Day Eight – Hot Springs AR to Natchez MS
Miles: 404
Elapsed Time: 11:34
Breakfast at Embassy Suites is always good and no need to go anywhere else. Before leaving Hot Springs we rode around the city a little and visited the overlook. It is easy to see that Hot Springs was once a real hot spot and pulled in any tourists. It seems to making a revival and we had a good time. After touring around it was after 8:00 by the time we got going. We didn’t stop much at all except for a brief stop on top of White Oak Lake dam. We stopped for Lester’s on the Lake which sits on the Bayou D’arbonne Lake. The lunch was ok but very timely. After lunch we rode through Monroe and headed toward Vicksburg. This was to be the highlight of the day with all of the Civil War history. First we rode through downtown and stopped at the old and famous Warren County Courthouse. There is a museum there and I bet it would be a good one but we didn’t have time to walk through. We continued on to the battlefield where we stopped to view the USS Cairo which was salvaged from the river and an old iron clad battleship in the same class as the Merrimack. We toured the grounds by riding through all of the scenic drives and saw the different cemeteries dedicated to several different states. Seemingly hallowed ground and very well kept and certainly worth a visit. After Vicksburg we headed south on US61 toward Port Gibson. Once there we veered off the highway and headed west toward the river on Rodney Road. There we stopped at the ruins of an old plantation. A remarkable site and worth a stop.
It was well after 5:00 when we made this stop so we deiced to move towards Natchez and bypass some of the other rural areas we had planned. We did hit part of the Natchez Trace on the way in and rode through town before getting to the Hampton. Once there we walked the town a little and went to the Under The Hill Saloon to finish the evening.
