Mississippi River Day 14: Vicksburg to New Orleans

This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.

Today’s drive began with a short scenic driving tour of Vicksburg, followed by a drive south to Natchez, Mississippi. The latter part of this segment was via the Natchez Trace Scenic Parkway, one of only three such parkways in the country. The road was very quiet (no commercial vehicles allowed, and very few others) and beautiful. At one point we stopped at a visitor center for one of the Mount Locust Inn along the Natchez Trace Trail, which had been restored to its condition as a plantation.

We stopped for lunch in Natchez at the Pig Out Inn, a funky barbecue restaurant, then drove southward into Louisiana. As we drove into Baton Rouge, we took one of the most ironically-named streets I have ever seen. Scenic Highway runs alongside several oil refineries and storage facilities.

After paying our traditional visit to the State Capitol (the only one I can remember without a dome), we stopped for ice cream and continued to New Orleans. After all the driving we had done, we decided to splurge a bit and stay in a very nice hotel, the Windsor Court, in the business district close to downtown. The Windsor Court lived up to its online reviews saying it has the friendliest staff in the City, a great climax to a long ride.

Mississippi River crossings today: 2
July 17, 2012