Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [24]
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There’s live music in Clarksdale at least four nights a week. Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero lures the tour buses and has the most professional venue and sound system, but if you land here on a weekend head to Red’s, a ragged downtown juke joint run with in-your-face charm by its namesake. Red has hosted legends like Robert “Wolfman” Belfour for years. Sometimes he has homemade corn liquor behind the bar. Ask nicely.
Hwy 61 parallels the Mississippi all the way to the Louisiana border, but even though it’s nearby, you won’t actually see it unless you detour on Hwy 82 to Greenville, another Mississippi casino enclave. Doe’s Eat Place is a legendary steakhouse that poses as a neighborhood dive. The tamales and porterhouse steaks are sensational here, and after you eat you can (and you should) walk it off along the river.
Further south off Hwy 61, the Vicksburg National Military Park honors one of the turning points of the Civil War. In June, 1863 the Union launched a major siege and eventually took the Confederacy’s Vicksburg fortress located on high ground above the river. Robert E Lee surrendered on July 4, and gave the North undisputed control of the Mississippi. You can drive along the 16-mile Battlefield Drive, which winds past 1330 monuments and markers – including statues, battle trenches, a restored Union gunboat and a national cemetery. It makes for a fascinating afternoon. It’s also a fabulous bike ride if you’re traveling with bicycles.
Historic antebellum mansions will greet you in Natchez, Mississippi. In the 1840s, there were more millionaires per capita here than anywhere in the world. When Union soldiers marched through with orders to torch the place during the Civil War, there weren’t any men in town. They were all off fighting. Legend has it that the women greeted the soldiers at their doors and said something like, “Now boys, leave your guns outside and come sit a spell. You must be exhausted.” Yes, Southern hospitality saved the city. And the mansions are still open to visitors during the twice annual pilgrimage seasons held in the spring and fall.
Care to taste mansion life? Dine at The Castle, a restaurant set at the Dunleith, a gorgeous mansion ringed with Corinthian columns. The night scene, when the house is illuminated, is unforgettable, and it’s widely considered the best kitchen in town. But Natchez gets down and dirty too. When Mark Twain passed through during his riverboat captain days, he crashed in a room above the local saloon. Under the Hill Saloon remains the best bar in town, with terrific (and free) live music on weekends. The name works, because the saloon is built into a hillside and overlooks the wide, languid Mississippi. And you can still crash upstairs at what is now called the Mark Twain Guesthouse. Reserve your bed at the bar.
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THE PHATWATER CHALLENGE
If you’re into aquatic self-propulsion (ie you dig kayaking) then you’ll enjoy the Phatwater Challenge (www.kayakmississippi.com), a marathon kayak race (the future Olympic sport you’ve never heard of) that runs 45 miles downriver from the Port of Grand Gulf to Natchez, MS. For one day, barge traffic is halted as paddlers own the Mississippi. Join the party, stopping for breaks on beaches and sand bars; you may even see a gator. The race wraps with a bluegrass jam at the Under the Hill Saloon.
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Cross the Louisiana state line and the 61 bleeds into the I-110S, which merges with I-10 in Baton Rouge. Take Hwy 44S to Hwy 70W to Hwy 18 toward Donaldsonville, just off Louisiana’s River Rd (actually a series of highways that skirt both sides of the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf of Mexico). There are some antebellum mansions in the area, although most were torched by Union troops. If you’ve already seen the mansions in Natchez, step into the River Road African American