Day 6 - Natchez, MS

It was 75 miles of easy hills today, with perfect sunny weather; temperatures were in the 70s. The first 25 miles were on the horrifying Highway 61.



Look at that spacious shoulder! Look at the speed limit. This is basically riding on the interstate, in traffic.

At Port Gibson, we had lunch at Sonic, the only option. Woe. We had hopes for this restaurant/laundromat/car was, but the restaurant part was closed.





The remaining 40 miles were on the spectacular Natchez Trace Parkway, which has no trucks, really no traffic at all, and the smell of pine trees and springtime.


I ran into another bicycle tourist, who was on a mission to ride to all 50 states, with her dog!




Her trip journal is a http://gipsichick.synthasite.com. The dog runs alongside. She says they do about 25 miles a day, and mostly stealth camp.

Our goal for Natchez was to find lodging walking distance from Fat Mama's Tamale's, home of the "Knock You Naked" margarita. Messing around with Google Maps turned up a place called the Natchez Eola Hotel just a short walk away. So I called them up and they quoted me a rate of $70. OK, fine, it's almost certainly the cheapest option downtown, but that's pretty high for some Mom and Pop no name motel.

Well it turns out the Natchez Eola is the flagship hotel of Natchez. It was built in 1927, and it's very swanky.



For the record, this is not the fanciest hotel where I've ridden my bike into the lobby. (That would be the $360/night Westin in the Chicago Loop that Debra paid for.) But for $70, who knows what kind of people you're gonna get?



These guys have a piano bar in the lobby. The piano guy was playing "The Logical Song" by Supertramp, but still.

What's going on with this place is most of their business is package tours with the riverboat casinos. There are tour buses lined up outside at all times.

Fat Mama's Tamales is not what it once was. They've remodeled and raised their prices. You are no longer eating in an old garage that's about to fall over. It's not the same, boudin or no boudin.




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