April Roadtrip, Day 4, Meridian to St. Francisville

 Day 4

April 4, 2026

    Today was always going to be a little different.  There were four stops planned before eventually overnighting in Louisiana.  The route was a bit convoluted.  But, It was mostly like this:

     I don't mention motel breakfasts that often.  They're genuinely underwhelming.  But, props to the Meridian Hampton Inn.  Heck of a spread.

    

    Just a short drive south of Meridian is a sixty-five foot, man made waterfall.  John Dunn build the waterfall here in the 1850s, as well as a grist mill.  It's now a forty acre park.  

     It also wasn't open for another hour. Should have checked.

     Google Maps has Dunns Falls Road looping around the back side of the park.

    The second stop of the day was in the town of Chunky.  When the Choctaw lived here, they named it Chanki.  No surprise, I came here for a bridge.  

     Known locally as the Stucky Bridge, it's long been closed to traffic.  When you see the photos, you'll know why.  

    But first, a mile drive down a surprisingly smooth dirt road

     When it opened in 1901, Old Man Stucky owned an inn nearby.  He was accused of killing guests and robbing them.  Depending on the source, there were as many as twenty victims.  

    Some victims were buried on the riverbanks.  Others were weighted down by rocks and tossed into the Chunky River.  When he was finally caught and convicted, he was sentenced to hang.  Instead of a gallows, the town simply used the new bridge.  Due to the severity of his crimes, his body was left for five days before finally being cut down.

     No surprise, there are plenty of ghost stories surrounding the bridge.  Locals have reported a dim light swinging back and forth underneath.  Others have claimed apparitions on the bridge and embankment below.  There are plenty of paranormal investigation videos.  I watched a few and didn't see anything.  

     We've all seen them, those ubiquitous signs giving the direction to a city or town.  Today, I passed one reading, Hot Coffee.  Yes, there is a town in Mississippi named Hot Coffee.  WJTV did a story on the town today.  You can see that here.

    In the late 1800, it was along a busy trade route.  L.J. Davis offered hot coffee to travelers, even hanging a pot on the sign out front.  The name stuck.

    The road would eventually take me through the town of Prentiss.  Ordinarily, I would have gassed up($3.79) and passed.  

     Then I heard live music.  This was their annual Run for the Roses 5K.  

    Just as you'd expect, I parked and followed the music.  Cody Daley was onstage.  That's him in the hat.  He was doing a pretty decent version of Shenandoah's "Two Dozen Roses."  

    Not bad.  He played a mix of old and newer country music.  I listened for a few songs and moved on.  

     Across from the park there were booths selling all kinds of stuff, along with food trucks serving all the things I shouldn't eat.  

     Outside Morgantown is a spot I've visited before.  The official name is Red Bluff Park, though it's also referred to as Mississippi's Little Grand Canyon.  

     This is from that earlier trip I took in 2014.  The road used to be Hwy 587.

     This was today...

    There's a one mile loop trail through he canyon.  Based on the reviews, I chose to simply stay up top.  That's the actual trail down. 

 

     The last stop on the drive across Mississippi was the town of Magnolia.  On October 19, 1977, a plane carrying the band Lynyrd Skynyrd was flying from their show in Greensboro, SC to Baton Rouge, LA.  Realizing the plane was low on fuel, the pilot tried to make an emergency landing in an open field here.

     The plane crash cost the lives of band members, Ronnie Van Zant, and Steve Gaines, back-up singer Cassie Gaines, Road Manager Dean Kilpatrick, Pilot Walter McCreary and Co-Pilot William Gray.

      I heard my my first rumble of thunder here.  Time to move on.  Over the course the next hour, I drove through bright sunshine, heavy downpours and even swerved to miss a cow in the road.  

     There was never a plan to dip into Louisiana this time.  But, it was the closest place I could book to tomorrow's hiking trail.  My home for the night was the Best Western in St. Francisville.

     When I looked at the map, I noticed it's only twenty miles from the town of Zackary.  I considered a brief stop at Teddy's Juke Joint, one of the last of the old school.  In all honesty, it was a bit depressing when I visited a few years ago.  The energy was gone and the place mostly dead.  They never recovered from the Covid shutdown.  Folks just got out of the habit.

    Besides, looking at the radar, I'd rather be off the road.

    Instead, I stayed in town for my one brewery of the day, Bayou Sara Brewing.   The name comes from a once thriving port town on a bend of the Mississippi River.  One too many floods and the town simply stopped rebuilding.

    The view from the room...

April Roadtrip, Day 7, Natchez to Vicksburg

Day 7

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

    One last look at the view...

    I'd love to know who thought this style of mini fridge was a good idea.  That blue light stays on constantly.  Thus, the room never actually gets dark.

    One of the things that made Natchez what it is, it just happens to be the southern terminus of an old Native American trail.   The northern end is outside Nashville.  I did the whole thing many years ago.  Such a pleasant drive.

    Natchez Trace Parkway runs 444 miles and began thousands of years ago as a game trail.  When the early Native Americans came here, they started using it, too.  Early French explorers were the first to map the trail.  Today it's a scenic drive run by the Park Service. 

 

      Imagine a long drive, no red lights or stop signs.  Just this...

    

     The first stop along the way is the second largest Native American Temple Mound.  Unlike domed mounds, this has a mostly flat top.  Built by the Mississippian tribes, it was in use from about 1300 to 1600.

   Some size perspective...

     The base of the mound covers eight acres. As an added bonus, atop the main mound are more mounds.

     There's also a set of burial mounds much further on this road that date back to 200BC.  I'm not going that far on this trip.

     When Windsor Mansion was completed in 1861, it was the largest private home in the state and overlooked a 2,600 acre cotton plantation.  Early in the war, Confederate troops used the upstairs balconies as an observation point.  Federal troops did the same two years later.  This is all that's left after a fire burned it to the ground in 1890.

    Recently, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History completed an eight year project to shore up the columns.  You can read more about the ruins and the work that was done here:

     The roadtrip rule of non chain places for lunch brought me to Utica, and K's Kitchen.  The menu was pretty limited.  The burger was big and dripping with barbecue sauce.  Delicious.

    From here it was onto Vicksburg for the night. 

    I had already toured the battlefield, so I went off to find something different,  Catfish Row Park.  It's your typical park, but with murals painted on the levee walls.  The murals depict the city from its first residents until today.

    The brewery of the day was Key City Brewing.  Great staff and some creative beers.

   My home for the night was the Waterview Casino and Hotel.  The place is huge.  I wound up asking a staff member where to find check in.  Nice room, and the view...

    There was music playing on the PA outside as I unloaded the car, "Everybody wants to change the world.  Nobody wants to change themselves."  Deep.

     After dropping my stuff in the room, it was off to the hotel's back patio for sunset.