STARKVILLE TO NATCHEZ

Today's journey began in Starkville, MS fairly early in the day in order to get some hiking in before it got too hot.  Yup, even at the end of April, it's warm here in this part of the country.  We stopped at the Jeff Busby site (he was a U.S. Congressman from Mississippi who introduced the bill that ultimately resulted in the Old Natchez Trace becoming a unit of the National Park System in 1934.  It's Mississippi's highest point (603 feet) on the parkway.

We burned off the calories from our dinner the previous night, before getting back in the car for a pretty full day of driving.

As a contrast to the highest point, we also walked trails through the cypress swamps.  This landscape begins about 120 miles from Natchez.  We assume it'd be brutal later in the year...happily there were no bugs at all.

However, I've already found 3 wood ticks in our car from our days in the woods.....naturally, I feel itchy just thinking about them.

Ahhhh, I am a happy camper tonight.  We changed our hotel reservation from Jackson, MS to Natchez.....and upon walking into our room, we sure hope we simply got upgraded....and not charged for this suite.  We had planned to overnight here on Fri. but moved it up so we could head over to spend the day tomorrow in Vicksburg where we want to visit the National Military Park and scene of the famous civil war battle.  

This view is only half of our fabulous room.....yeah!!!  We had a yummy dinner tonight at a local eatery....Blues and Biscuits.  David partook of ribs and chicken cooked out back.....I had a New Orleans style Muffalatta.  I decided to eat light so I could have chocolate bread pudding for dessert, but the sandwich was so huge, my pants couldn't expand any further.

It's been such fun exploring a part of our country that I've only read about.