The Elephant in the Room

Today started with a hiss and a roar with me again being stung by the time change trick. With the clock beside the  bed reading 0800hrs I woke everyone up and leaped from the bed  to the bathroom in a mad dash that we had slept in only to be told on my return from the shower that our dodgy highway side motel had not changed the clocks and it was only 0700hrs. Nothing lost though as by the time we had organised the washing,  dressed, eaten and packed the car we needed the extra 30mins, well Vickie did anyway.

Our first port of call was the Natchez visitors centre who were able to give us advise and sell us tickets to couple of historic Mansions which Natchez was known for. Having escaped being burned like many other cities during the civil war, Natchez is home to some of the largest Mansions in America. We selected a couple of Historical Mansions the first being Roselie. A large home near the water front of the river which was used as a Union meeting place during the civil war. The Tour showed us through the first and second stories of the house which was set up for tourist guests and featured many original furniture pieces. It wasn't as extreme as I was expecting for a Mansion but impressive anyway. The most interesting of his tour was meeting a woman who said she had lived in New Zealand for a while, when asked where she lived she reported Palmerston North, and much to our shock and disbelief said she 'loved it'.

The next tour was Longwood just out of town on a 90 acre section and home to the largest octagonal house in America. It was  designed as a mid-nineteenth century "Oriental Villa" style, and today is a true snap shot of history. Building begun in 1860 for a wealthy cotton planter Haller Nutt and his wife Julia.  Work progressed very quickly until 1861 when the civil war begun the work men dropped their tools and headed north. With some local work, Haller was able to complete the basement level of the building. Haller died in 1864 taken ill with pneumonia leaving Julia to raise their eight children in the basement level. This sounds grim but this space alone was 10,000 square feet. The design of the house featured a six story octagonal rotunda through the centre of the house and crowning the whole is a Byzantine-Moorish dome with a 24 foot finial. It was truly stunning. Most of the exterior was complete and you can see in the photos below the internal plans were beginning to take shape. The design intention included several floors of bedrooms  all of which had external access to balconies. It would have been a master piece had it been finished. The tour guide said Julia had several times made enquires about having the house finished, however with the war continuing longer than expected and the abolishment of slavery the cotton trade was not as lucrative as it was and she could not afford it.  Longwood is maintained in its unfinished state by the Pilgrimage Garden Club as a reminder of past glories and tragedies.

At the completion of this tour we did note that both tours we had been on particularly this one failed to mention the wealth of these families was primarily gained through the use of slaves in the cotton fields (hence the title of this post). The tour guide mentioned the obvious wealth of the family and the 'servants' who served them daily with cooking, cleaning and caring for the children, which left you to assume they were paid employees. No mention on the fact that this wealth was undoubtedly accumulated through the exploitation of slaves working in the cotton fields. While we valued the historical significance of keeping the house in its current state for more reasons than the sheer cost by Vickie and I couldn't help but feel it would be so nice if the house was complete and people would have the opportunity to see it in all its glory and believe me it would be glorious.

We pushed on from here still having a long drive to Memphis. We were hoping to have lunch at Plantation Mansion on the way however the only one offering this wasn't open for lunch. The ladies at Longwood had told us about a restaurant on the interstate which we were planning to eat at. Once on the Natchez Trace Parkway road the GPS was unable to locate the exact address so we missed the place and decided to continue onto Port Gibson to get something to eat. Easier said than done after having found a place recommended in the guidebook the GPS again failed on the directions, after a near miss with a nasty chain restaurant we agreed to continue on and hold out for some home style southern food. Which is what we found in Vicksburg about another hour up the road at Goldies Trail Bar-b-que. We selected the most Southern items on the ranging from bbq chicken, ribs and double meat dishes. It was all pretty d-lish and worth the wait. The service was also good with Fraser generously tipping 25% as they asked him for a verbal tip to be added to the credit card, defo on the higher end of the scale for us tight Kiwi's foreign to the tipping system. Piling back into the Yukon we were on the road North bound for Memphis with an arrival time of 6.30pm. A little over an hour later I woke (following my afternoon nap in the car which was becoming somewhat of a daily ritual, don't judge me I'm on holiday) to the sound of Elvis Presley blasting through the speakers and figured we must be over the border into the state of  Tennessee nearing Memphis. Another several uneventful hours of driving past with it becoming dark outside and some rain showers.

We found our accommodation at the Econolodge with no hassle and shipped in, finally making our way to the 7th floor of a very poorly designed parking building. Near the carpark entrance to the hotel was a rolled out mat of grass on the concrete ground of the parking lot. After some confusion and further inspection we learnt that it was a place for guests to bring their pets to go to the toilet...gross. Only in America. The room was clean and tidy and had the basics.  It didn't take long for us to realise that the person next door had a couple of dogs that sounded like yappy little handbag dogs and were very annoying and only moment later Vickie was on the phone to reception advising that we may need to change rooms.

We were all pretty tired after the huge drive and wanted a small bite after our huge southern lunch. We walked down to Beale street where we ate at Dyers, a place which was reviewed as being in the top 5 best burger joints in America. The food wasn't amazing but it could have been that we weren't all that hungry anyway. I splashed out on a root beer float which was made with proper IBC Root Beer which is nicer than the syrup soda mix we've been having. Then it was back to the hotel and bed to recover and prepare for exploration Memphis.

Beer of the Day:
Something pretty shitty, it could have been a bud light, maybe a coors variety. Nothing to write home about obviously.