PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE THEM AS A SLIDE SHOW!
I should really change the title of this post to PORT GIBSON, NATCHEZ, LORMAN, AND ONWARD, MS because these are the towns we visited today, our last here in Mississippi. Tomorrow we head to West Monroe, LA, a very easy 88 mile drive so we can hunt down the Duck Dynasty folks and get Louisiana on our USA map on the side of our RV!
But, before I get ahead of myself, let me say this ... You have heard the saying "it's a small world", right? Well, later on in this post I will tell you a true story that makes this saying truer than ever!
Our plan today was to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway (NTP) at Mile Marker 1 until it brought us back to Vicksburg. We drove nearly 100 miles on the Parkway, a beautiful, easy drive with historical areas along the way.
Before reaching NTP we drove by Fort Gibson, a town U.S. Grant said was "Too beautiful to burn down". Thom took a side street so we could drive through Fort Gibson. There was not much to be said about this old city but this beautiful old building:
The best way to describe the NTP is to simply put it in pictures, so here goes:
Remember at the beginning of this blog about it being a small world? Well ... the Visitor's Guide Book mentioned the "Old Country Store" in Lorman, a great place to stop for lunch and so we did. After having a great buffet of the best fried chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese, green beans, cole slaw, corn bread, and then topping it off with blackberry cobbler for me and peach and blackberry with ice cream for Thom, one of the staff members asked where we were from. When I told them Florida, a general answer, the staff member said the owner was also from Florida. I asked where and he said, "Fort Pierce"! Seriously! Well, that conversation brought us to the owner's son who graduated from Westwood High School in 1988! Further investigative questioning by me, I asked him if he played sports at Westwood. He did ... football. The young man's name is Arthur Davis, as is his father's. They mentioned Avenue D and Miracle Ribs! True! It was a nice way to end a great lunch!
By the way, The Old Country Store is quite famous! Just a couple months ago actor Matthew McConaughey passed through town on his way to Louisiana to film a movie and stopped to have some of Mr. Davis' fried chicken, which was named one of the best 25 fried chicken restaurants in America! Thom and I agree, the food was absolutely the best!
BB, Thom, Mr. Davis, Me
Mr. Davis and his son, both Arthur, born and raised in Fort Pierce, FL!
After lunch we headed back on to the NTP, which continued to be a quiet drive. Here is the rest of our journey in pictures:
After returning to Vicksburg, we headed north on US 61 to find where Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a chained bear cub, thus the start of the Teddy Bear (or so they say). The drive on US 61 brought us through the Delta and the fertile farmland. It was an easy drive, but we were disappointed when the store owner would not let us in, saying they were closed, but it was 5:45 p.m. not 6:00 p.m.! Oh well ...
And to end this blog ...
Great pictures of the NTP and places to see along the way.
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