The Natchez-Vidalia John R Junkin Dr Bridge over the Mississippi River

The original bridge opened in the 1940’s as a toll bridge, at the top of the hill on the Natchez side are the Toll Plaza Colonnades that were recently restored.

Our travels are taking us to many different parts of the country and this give us an opportunity to change the view out our big picture window at the back of the RV. As we change locations it is fun to explore a new area and sometimes we end up in areas that are not so tourism driven and more “hometown” feeling. We have now moved another 90 minutes North on the western side of the Mississippi River to Vidalia, Louisiana. We are staying just across the river from the Natchez, Mississippi, area.

We met up with past acquaintances Sallie and Kevin (of MaryDtheRV.com) from our church life circles in the WELSTech community. This is Sallie’s “childhood” home area and they had recently just started to full-time RV in the past few months. Sallie and Kevin are also technology minded folk that we all could sit down and talk comfortably with each other. We stayed at the River View RV Park on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi river across from Natchez. Unfortunately, between their family commitments and Jason’s commitments in his consulting project we could not get together more than a couple of times in the two weeks.

We enjoyed some drinks together, Sallie and Kevin hosted at Mary D the RV a great dinner and we celebrated Barb’s birthday at the Moo’s Barn and Grill in Natchez. We swapped downsizing and home selling stories, shared some lessons learned from our first year and just got to know each other more deeply than just our fleeting passing we have had over the last few years. However short this time together, we believe we have cemented a new relationship with fellow full timers that when our paths cross we will be sure to slow down and spend time together. We were surprised to find we are both signed up for the RV Entrepreneurs Summit in March, so we will meet up there again for sure.

Start at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center and learn about the history of the area including many national parks in the immediate area.

Rosalie Mansion Natchez, MS

Natchez has more antebellum homes than anywhere else because they surrendered to the Union early, sparing a devastating destruction to the area. Only one small child was killed during the conflict in the “down under the hill” area and that is believed to have really been from an accidental firing of a canon. The “down under the hill” was a seedy area during the days of the steamboats, with prostitution, gambling and lots of crime. Today it is a tourist destination where the Mississippi River paddle-boats still pull up for the evening, but we didn’t see many prostitutes working there any more. We had dinner at the Magnolia Grill and enjoyed the fresh gulf shrimp and their very dense whiskey sauced bread pudding.

In the “under the hill” district, Magnolia Grill and their dense whiskey butter covered bread pudding

In the “under the hill” district, Magnolia Grill and fresh gulf shrimp pasta

We took a 45-minute tour of the historical areas with the the Open Air Tours from the Natchez visitor reception center. We would highly recommend this tour, it is a great introduction to the area. We were the only two on the tour and the guide was very knowledgeable of the area. The visitor center has a good free exhibit that explains the history of the area and should be the place you start out. They have power and water in the parking lot and you can park your RV overnight for one night free! The east side of the parking lot has higher amperage options too.

Barb’s birthday cupcakes from the Bakery Cottage were overtaken by a spider, this years addition to the Halloween cake topper collection

Spider Keeps re-appearing

Barb’s Birthday in Vidalia LA

Halloween in Vidaila LA for Barb’s Birthday

We celebrated Barb’s birthday in this area, by Jason taking the afternoon off from work and we took that tour. Barb found another item for her cake topper collection, a spider that has made more appearances in the camper than it should have! Plus we were able to spend this celebration of another year before Barb’s “big one” with Sallie and Kevin. We celebrated with some of those cupcakes from the Bakery Cottage and the spider keeps making random appearances where it should not! It is great to have these fleeting opportunities with new friends when they are possible.

River View RV ParkVidalia, Louisiana. Gravel roads, concrete pads, water, sewer and electric. This is the south end of the park.

River View RV ParkVidalia, Louisiana. Gravel roads, concrete pads, water, sewer and electric. This is the south end of the park.

River View RV ParkVidalia, Louisiana. Gravel roads, concrete pads, water, sewer and electric. This is the south end of the park.

Our time here was short, Jason continues to wrap up on the consulting work and that project is coming to a close soon. We departed a day early so we could break up the time as we make our way next to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.