The Ride to Natchez, Mississippi

The ride northwest from Mandeville was an unexpected treat.  By traveling the back roads you gain in interest far more than you lose in travel time, especially on a motorcycle.  I have never understood why you would want to  race  across the country and miss all that there is to see.

The chosen route of travel was west on Highway 10 a few miles south of the Mississippi border.  This was the highway of choice, being that it was marked on the map as the scenic route.  It was a curvy road that wound its way through miles forest areas that lined both sides of the highway and providing shade to the highway that was much appreciated in the day's almost stifling heat.

Along the way a beautiful little church and the decaying remnants of the Church Hill post office were too much pass by unphotograghed - and so I didn't!

Just before connecting with Highway 61 (the northern route to Natchez), the highway became ever more a site of beauty, the road became ever more twisting and the tall trees now draped over the highway.

In this same area, a sign advertised for the Bluffs Golf Course Resort.  Having only seen one other golf course in all of Louisiana and being an aspiring golfer myself (there only two kinds of golfers - those who are and those who aspire to be}, I felt a driving urge to explore.

It appeared to be a beautiful golf course, but one never knows without taking the day to give the total going over.  However, in spite of the fact that is was noon on a beautiful blue sky day, there was nay a car in the parking lot, nor anyone to be seen on the course - how strange.  The homes within the resort where all up scale, but appeared to ranged from the moderately affordable to the totally unreasonable.

A few miles south of Natchez I saw a sign for the Springfield Mansion just 11 miles west of Highway 61; post haste I made the turn.  Unfortunately, the mansion was undergoing a major restoration and was closed to visits inside the mansion.  Not totally defeated, I was able to walk the grounds and take photographs of the historic mansion which was built between 1786 and 1791 and survived the civil war.

One interesting fact about the mansion, built by the wealthy Virginia planter, Thomas M Green Jr., to flaunt his wealth, served as the setting for the wedding of Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson in 1791.

After arriving in Natchez in the early evening, there was still a couple of hours of daylight; enough to allow me to ride up and down the streets to admire the architecture before crossing the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge to the nights campsite.