Mississippi and more | 3/2/22 - 3/8/22
Our next picturesque village of the deep south was Natchez, Mississippi, 3/2/22 - 3/4/22. Natchez sits on the banks of the great Mississippi River, and River View RV park is on the Louisiana side, in Vidalia, LA. Natchez is the oldest town on the Mississippi and has a much bigger antebellum district than Natchitoches, but again we found a great economic and racial divide - this time the line was drawn at the Mississippi River. Vidalia, at least the section we saw between our camp and the bridge, was full of worn down and boarded up homes and businesses. Except, that is, for the churches. They were always well-kept, regardless of the condition of the homes right around them. The Mississippi River is (as expected!) huge. The RV park is right on the river’s edge, so we had a great view of the immense barges going up and down the river. The barges are the freight trains of the Mississippi, but the barges are blocked together rather than strung end to end. We counted a barge convoy 6 barges wide by 7 barges deep - 42 full-size barges being pushed up the river by one tugboat!
Natchez has many beautiful & historic homes. We stopped in on Stanton Hall mansion but tours were booked until later in the day so we looked around outside and proceeded on to brunch (as our tummies demanded!) The downtown has many shops and restaurants, etc, and there seems to be a revitalization happening in the area. We saw a film crew and catering set up on one beautiful street, and at our brunch stop at The Little Easy we noticed that the warehouse across the street is home to a film company. We’re beginning to see a theme of movies from the places we stay - maybe we need a page for that! We did look at a couple of beautiful historic houses for sale in our price range, including one a few doors away from Stanton Hall Mansion, but decided that the overall area really isn’t a good fit for us.
While in Natchez we also visited the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, which is home to a reconstructed Natchez house and three ceremonial mounds. These mounds once had structures built on them, as documented by French explorers of old.
We chose to visit Natchez for 2 reasons: 1) the historic town, and 2) its proximity to Laurel MS, the location of the HGTV show Home Town, which we enjoyed watching when we were back in Sutter. After our Natchez visit we moved to Laurel, and stayed at Sleepy Hollow RV Park, 3/4 - 3/8/22. We were surprised to find Mississippi to be heavily wooded, rather than agricultural. Laurel is a much larger town than is portrayed by the TV show, and much of it is typical mid-century American sprawl, strip malls, etc. The effects of the massive popularity of Ben and Erin Napier and the Home Town show were evident. The downtown Laurel area was bustling with tourists. It was fun to see some of the businesses that had been featured on the show, but as seems to be typical throughout the South, many businesses were closed on Sunday, which was our only rain-free day there. The businesses that were open were the 2 owned by Ben & Erin (commercialism never rests!) so we visited Ben’s workshop-turned-souvenir shop, The Scotsman General Store, which was PACKED with other tourists. Like good tourists, we bought a few t-shirts and a magnet for our refrigerator. After driving through the nearby residential areas looking for houses from the show, we had to wonder what this area will be like once the show’s popularity inevitably wanes. Yes, they’ve brought in tons of energy and demand for shops and homes now, but will it stick after the stream of tourists thins out? The locals we spoke with are dubious.
We are coming to the conclusion that the South is a beautiful place to visit, but probably not the place for us to call home.