Mississippi River Ride: day 4: natchez to vicksburg, mississippi 91 miles

my ass is sore. don't worry. that's the extent of my discussions about body parts. suffice it to say, it was a long, hot day of climbing.

no, not the rockies kind of climbing. just a slow, steady 2-4 % grade kind of climbing for most of the day. with no clouds for much of the morning through early afternoon and temperatures in the low 90's, it made for a long day.

we got a late start out of natchez this morning. normally, we'll eat at the motel we've been staying at, or at a restaurant right next door. that latter choice wasn't an option this morning and the motel offered only the minimum of continental breakfasts. nothing to really sink your teeth into and certainly nothing to fuel riders on a 90+ mile trek.

the next, best option was a local coffee shop called the natchez coffee company. it's a true throwback to a time before starbucks. and they served the same big breakfast we're becoming accustomed to scarfing down before we get out on the road. whether they are called "grand slam breakfasts" or "the big joe" or whatever, it's always the same platter of eggs, some kind of breakfast meat, pancakes and either fruit or grits.

a true coffee shop, complete with books and couches

as we left natchez, we hit more farmland and back roads. sixteen miles into the morning's back country route, we turned onto the natchez trace parkway, a national park with the smoothest roads and nary a car for miles. the trace is believed to be centuries old. originally a trail carved out by migratory animals who went from salt lick to salt lick, the trace became a long trail used by native americans from the area. soon after discovering it, settlers began using the trace, extending it to over 450 miles from natchez to nashville, tennessee, as a means to get back home. traders would load flatboats in nashville with all kinds of goods to be sold and traded down the mississippi. once they got to natchez and offloaded their wares, they used the trace as a roadway to get back to where they started. my smartphone takes nice pictures, but i wasn't able to capture the depth of the sunken trace section that we stopped to see along the road. and, as a national park, the trace parkway isn't open to commercial traffic. so for about the 45 miles we rode on it today, we cyclists had the road basically to ourselves. it was so quiet that, at times, when we talked to each other on the road, you could hear the echo of our voices bouncing off the trees that lined much of the route.

the mississippi portion of the natchez trace

once we left the trace, we headed to vicksburg, site of the most famous siege of the civil war. this gentile southern town is situated high atop a bluff that overlooks the mississippi. during the civil war, it was a strategic point on the river that the union knew it needed to capture. i don't remember how many days and how many lives were lost during the siege, but it went on for quiet awhile, (maybe upwards of two months?). the house below was one of the few to survive the constant bombardment.