Crossing the Mississippi River

Picture Pages: [Natchez-Day 1] [Tour Page 1] [Tour Page 2] [Callaway/Warm Springs Day 3,4]

Drive Through History 2000

The Tietzes and Alonsos made a jaunt over to Natchez, MS to participate in the English Motoring Club's 3rd annual "Drive Through History". This is an event which celebrates the area's rich history. Natchez is the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River and has been governed under 5 flags, the latest being the United States. We also met the Rauchs at Callaway Gardens on the way back (they had attended the Chateau Elan all-British car show).

The trip started with an all-day drive to Hattiesburg, MS (about 600 miles). This allowed us to get into Natchez around noon, where we were met by Terry and Merideth Trovato, who had taken the afternoon off of work to "show us around". We visited two plantations, Monmouth and Longwood. Monmouth dates from 1818, and Longwood is the largest octagon home in North America. Ironically, Longwood was never finished, the Civil War interrupted construction (with about 6 months to go), and the inside was never completed. Both were very impressive!

The tour, the next day, started out rainy, but we only had to have the top up for one of the six stops. We had breakfast at a VERY quaint country store (that had a cook), and got a taste of REAL Southern cooking (biscuits to die for). We visited the ruins of a plantation that had burned, only the columns remained (it burned in this century, not during the recent unpleasantness-the Civil War). Next came a tour of a town deemed by the Yankees to be too beautiful to burn, and saw the church steeple with a finger pointing to God. We saw a town that disappeared (reclaimed by nature-only the church remained). We visited the Yankee gunship Cairo, sank in the Yazoo river in 1864, raised in 1962... Impressive! Last-but-not-least was a visit to the Vicksburg courthouse museum... Lots of Civil War and pre and post stuff. The courtroom was preserved as it was, and did make an impression on this visitor.

After the tour, we ate at a nice place (slow service though) in Vicksburg. Vicksburg has some hills... We entered a parking garage, went up at least 6 levels to the roof, then walked out at street level in the next block! You can't do that in most places.

One of the members of the host club had some neat vehicles, so the Alonsos and Tietzes were invited to see them. One was a 1964(?) Gordon-Keebler, one of 99 made, some military vehicles, a Morris Princess (a lot like a Rolls-Royce), and a French 2-cylinder thing with the shifter in the dash. There were also the usual Jags, Triumphs, and others... A collector!

The Tietzes and Alonsos then hit the road and after slogging though one of the worst rainstorms I have been in, we made Callaway gardens the next day. The Rauchs were there, we toured (Callaway has added some roads... Beautiful!), had a nice dinner, did some more the next day, visited Warm Springs (FDR's Little White House), and made for St. Petersburg... Whew! We hit another downpour in Perry, FL, but made it home at 1:00 am. What a weekend, seemed like a week...

Dave Tietz