Still having troubles with my Internet connection. Not sure what the problem is as the signal seems to be strong enough, but everything is loading so s-l-o-w-l-y tonight that I've come close to quitting several times already. But what the heck, I'm retired now, it's not like there is a lot of other stuff that needs to be done..

(Sorry about all the spelling errors, my computer is running so slow on this signal that I can't even get spell check to work. Will run a check on this post once I get on a faster connection)

   Warmed up to nearly 50 degrees this afternoon, a pleasant enough day considering. Had to still put a coat on over the t-shirt, but made do with keeping the shorts on. They were fine as long as the wind didn't blow to hard and I kept moving enough to stay warm.

    Spent most of the afternoon wandering around the streets of Hermann looking at all the buildings and shops. A cute little town that probably has a lot of people,  tourists mostly, every summer weekend. As it was neither today, I pretty much had the whole town to myself. At least the outside parts anyway. Didn't find any new information concerning my grandmothers family or any of my other ancestors that may have lived here, but I learned later, after talking to my mom, that they actually lived in the town of Owensville, which is south of here about 20 miles. So tomorrow I'll head down there and poke around for a little while.

   Since it didn't take long to see most of the town here, at least the interesting parts, I headed back the way I'd come to go visit the next big town east of here, Washington, Missouri. Wandered around the dozen or so blocks of it's old town also, but there wasn't a whole lot to see there either. I did end up spending some time in one art gallery down on their main street. As I was walking past I had noticed several paintings and prints depicting old steam boats, paddle wheelers, plying their trade up and down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. As I stood looking I also noticed a couple other pictures further back that had some old keel boats and mountain men looking guys in them. As I looked it hit me that in several of them were landmarks from the upper Missouri River in Montana that I had actually seen. In particular there was one with Citadel Rock in it and another one with the White Cliffs region around Eagle Creek. Low and behold the painter, who's gallery it was, had happened to paint a whole series of pictures depicting the journey of Lewis and Clark as well as other paintings of the old mountain style steam boats that use to work the upper river all the way to Fort Benton. So of course I had to go in and take a closer look at that point. Wonderful paintings and reproductions. Most of the prints at quite reasonable prices. If I wasn't living in a trailer that has no real walls, at least one of them would of been coming home with me. As it is I bought a couple of boxes of note cards and have the location of the shop firmly located in my mind. One of these days when I actually have real walls again I'll be back for a couple of them.

   In the meantime; here are a few photo's from a couple of days ago when I stopped and walked around the old town part of Natchez.

A couple hours wandering around the old town portion of Natchez. - March 9, 2013

Natchez was originally built on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Here we see the main highway bridge that will soon take me from the east side back over to the Louisiana side.

Walking up the main road into town from the tourist place where I parked, I was surprised at all of the house's that had been let go to rot slowly back into the earth. This one looked like it might of had some good times at one point in it's life. Kinda sad now though. 

A little further on you could get another view of the river and the twin bridges spanning it. At the bottom left is one of the many casino's that disguise themselves as old paddle boats. Still looks kind of neat though. 

The first mansion I took a tour of was this one called 'Rosalie'. Finished in 1820 it stayed in the same family right up until the 1950's when the last heir who wanted to live there died. Named after the French Fort that once stood on this bluff it became the headquarters for the Union Army during the Civil War, though two older sisters who owned it at the time continued to live there on the 2nd floor until the conflict was over. In that way they managed to save some of the furnishings from marauding bands of soldiers after the generals left.

The grounds were beautiful even though there was very little that was blooming or even leafing out. But the azaleas and rhododendrons were starting to put out some color.

Another view of Rosalie. It is interesting to me that the Natchez Indians who had originally lived on this piece of land before the French decided they needed to build a fort there, evidently got tired of the French and their ways and one day rose up and killed them all. It gives a slightly different feel to the name the owner gave his private home now.

I remember seeing redbud and magnolia's blooming down in Florida more than a month ago. But up here the magnolia's are just starting to come out. This tree will be magnificent in another week or two.

One last look at the building.

 

A view of a couple of the live oaks on the property.

This mansion was named Choctaw and was finished in 1836. Owned by one of the numerous cotton planters in the region, this was considered his 'Town Home', which is where most of the planters and their families actually lived. The plantation may have been where all the money was made, but one didn't go out there very often unless needed. All of them had overseer's to deal with the actual running of the place. Besides, there was no social life to speak of out there in the wilderness.



This mansion is known as 'Stanten Hall' and was finished in 1857. The interior of this home is just stunning with most of the original furnishing's and details still the way they were. Unfortunately, like most tours like this, they don't let you take pictures of the inside of the house. Still, if you want to see what some of it looked like you can evidently view the movie 'North and South' and this will be the home that the character played by Patrick Swazee (sp) owned.

The owner originally bought the whole block, and most of it is still preserved also. Certainly a very pretty building, but way to big for my taste. Still, it does still amaze me what such great wealth can purchase. What also amazes me is how little of it really means anything once you're dead.

A view of the back porches.



Some of the original wrought iron work around the porches and balconies.

This much smaller home is located right across the street from Stanten Hall.

A closer view of that same house. This one suits my taste much better even though it is a little on the large size also. You can't help but like a house that has a turret and a rounded porch like that.

And across the street from that last one is this 'fixer upper'. Probably to far gone to actually fix up any longer, it almost breaks my heart to see such a wonderful structure fall apart like this. I am also surprised that no one has climbed up on the roof and stolen the sheet copper off of the dome yet.



Magnolia Hall.  The last great mansion to be finished in 1858 before the effects of the Civil War started to be felt. I didn't get a chance to go into this one as it was closed to the public today. It does have some great Greek columns though.

A couple less imposing house's on one of the side streets.



I had to include this picture of 'Fat Mama's Tamale's because it was the first really good mexican food I had since leaving Colorado. (Not withstanding the place in Orlando that my friend and I always eat at. It's pretty good too). Walking by this place the smell hit me so hard that I had to go in and try some. Ended up buying a dozen of them, they were small, eating a couple and then taking the rest along with me for later. Yum!!!!