Natchez Trace May 2023 Part 1

 Calvin and his brother took an epic bike ride on the Natchez Trace Parkway.I went along in the car for support and while they were riding I actually got to visit the sites along the way and walk segments of the original Natchez Trace.

We flew to New Orleans and then rented a car and drove to Natchez, Mississippi.  We didn't have time to explore Natchez, but we did spend the night at the Linden Historic Bed and Breakfast.

After a very formal breakfast the boys hopped on their bikes and headed for the parkway.

While they rode I visited the Emerald Mound used by the Natchez people AD 1250-1600 as a ceremonial mound.

Mount Locust Historic Inn, the last remaining historic roadside inn on the Trace built about 1780 with a lovely little cemetery

then I walked a segment of the original trace

After the bikers finished we visited Vicksburg Military Park

We spent the night at the Colima Plantation Inn

The bikers headed off 

and I explored the ghost town of Rocky Springs which consists of a few foundations and church built in 1837 which is still used today.

and I walked another segment of the Old Trace

In the late afternoon we did a walking tour of downtown Jackson Mississippi, the state capitol, which was surprisingly deserted at that hour, but did have a Smith Park where Calvin and James posed for pictures

and a lovely statue dedicated to the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the veterans of the Confederacy.