Day 13 Mobile, AL to Natchez, MS

Another early departure today, as we faced 250 miles on non interstate highways. So up and on the road by 7:30am, only to get snarled in Mobile traffic on very poorly labeled roads. Our attempt to go across a boulevard to a gas station was frustrated when the gas station had no gas. Then, no left turn was allowed out of the station. The GPS routed us around the issue, but it took us about 15 miles on side roads before we got to US98, the main road from Mobile to Natchez. Once on 98, things went pretty well.


We pulled into Natchez about 2 and found the Grand Hotel to be quite grand. Nice rooms, great lobby and well lit parking lot.

The cars looked good in front of this hotel.

This plaque, in the park along the Mississippi River shows the mixed cultures of Natchez. This land was governed by the French, Britain, Spain and both sides of the Civil War.

Near the plaque was this monument marking the beginning of the Natchez Trace, a 444 mile path created by Indians and used by early settlers to move people back to Tennessee after they came down the Mississippi River with goods to trade or ship. The Trace today is a parkway with a smooth paved roadway we will travel this Wednesday and Thursday.

The Mississippi River is very wide at this point in its travel to the Gulf of Mexico.

We took a horse drawn guided tour in the afternoon and saw some of the old homes of Natches.

After the tour we found many of the guys out in the parking lot tweaking and tuning the Pub Crawl Cars. Several have had issues in the past couple of days. You will recall Bill Kukuk's and Bruce Foster both had fuel pump failure last week. Today Myron Koenig's fuel pump failed about 50 miles from Natchez, but he had a spare packed in the car, and enough tools to make the fix. Then Ed Jordan had an ignition failure, so he removed the electronic ignition module and installed the old points and condenser while parked in the grass alongside the highway. And Bob McKenna limps along with a defective clutch issue. He ordered parts from Morgan Spares in New York which should be here tomorrow.

Along about 5 the Texas group arrived to join the remainder of the Pub Crawl. It is good to see Bill and Judy Boyles and Darrell Van Dyke again.

Many of the gang went to a nearby restaurant called the "Pig Out Inn", a bar-b-que with tables made from old doors.

Here's Al Marsh, pigging out!!!

After dinner we all went to the park to watch the sunset. Here's the "Pigged-Out" gang.

The sunset was superb!