Natchez to Vicksburg

I am traveling RT 61, which parallels the Mississippi. A sign says, “welcome to the blues highway” Again the road stretches out with a pleasant country drive. I love the fact there are no billboards. How many beautiful roads are ruined by those? It makes a huge difference. If you live in a state that bombards you with billboards, do yourself a favor and move. Approaching Vicksburg there is a massive grouping of sprawl…On either side of the highway is everything awful all lumped into one area. Why anyone would drive to the intersection of two interstate to buy a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken is really beyond me. For one thing it is simply gross, but then to eat it on a highway? This really makes me question humanity. I pull off the highway at the downtown exit and am immediately confronted with “riverboat casinos” now I have to admit I know nothing about these. I actually thought they were riverboats. Which sounded kinda cool. Turns out they are just huge casinos where the gambling area is floating in the river. They dress it up like a riverboat but it is not a boat. They have the hotel and the parking lots and everything else on land. Does this make any sense at all? When you think about it, it is preposterous. We allow you to build a mighty complex to support you casino but the actual gambling must take place 6 inches from shore in the river. Totally insane. Similar to Bill Clinton's definition of sex. We don’t call it gambling cause were floating in 6 inches of water.
I head for town and pass through some pretty crappy areas. The town itself is fairly unimpressive. Apparently Vicksburg was burned not once but twice. I would suggest three times a charm….Ok that might be a bit harsh; there is a small downtown area intact that they are trying to revive. I went downtown at night. Stopped into some random second story bar. It was a typical sports bar thing, ten TVs blaring mindless sports events. It was empty except for a couple from London. They were on a road trip also. They had started in Dallas and were going to Memphis. They had been all over the USA in similar jaunts. They liked Mississippi as much as I did. They weren’t keen on the bar though. After they left I headed out. I was looking for dinner and stopped into an upscale place. Once again I went to the bar....noticing a pattern here. There is a group in there of people my age, 50ish. The women are all southern belle types. All singing with Seline Dion who is doing some concert on the TV. I keep my mouth shut and tell them I love Seline. The fat rich guys are all pompous and very crude. With the woman feigning shock and embarrassment with every sexual comment. What a fucked up world. I am going back to my crap ass hotel by the highway and leaving at first light.

It is Sunday morning and I pack up and head back to St Francisville for a closer look at the town. The central area if town is small and easily walked in an hour. As I said the homes are really cool. All different. There is an area of maybe 5 blocks that hold most of these. Church is just getting out. It is set under the spread of huge oak trees. Picture postcard stuff. Up the street a bit I come to a place called “grandmas buttons” I find it odd as my wife and I made a living for 15 years selling button jewelry. I go inside and sure enough that is what this store is selling. This again strikes me as just a really strange coincidence. Between the band last night and someone selling button jewelry in a town very much like our home town I start to feel like I may have stumbled into some kind of parallel universe. Perhaps it is fate, maybe this is the place and I can now stop my search….well that seems a bit premature. Maybe all of Mississippi is like this? Only one way to find out. I pull onto RT 61 North and head towards Natchez. I put in my CD from last night and it sounds as good as I remember. The day is bright and warm; the road passes by incredible plantation homes set back off the road. Huge oaks mark the driveway. The road is smooth the countryside is very pretty some cows, some farms. Around noon I approach Natchez. I start to see some of the modern sprawl springing up. Most everything you need is here. A sign points to downtown. The road stops being a highway and winds its way under tree filled streets with antebellum homes. The town itself has been able to remain intact several miles from the sprawl zone. It sits on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Being Sunday there is little going on. The town architecture looks to me like a cross between New Orleans and Wild West town. I do a driving tour of the area. The houses that surround the town are in the same style of St Francisville except that there are tons of them. Even the crappy falling down ones look cool. I am once again really stunned by how nice everything is. I take back all that stuff I said about the South. I see a place called “fat mama’s tamales” with tables out and people eating so I decide to check it out and get some lunch. I pull up to the bar and order a beer. This is all that is necessary to be able to elicit conversation from someone. Immediately after saying” I’ll have a Bud” I will inevitably get a response like “ well mister you got some kinda accent their, where you from” Within a few minutes I have the whole kitchen crew standing in front of me. All very excited about the yank. I ask about the town and they all want to answer at once. According to them this was once the richest town in the United States. It was a center for shipping cotton that would come from all over the south and get loaded onto barges and shipped to New Orleans. The union army apparently sparred the town as “ to beautiful to burn” I decide to try a basket of Tamales. Now I have never had one and actually didn’t know what they were but they are apparently popular along the river down here. For those who don’t know it is basically some kind of meat filling surrounded by cornmeal dough. This is then wrapped in a cornhusk and they boil them. I have to honestly say I am not sure what the fuss is about. They seemed kind of bland and nasty to me. I finally had to let the kitchen crew get back to work. My novelty only lasts so long. I did a walking tour of the town. I saw a someplace called something like the “blues bar and grill” I went on in for beer. The beer was very cold and there was a large flat screen TV over the bar. The DVD they just put in was BB King LIVE.
What can I say, I may never leave.