The Mississippi Delta

Our travels have taken us through the historic flooding of the Mississippi River and we've seen its impact all around us.  We have been following long lines of pick-up trucks with trailers, filled with personal belongings as people started to evacuate their homes.  It's been so sad to watch the river slowly and insidiously rise, knowing that many of the small towns and fields of sugar cane would soon be flooded when the spillways were opened.


The sandbags show how high the river is - just about to flood.

That's a "No Parking" sign in the middle of the river.



The Army Corp of Engineers have built these sandbag levees everywhere.

These pictures were from Natchez, Mississippi where locals and tourists alike flocked to the river to see the never-recorded high levels of water.  Old-timers told us they'd never seen anything like it since the 1927 flood that prompted the initial building of the levees - and now the water is higher than that.  True to form though, Southerners are a relaxed lot and we stood outside a local bar where everyone took their drinks out to the river to watch.  We were told it was a nice place though, as they charge $2.50 for a beer, "To keep the riff-raff out"!  Apparently you can get beer for $1 to $1.25 "further out back..."

The view across the river (in Louisiana) shows a hospital and residence under water. You can click to enlarge.

Just the roof showing...

Natchez is an extremely picturesque town, filled with the largest number of antebellum mansions in the U.S. 

It housed 50% of all the millionaires after the Civil War, so the architecture and abundance of gorgeous homes is incredible.  It was a perfect place to take out our bikes again and tour around.



While many were in fantastic condition, there were many that needed repair, and you could only imagine what the cost would be.

And as has been the case everywhere in the South, the huge gap between the very rich and the very poor is immediately evident.

Next stop was Jackson, Mississippi, but we took the road less travelled and journeyed through the Natchez Trace Parkway.  This is a stunningly beautiful road that follows an old Indian trading footpath.  It is extremely scenic and historic and no commercial vehicles are allowed, so the pace is leisurely.  It's a curvy road where the topography changes from the flat Mississippi Delta to gentle, green hills, lakes and pristine cypress swamps.  It is so densely forested that we couldn't get a GPS signal (aka the marriage saver) for 150 miles!

A ceremonial sacred Indian mound.

We stopped at this peaceful swamp and explored for a while.

click to enlarge

It was so quiet, the only sounds you could hear were the rustling leaves in the wind and exotic bird calls - amazing!

... and this isn't the only horse's ass I've been dealing with for the last 7 weeks!!!

Of course, he insisted on taking this picture...

We ended our day in Jackson and found the most authentic, Blues bar you could ever want.  It was jam night sponsored by the Mississippi Blues Society and we were entertained by amazingly talented Delta Blues performers, singing, jamming and improvising lyrics all night.  They ranged from old, legendary guitarists to young artists looking for exposure. 



The sheriff was moonlighting as the security guard and we watched him stock the bar and set up the band's equipment with his gun and holster still on...  When they heard we were Canadians, they welcomed us from the mike - "Y'all are most welcome here - y'all enjoy yoselves tonight" and they'd even heard of the Southside Shuffle Blues Festival in Port Credit.  There was lots of audience participation with everyone joining in on the singing - Jan, you would have loved it!!!  At the end of the night, many of the patrons came up to shake our hands and thank us for visiting.  It was definitely one of our favourite experiences of the trip!