Vicksburg, MS

We left Natchez and headed north to Vicksburg, following the Natchez Trace most of the way. We stopped at Mount Locust, the oldest building and only remaining inn left along the trace.

I couldn't resist the fragrance of this magnolia blossom.

The ranger suggested "The Old Country Store" for a traditional southern meal, buffet style. It was only a few miles off the trace. True to his word, they had great fried chicken, greens, green beans, black eyed peas and cornbread.

We stopped at Rocky Springs, now a ghost town. But until last summer, this church was still used on a regular basis. But most of the congregation has passed on and only a few members remained and as of June 2010 no longer have services.

But the doors are still open for visitors to stop in.

It was hard to imagine this area holding a population of 2600. The sign says over 2000 of those were slaves.

We found Diamond Jack's Casino was closed due to flooding. Vicksburg still has a week before it sees the worst of the rising water.

Downtown the river wall is under constant surveillance for leaks and problems.

The water was above this mans head, which was about halfway up the wall. The wall was built to survive a 65 ft flood. This years flood is suppose to crest at 57.5 ft, the highest in history.

The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley R.R. Station is underwater. Normally you can drive on the street behind the R.R. station. We spent 2 days in Vicksburg and watched the water rise over a foot.

This was the water level on the day we arrived, Wed., May 11. Note the space under the sign and how you can see the wheels on the caboose.

This was today, Fri., May 13. You can't even see the wheels on the caboose and no more space under the sign. And the water still has a week before it crests. Highway 61 is now closed both north and south of Vicksburg and they have started voluntary evacuations in some surrounding rural areas.

There were lots of TV crews taping the flood. This is a freelance reporter who had just finished a world news live report.

This was the inside of his van.

We saw NBC, CNN, along with many local news vans. WAPT, channel 16, interviewed Tom while we were watching the flood.

Max walked down to the edge of the water in front of the railroad station.

 Luckily most of Vicksburg is on top of the bluff and very few businesses and homes are in danger. Outside of Vicksburg, that is not the case. Much of the countryside is already suffering damage from backwater flooding. Fields and crops are underwater and people have already had to leave their homes. A Elks Lodge member was telling us they had shut down the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant since some of the roads were already underwater. I think it will be a long time before we really see and feel all the damage this flood is causing.

Natchez, MS

Although I have been to Natchez several times before, I saw something new this time around. You can check out my previous blog on Natchez back in September of 2009. Natchez is the beginning of the Natchez Trace, a 400 mile National Parkway ending in Nashville, TN. It was used by the local Indians for centuries, and by the rivermen, traders and explorers for about 15 years back in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Then the steam engine revolutionized river traffic and the trace went by the wayside. But for a few years, its importance to the onward expansion of our country was great. But back to Natchez. Prior to the civil war it had more millionaires living there than any city except New York City. Following the civil war and floods and the boll weevil, it not only lost its importance, but lost its wealth too. Now it is only a showcase of what life back then must have been like.

This home was built by a free black man in 1851. Although most blacks were slaves during this time in history, there were some who not only were free men, but success and wealthy. Yet, although free, they still had few rights in society.

 

We were there during the floods. The worst of the flooding is still almost 10 days away, yet streets are already underwater.

Down under the hill, along the waterfront, they have started sandbagging, anticipating the rising waters. The casino was already closed for business.

But the Under the Hill Bar was still open. This bar has been around for over 150 years.

Pictures on the wall tell of the history of the waterfront bar, which was located along the docks where the cotton was loaded and unloaded over 100 years ago.

Across the river you can see only a little of the rooftop of some building. Remember, the worst of the flooding is still 10 days away.

The house, aptly named Edelweiss, was built in 1875. It was empty and looks as if it is being remodeled.

This is Rosalie, built by a saw mill owner in 1823. For $15 you can take a tour of the home. Even though this home is quite old, Natchez itself, was founded by the Spanish in 1716, so by the time this home was built, the town was already over 100 years old.

I loved the way these hedges were cut in the back yard of one of the antebellum homes. I must really like it because I went back to 2003, the first time I was in Natchez, and found I photographed the same backyard. Only difference was the statue which has been added.

We took the walking tour through downtown Natchez. Some homes were built as early as 1770s, and some as late as the 1880s. Most are private residences today.

This is Melrose, another antebellum home built in the 1840s, is owned and managed by the National Park Service. You can tour this home and get a great history lesson for only a few dollars. Many of the furnishings are original to the home. It remained in one family for over 100 years.

