On October 26 we drove from Vicksburg to Natchez, the next-to-last stop on our tour. Our route took us over two storied highways of the South, US Highway 61, also known as the Blues Highway, and the Natchez Trace.

We began on Highway 61, starting in Vicksburg and going just past the turn for the Natchez Trace to have lunch at an amazing Southern restaurant called The Old Country Store. This place offers a buffet of foods from the recipes of the owner’s grandmother (more about that later). The star of the buffet table was the Southern fried chicken. The coating was perfectly seasoned and so crisp, and the chicken was juicy and tender. It was wonderful! Des’s favorite was the ham hocks, boiled in an excellent brine. The meal was an absolute delight.

The owner kept us entertained with stories about growing up in his grandmother’s kitchen, and with songs by the Four Tops. 😃 As we were finishing up our meal he gave us a long sung monologue about the importance of grandmothers, with a little Four Tops at the end.

After we finished our lunch we backtracked down Highway 61 to the exit for the Natchez Trace. This beautiful road is a national park that starts in Nashville, TN and ends in Natchez, MS. It follows a path that has been used for thousands of years, going back to the Mississippian culture and probably before that. It‘s a two-lane road that is popular with bicyclists, motorcyclists, drivers, and hikers. While we were traveling on it, a group of cyclists with Vermont Bicycle Tours was sharing the road with us. A few of us caught up with them at Emerald Mound, a Mississippian culture site we visited along the road.