It feels a little odd to write that today’s agenda began with driving a National Park. But even though it’s a road, the Natchez Trace Parkway is definitely worthy of inclusion in the park system. The 444-mile roadway follows the historic Natchez Trace, winding its way from Nashville to Natchez. There’s too much history to recount here, but the pathway has remained important for centuries.
We had already driven a substantial portion of the parkway during our 2008 summer roadtrip, so we knew what to expect. The pleasant drive offers plenty to stop and gaze at. We took full advantage, stopping as many times as we could during the more than five hours we spent on the parkway. The most surprising was at Emerald Mound, the second-largest temple mound in the continental United States. It was pretty amazing.
Unfortunately, we didn’t quite have enough time to see all that we wanted to at Natchez Trace, as we also needed to stop at Natchez National Historic Park. We made it just in time for the last guided tour of the Melrose mansion, the best preserved antebellum mansion in the South. The tour was quick but enjoyable, and we wandered the grounds for a bit afterwards. The Park has three units: an old fort that’s not open to the public, the Melrose, and the home of William Johnson, a former slave turned slave-owning barber. Yeah…weird, huh? We ran out of time and weren’t able to get to the Johnson home before it closed, though we did take some photos of the exterior and read more about the site and the man.
A little disappointed, we started the drive towards Baton Rouge, our destination for the night. It rained most of the drive – hopefully that’s all the rain we encounter on the trip, in spite of the forecast. We arrived in Baton Rouge and looked for an obvious hotel chain to steal some wifi and find a good hotel deal. It took a surprisingly long time to find a hotel; I think we were already outside the city limits when we were able to stop. Having already passed the city, we looked onward to New Orleans, found a nice but inexpensive hotel, ate some dinner, and finished the day’s drive.
Tomorrow and Wednesday, we’ll hit the Jean LaFitte National Historic Park and Preserve (there are several subunits) and the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park, and hopefully experience a bit of what the city of NOLA has to offer too. We’re still looking for a hotel for New Year’s Eve.
