Natchez, MS

May 6 - May 12, 2013

We've both been pretty sick. We're much better now, thank goodness, but the bubonic plague, or whatever we've had, is still not completely gone.

Trying to access health care when you're on the road can be a real challenge. Finding Natchez's "after-hours walk in clinic" closed at 10:00 am on Saturday morning, the Walgreen's pharmacist took pity on me. He called a local nurse practitioner that he knew had Saturday morning hours and got me an appointment. A couple of hours later I had shots of an antibiotic and a steroid in each hip, a nebulizer breathing treatment, a couple of prescriptions and a diagnosis of "it might be pnuemonia and you might have a broken rib, but I can't tell without a chest x-ray."

We spent about a week in Vidalia, LA, which is just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. I've always wanted to visit Natchez, and it didn't disappoint. It's a pretty, quirky little town, built on bluffs high above the river. It has many wonderful old antebellum mansions that were mostly spared during the civil war while the Union concentrated its attentions on New Orleans and Vicksburg. Our campsite had a great view of the river and we loved watching the barge traffic.

We came to Natchez for a rally held by the Coach House Owner's Club (CHOC.). We actually sold our Coach House RV in January when we bought the Itasca, but I'm still an officer in the club and always look forward to its fun rallies. It's a small club and the rallies are also small and everyone gets to know each other well. The small size allows us to have all sorts of diverse adventures, and this one didn't disappoint.

We toured several old mansions including Dunleith:

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and the unfinished Longwood:

 

 
We took a tour of the city and saw the lovely Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows:

We took a fascinating tour of an historic cotton plantation where we learned about how cotton is grown and processed. Its owner gave us a great lecture about the civil war. Using lots of oral history, film and powerpoint, she kept us all interested for about an hour.

 

We also spent a day at the campground enjoying each other's company, playing lawn games, and eating tasty catered meals. When the rally was over, several of us stayed an extra day or two and had fun just hanging out.

We can't wait for the next CHOC rally in Mystic, CT at the end of September and we're building another (shorter) trip around it for this fall.