TO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR DAY, VISIT YOUTUBE VIDEO LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT VIDEO 13.
Got up at 6am, ate, fueled up the car and were on the road by 7am. On the drive, I stopped near Rolling Fork at some abandoned buildings. Drove a little way on a little dirt road to access the buildings. This was a great first stop ... got some great photos here.
Nancy and I traveled on the Blues Highway Number 61 for most of the trip. Along the way there were different side points of view such as the one showing below. So much interesting history.
We stopped in Vicksburg and saw this old railway station building. There is also a concrete wall that seems to start here and go south along the river bank.
This was a little history in the area that took place on the Mississippi River.
A view along the Mississippi River.
Love the old trees ... this one certainly had character.
Nancy and I continued our drive to Natchez ... a town loaded with history. We took a little side road that led us to this plantation, a National Historical Park ... Melrose Site. This plantation still has the slave quarters standing ... so much to see here. We walked around, but no one was available for the tour at this time, however, there was a sign that indicated to feel free to walk around using a self guide map and information about each building. This was an excellent site to visit.
Nancy and I were going to tour one of the old plantations, but talked to this lady that was doing a tour around the town and included seeing the outside of many of the plantations along with some other very interesting buildings. She drove us around in an electric cart. This was a great tour to learn so much about the history in this town.
The first stop was at this home that belonged to William Johnson, who was once a slave, but was given his freedom by his owner who was also named William Johnson. Many rumored in the community that the slave William Johnson was his son, but is believed not to have been the case. William Johnson, once freed, was given a house and he started a barbershop business. He became so successful he ended up opening 3 barbershops and other businesses as well. It ended up that next to his home, he had a dispute with his neighbor over the border. His neighbor shot and killed William Johnson. Because of the times and the laws, or limited laws, Williams Johnson's murderer [his neighbor] was never sentenced due to the fact that there was no law for killing an African American.
Many of the buildings in Natchez had been restored to their original style. There is an association in this community that has ceased the destruction of many of these old historical buildings.
A while back, a lady was working in her home and came across some old negatives [for photographs] in her home. Apparently there were three avid photographers in the area that had photographed many aspects of the history in the area. She had approached a doctor friend that had an interest in photography and he absolutely wanted to have them. When he started to dig them up, the number of negatives were in the thousands. The doctor and his wife restored the photos and had done a couple of international tours linked to these particular photo's. The doctor got tired of having so many people coming to his home to see the photo's that he decided to give them to the Church and they are on display in the back room of the Church in the picture below.
This community has an artist who carves from trees using only a power saw. The owner of this house had a tree that broke and asked the artist if he could make something out of it. The artist indicated that because of the trees that were damaged in the area he was booked up for over a year, but that if he gets a cancellation he would come over and do it for the owner. The artist had a cancellation and in 6 hours with only a power saw had made a very detailed bird.
This building was linked to the law in the area. They had hanged individuals on the third floor [the two small windows shown] and you could see the person hanging from the second floor. The third floor had a section of the floor that would drop.
In the very front of this building, Choctaw Hall, there are two spherical balls, one on each side of the step. These were actually canon balls that had been fired at this building, but did not hit the building. The owner of this estate found the balls beside his home where they landed. He placed them in front of the house as a reminder that anything can be destroyed and to not take things for granted.
Other architectural amazement in the area including these plantation home estates.
This building was the original fire station. Certainly a great deal of character is noticeable.
In this window one can see the American Eagle and other details ... a lot of detail was created in this particular window.
This particular plantation was built in 1857, the date was carved out in the woodwork above the columns. The gate and fence are original with this building and have not been painted over.
A huricane had come through this community and is not usually the case. This hurricane had ripped off seven of the steeples and were blown quite a distance from this church. Five of the steeples were found, brought back and repaired back onto the Church. Two of the steeples were never found. This gives an indication of how strong the wind was ... each steeple weighed an unbelievable amount.
This building is considered the oldest Slave home still standing in the area.
This is Rosalie's Plantation home. Apparently, over 90% of the household items are original ... this is a very unique feature about this particular home.
As indicated above, Nancy and I left Memphis at 7am, arrived in Natchez at around 1:15pm. We spent a fair bit of time in this area touring around. We also ate here and then visitied an old Linden plantation where "Gone With the Wind" had partly been filmed here. We left this community at approximately 5pm and arrived in New Orleans at our accommodations at approximately 7:30pm. It was a full day ... but certainly another great day. The picture below was of a side street market a few blocks from our hotel room in New Orleans.