This is a pukah. The wood was imported, but is was built in Natchez and installed when the home was built in 1841. A slave would stand off to the side, pulling a cord, which would swing the pukah slowly back and forth to shoo away the flies.

Crawfish Festival in Beau Bridge, LA

Our entire reason for hanging around cajun country so long was to attend the Crawfish Festival.

There were two stages with music going on all day and night.

 

A resident artist drew a different picture each day.

He was onstage drawing while bands were playing.

We also saw our friend, Lemonade Roy. We first met Roy at the Jack Daniels International BBQ Festival in 2009.

When you purchase a cup of lemonade and return with the cup, you get refills for a discount. He honors those discounts forever, as long as you have the cup. A friend bought her cup several years ago (he doesn't even sell that cup anymore) but he still honors the discount for a refill. Roy just started bottling him lemonade and it is being marketed in southern California. Look for it, all you friends in southern California. It's good lemonade.

And there is always the food. I was having a spinach and crawfish boat, a spinach and crawfish cream soup dish in a loaf of french bread. mmmmmmm

There were two crawfish eating contests, one for the celebreties, meaning all the festival queens and some local politicians and local media people.

And there were dance lessons. Here are Tom and I learning some new moves.

And also dance contests as well. They had both cajun and zydeco dance contests.

This couple is in their 90s and is said to be the instigators for the crawfish festival. They got the festival started some 25 years ago and now are an honored icon at the festival. We also saw them out there dancing several times too.

Pete and Kathy here are a couple Max met last year. They are also friends of Chuck and Sherry, our dance instructors at Bandera. They invited us to sit under their canopy with them. They were the dance contest judges, but I was told they have won the contest the last few years.

And then there were the bands. Over 23 bands played over the 3 day period. Both zydeco and cajun were represented. Several bands specialized in taking current country or older rock and rock and adding a cajun or zydeco rhythm.

Both cajun and zydeco use the accordion.

But zydeco also uses the washboard.

But by far, Geno Delonfonse was our favorite performer.

There was an ettoufee cook off on Sunday. Here are a couple of pots just getting started. After the judging you could sample all the different entries.

Sunday morning also had a parade. There were several marching bands.

And a couple of really interesting floats.

That is one large crawfish.

It was all over by 4pm on Sunday. Lots of fun, food and music. Hopefully I'll make it back next year.

More Cajun Country

I know there are some places that are made for the tourists, but when you're in cajun country some places, even the touristy places, are a must, such as....

Mulates Cajun Restaurant. The orginal opened in Beaux Bridge, but they also have restaurants in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Food is cajun and good, but very pricey. But you go for the experience.

They have cajun music every night. Cajun food and cajun music, what else could you ask for!?

Listening to the demonstration of the accordion after the tour.

I heard about a tour of Martin Accordian but had no information. So I called and found out they only give tours to tour groups, but we were in luck, they had a tour group coming at 3:15 and we could join them. It is a small, family owned operation for the past 27 years. Mainly it was a presentation about the history of cajun music and how the accordian fits. Cajun music was not introduced to the accordian until the late 1800s when some German immigrants brought the instrument into the area. It was quickly adopted and changed the flavor of cajun music forever. Giving us the presentation was the patriarch of the family and studio, Clarence Martin or 'pop', his daughter and one of his grandsons, Joel.

 

Last weekend was not only the International Festival in Lafayette, but there were other festivals in the area as well. We visited the Etouffee Festival on Sunday. We listed to the Joel Martin Project band. Little did we know he was the grandson of the founder of Martin Accordions. At the end of the blog is a video of Joel playing the accordion.

After we left the Etouffee festival we wandered over to Eunice, passing through Opelousas. They have lots of claims to fame.

And claim a lot of firsts.

And finally we got Eunice, but it was all closed up being it was Sunday. So we missed the Cajun Music Museum. But we did get a picture of the namesake of this town. No info about her, but we saw the statue.

Eunice is home of the Liberty Center Theater. Every Saturday night they have a live music broadcast of cajun music, much like that of the Grand Ole Opry. It is only $5 to get in and you get to listen to some great cajun musicians and do some cajun dancing if you wish. We missed this too. Gotta leave something to do next time we are in town.

Joel Martin really gets into playing the accordion. Martin Accordion only make 10 button diachronic accordions. If you want to know more, either come down and take the tour yourself or look it up. He is 23 years old and has been playing publicly since he was 10.