Day 1: Natchez, MS to Rosswood Plantation- 36 miles

"CHICKEN WAITS FOR NO ONE"

We've been planning this trip since June 2014. After ordering maps and plotting our course, our trip finally, officially began.

 Bridge over the Mississippi in Natchez

This morning Downtown Karla Brown met us at 7:00 am at our Best Western hotel in Natchez. Karla has a van, so she took us 4 miles to the start of the Natchez Trace. We were so happy that the Trace provided smooth roads, lush, green trees and shrubbery.  I would like to send a special shout out to Mitch for correctly plotting this route from south to north. For most of the day we had the wind at our backs.......... Invaluable!!!!!

We stopped and saw Mount Locust which is the only original inns (aka "stands") remaining on the Trace.

We stopped and saw remnants of the original Trace worn very deep by the travelers as they made their way back north after completing their trips down the Mississippi River.

Do you smell chicken? Let's talk about chicken.
Our main goal was to make it to lunch at Mr. Dee's (The Old Country Store). The rumour is hot and heavy that if you don't get there soon enough, there will be no fried chicken left. This couldn't happen to us. CHICKEN WAITS FOR NO ONE. We didn't dally too long anywhere and arrived at Mr. Dee's at 11:58 am

The Old Country Store is a destination spot for travelers who come from all over to just to eat the fried chicken, reportedly the best in Mississippi.  It was a glorious all you can eat buffet spread of Southern classic dishes and oh the pile of fried chicken!  It did not disappoint!  We were serenaded by the son of the owner, Mr D, who sang of the history of his family's recipes.   After multiple trips through the buffet line and plenty of ice cold tea, we climbed back atop our bikes for the final 2.5 mile push to Rosswood Plantation, our stopping point for the night.

The plantation home was built in 1857.  We were treated to a tour of the mansion and marveled at the many fine museum quality antiques.  Rosswood was a very successful cotton plantation with over 1250 acres, but most of the land had been sold off over the years and only 150 acres remain today.  We were shown upstairs to our beautifully appointed rooms and spent the evening relaxing on the upper veranda in the cool breeze.

POSTED BY: Suzy, James, Charlotte, Mitch