Topics covered during today's drive included "that's a big plane up there; what kind of plane is that" (it was a 777, we think), the bet-hedging politicians in Missouri who are careful to sometimes call it Miss-ou-ree and sometimes Miss-ou-rah, whether the rapper Young MC was an ivy-leaguer (no, but he graduated from USC), the kinda-mean-and-kinda-sad-but-also-kinda-funny expression "Thank God for Mississippi," and the source of the popular misconception that the food additive MSG is bad for you (a letter to a medical journal in 1968.)
The Natchez Trace Parkway runs in a straight line between Nashville and Natchez, but it is pretty well superfluous as a point-A-to-point-B transportation option. The route we took instead was 65 miles longer between the two cities, but it saved us two hours. That's the beauty of it: you have to really want to waste your time if you choose the Trace. So from what we have read it is used mostly by pokey nature lovers and hippies in Subarus and Priuses (Priis?). Those groups tend to be pretty bike-friendly.
Our trip today took us through Memphis, so we took the opportunity to stop at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was murdered in 1968:
The Motel is now the site of the National Civil Rights museum, but they have maintained the facade as it was back then. It is a really moving place to visit.
After our visit to the Motel, we stopped for lunch at Rendezvous, a "dry rub" barbecue spot in Memphis that has been around since the late 1940s. We had beer (not for the driver, of course), and sausage, and ribs, and cole slaw, and beans, and rolls. We really had no choice: we need fuel for the coming days.
After a quick stop across the street to see the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, we headed south into Mississippi. Making good time as we approached Natchez, we decided to take a short detour to Windsor Ruins, a used-to-be antebellum mansion. The dude that built it (unsurprisingly) made his fortune as the owner of a cotton plantation, and spent the equivalent of $4 million building it in 1861. It was three stories tall, with indoor bathrooms that flushed using rainwater that they collected in giant tanks in the attic. Pretty cool stuff.
The mansion was captured during the Battle of Vicksburg, and had the good fortune of surviving the war fully intact because it was used by the Union as a hospital and lookout point. It was not until 25 years later that the mansion met its fate. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, the end came not with a bang but a whimper: during a party, a guest dropped a still-lit cigarette onto some construction materials and the resulting fire burned the whole place to the ground. Oops. The only things left are the giant brick-and-concrete columns that draw the outline of the place; as you look at them you can sort of rebuild the giant mansion in your head and imagine what it must have been like when a house filled the space between. It was a neat place to visit.
We made it to Natchez by early evening, and headed into town for dinner at King's Tavern. The restaurant is in the oldest structure in Natchez, and was built with wood from flatboats that came down the Mississippi River in the mid-1700s. It was impractical for the boatmen to bring them back upriver, so they would chop them up and sell off the wood for construction in town. The food was excellent and the place was very relaxed. It was just what we needed to work out the details of the next six riding days.
On the way home from dinner, we hit 1000 driving miles since we began.
Tomorrow, we'll begin the 444 riding miles, which is why we are here to begin with. We hope to be on the Trace by 8:00 or so, after a good southern breakfast and a healthy dose of coffee. See you tomorrow night.
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