Day 2 Louisiana

Greetings from Louisiana. This morning we were in Memphis. Memphis is much like you see it in the movies. Kind of seedy and dreary in places, but as we drove around, we were surprised to see all the trees in the city, too. The residential areas have so many trees all over the place. It gives it a small town feeling. We decided to drive by Graceland in the light of day. We had gone by there Sunday night. I'm glad that we did as it was much more impressive at night than during the day. Those beautiful front gates were closed and you could see the house up behind them all lit up and the ground had colored lights around. This morning it was a nice looking home. It is much smaller than I had thought it would be. We did not do the tour through it. Just stopped and took pictures and were able to walk inside the gates a little ways. We could see the Lisa Marie (air plane that he used) across the street. The tours do not start until 10 and we wanted to be on our way before then. In just a few minutes we were out of Tennessee and into Mississippi. It is a pretty state. It reminds me of Wisconsin with all the trees along the road. You could see some pastureland behind the trees with some green grass. After all the ice and snow that we have had this winter, it was a breath of fresh air to see the green. The temperature was in the 50's when we started out, but got up to 70 by the afternoon. It's February - and it is 70 degrees out! Unbelievable.
There were not many houses along the road, but the ones we did see all seem to have pillars out in front. Even the rest stops had a decidedly southern look. Most of the rest stops also have 24 hour security guards. We talked with one of them and he was a retired Memphis fireman. Quite a character. Not an Obama fan either.
When we got to Jackson, we took the Natchez Trace Parkway down to Natchez. It was a beautiful drive on a narrow two way road and the posted speed limit was only 50. Rich thought that was great. It was a very relaxing, leisurely drive. We drove around the town looking at the "plantations" as they call these beautiful old homes. We saw this one, Stanton Hall (pictured above) and the sign said that it was open for tours until 3:30 and it was 3:23 when we pulled up. There was a gift shop, so I wanted to at least have a peek inside of it. When I got in there, they said that the last tour started at 3:30, so we got to go through the house. It was built in the 1800's and in 1930's, the Natches Garden Club took it over and have restored it to look the same as when the Stanton's lived there. A member of the family has donated some of the furniture and paintings that were originally in the house back to them. They have a restaurant, a silver shop and a gift shop on the grounds. It is quite a place and is used by the Garden Club and also is used for weddings and special events. After our tour, it was time to get back on the road and start for Louisiana. We got to Baton Rouge around 6:30, found our motel and are tucked in for the night. Tomorrow we will explore Baton Rouge, have some Cajun food and hope to see some of the bigger plantations out in the countryside.