natchez had nothing strategic for the war such as a railroad.  I had bought morning and afternoon tickets which allowed me to tour 6 homes.  I only toured five, and five was too many.  Natchez was a bust for me. I had a preconceived notion of the town. There are about 1000 buildings in town on the Register of Historic Places but it is a town which has seen better days. The mansions I saw are in terrible condition. In some, an owner greets her guests before the tour and describes the long line of relations who have owned and lived in the homes. None are in the hands of the original owners. The original owners all went belly up when the plantation system with its reliance on slaves ended. And I say 'good.'  I did, however, expect the current owners to have kept the buildings in good shape. But I don't think any, with the exception of one I saw have the were with all to pay even the taxes.

     I hate to say it but I think the Pilgrimage and everything associated with it is a relic from the past. Every single home I saw had a photograph of an occupant wearing a long white gown with a train, a crown on the head and holding a scepter. They all, at one point had been queen of the Garden Club's Ball.

     The one home I did enjoy touring was called the Gardens.  Every home has a famous name.  This one however, was owned by a radiologist and his wife who raised a family here. It was built in 1794 and built in the federalist style, although it was only a single story with very high ceilings.

     I was scheduled to see 5 mansions on the first day and 1 more on the next but I didn't bother. I spent the day reading a Nevada Barr novel.  Her protagonist is a woman who is in the law enforcement division of the National Park Service and her territory is the Natchez Trace Parkway. It was a great story because I had just driven on that part of the Trace. It was also a chance to just sit and relax. My neighbor camper and his wife invited me for dinner which was great.

     Driving to New Orleans was easy. It was on a divided highway with limited access but no interstate designation.  The KOA campground is only 12 miles from the French Quarter and the campground runs a free shuttle to and from the French Quarter. On Friday I couldn't get a space on the shuttle so decided to tour two antebellum sugar cane plantations.  Both were on River Road which runs along the levee between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The river was at near to flood stage but was never visible unless the levee was climbed. On the other side of the road was an intensely interesting amalgamation of what every town planner fears. I don't think there are any zoning laws. The land is intensely flat, I mean flat flat. It spreads out and seems to go on forever. There were fields of sugar cane and more fields of sugar cane but also interspersed are chemical plants, grain depots, refineries, churches, joints, new McMansions in their so called gated communities, and little towns. There were huge facilities which had piping which ran up and over the road to river terminals on the other side of the levees.  There were also a huge number of pumping stations.  Lord knows how they build these places because the bottom lands are all silt down several hundred feet .

     The first plantation was called "Laura, a Creole Plantation." Creole has nothing to do with the color of your skin, it simply means you were locally born.  The style of the main house was of a more relaxed form of architecture but it was built up on stilts of cypress wood and brick.  The place had several families which owned it, but it too, as in Natchez, went belly up.  Same tradition of slave labor but different crop.  This one grew sugar cane.  To this day Domino has one of its largest plants in New Orleans along the waterfront.  It was disgusting to read in the museum the price for the slaves the owners paid.  St Charles Parrish required the slave owners to give each family a 16 x 16 ft space in which to live. Two families would share a central chimney. You have all seen pictures of slave cabins!  Unfortunately, after the war most former slaves had to sign on as "freemen." They were paid in plantation money which of course was only good at the plantation store.

     I have to admit that seeing the iconic Oak Alley Plantation was on my bucket list. The alley itself did not disappoint. There were only 14 trees per side of the 1/4 mile alley but those 14 live oak trees completely shaded the distance.  There are live oak trees everywhere. And because it had rained the Resurrection Fern growing along their limbs perked up.  If it hasn't rained the fern look all brown and shriveled up but come the rain, they immediately green up.  The trees at Oak Alley were probably transplanted as mature trees but nothing like the massive hulks that they are today. The limbs span out so far that they reach the ground but grow back upward looking as though they have gone underground for a section or two.  The mansion?  Blech! What ever, it was big with 28 windows, 28 doors and 28 trees. High ceilings, massive dark wardrobes. yadda, yadda all built on the backs of slaves. The Shermans, the last owners bequeathed the grounds and buildings to the state.

     My visit to NOLA yesterday happened to coincide with a Music Festival.  Every public space in the Quarter was decked out with a bandstand and vendors of drinks and food.  And I mean drinks. Hard liquor and beer. The place was mobbed.  I walked down to the levee on the river and booked a luncheon cruise aboard the Natchez, a stern wheeler.  New Orleans is a considerable distance from  the Gulf of Mexico. The river at New Orleans runs west to east with Lake Pontchartrain to the north.  The directions all got me confused at first. During Katrina it wasn't the river that flooded, it was the Lake.  New Orleans is one of the largest ports in the world with its main commodity grain. There are funny square faced tug like ships which hitch up grain barges to the front and push them down the river. The grain barges are very long and low with rounded metal roofs. The Natchez is a steam driven stern wheeler, another item on my bucket list. While on board we were seranaded by a dixie land jazz band and boy were they good.  Afterward I strolled the French Quarter going east towards Cafe Du Monde, famous for its beignets.  Basically a beignet is a light piece of fried dough, presented smothered in confectioners sugar.  I don't know how I scored a seat so easily, but I found a seat in the a/c and was mighty glad. Temperatures were registered in the 80's with 99.9% humidity.

     Everywhere I strolled there were pop up bands or kid drummers not to mention the scheduled acts. I found a nice clothing shop where, out the back door, was an 8 piece brass band from Wales, UK playing some great music. I found a seat there and talked with a New Zealand couple who lived and worked in Brazil. She said Brazil now has a fascist leader.  I asked why people would vote for a fascist and she responded that 'fake news' was responsible.  Go figure!  I finally decided I would hit Bourbon St on my way back to the shuttle. There was a great jazz group performing which had the most fantastic clarinetist playing. She was black and she was old and apparently famous!  And I got to hear her play and sing!

     Bourbon street was mobbed, both on the street and up on the metal-worked balconies.  I think I was the only person who was not carrying a drink. Nor did I barf on the sidewalk but I had to step over numerous ...........

      Today I used the shuttle again to go back to the French Quarter but I immediately started to return to the campground via the green trolley which negotiates the historic St Charles District. The St Charles district is THE address to have apparently. There is some really wonderful architecture. In fact the whole city has some fantastic architecture of which I took nary a picture. If I started taking pictures of every ........So then the trolley took so long to wend it's way along I missed the bus because of the Sunday schedule.  But it was so great to be able to get a local bus back to the campground.  I am now sitting at the campground with my wool hat and fleece on. My hands are so cold I can barely type. Yesterday was so  hot and muggy but a raging storm went through last night bringing a 20 degree drop in temperatures. I slept through most of it last night because I was so tired.  So I have seen the Big Easy and I never have to go back to NOLA!

Tomorrow I am off to Texas.

Pictures to follow when I get a better band width with which to download.