Why We Do What We Do

Why do we do it?

Downtown Natchez

Why do we drive all over creation? Why waste the gas?

Why do we take pictures of every little thing?  Why pull over and crawl through the weeds for a glimpse of a run down, falling in, elderly building?

Today, the answer came to us in the form of Nil Desperandum. If you recall, the lasts time we played around in Louisiana, just across the river from Vicksburg, we stumbled upon this behemoth in the bushes.

At the completion of today's travels, we discovered that she stands no more.  Nil Desperandum once stood proud in the Louisiana delta, but now the two chimneys are all that remain. Or are they?  We also have the pictures!  Buildings, left to their own devices, crumble under the weight of overgrown vegetation and rotted material.  Yet we spend days traveling the pot-hole riddled, wash-boarded, gravel roads photographing just such places so that they may live on forever.

But I get ahead of myself.  We ended at Nil Desperandum, but we started in Natchez.

Now, we have been to Natchez many, many, many, many times. Yet we still find things to check out EVERY TIME! Started with a church on the way down town.

                                                   

Holy Family Catholic Church can be found in downtown Natchez.  This beautiful old building has been here since before 1900.  Imagine the worshiping that has occurred in this structure.  Across the street is the Rhythm Club Fire Museum.  We did not take the tour today, as we had other plans (yes, we do sometimes stick to a plan), but we will return.

Finally, we crossed the Mighty Mississippi River and headed north.  Once out of Ferriday, Louisiana we were in uncharted territory...at least for Instead of Doing Dishes :). First stop was Clayton, Louisiana where we crossed an old vertical lift bridge...

before turning around to get pictures.  This engineering is not something we have seen much of on our travels, so we were impressed.

We choose a road that paralleled the river and headed north, seeing as we have been south along the river before. Hwy 65 runs from Ferriday to Tallulah, LA.  Now, you know us...we did not stay on Hwy 65, but this was the main road we took through the flat plains of Louisiana.

As we bobbed and weaved we found a few old plantation homes. We loved this one.

There were not signs... we are not even quite sure where we were...other than Louisiana, but either of us would snap this bad boy up in a hurry.

We stumbled upon a pretty famous home, at least to us, that has been shut down for renovations.

Winter Quarters was once a residence of Haller Nutt.  Nutt is most known, to us, for his building, but never completing Longwood Plantation in Natchez.  We really wanted to get in to see this house, and hope that one day they will reopen to the public.

Most of what we encountered on this days journey were churches.  Plantations often built their own churches for people to worship close to home. We found there are several old churches still standing! Some had names, some did not, but all were worth the stop to take a picture!

            

As we took the long way around St.Joseph Lake, we also found the marked site of a former mission.  From the signs, I deduced (did I really just use that word...gonna have to back off the Sherlock watching!) that the mission here was the predecessor to St.Patrick's Mission in Fort Adams, MS.

The building, although antique itself, was not part of the original mission.  Interesting fact, if you zoom on the above photo one sign is in English and the other Spanish.  The Spanish sign is in much better condition than the English.  When we stopped, I first tried reading the better looking of the signs when I realized it was not in English.  While Heather was taking pictures, I began slowly reading the English version, which Heather didn't know was there as I was reading.  She was, at first, very impressed with my ability to read Spanish having never learned the language! HA I should have kept my mouth shut and not pointed out the other sign...I might get her next time!

Sometimes while traveling, we find things that remind us of home or other places we have been.

This was a "reminder" that Heather could have lived without.  I believe we saw the smoke stack of Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant for most of the trip.

Poor Heather...this day was just totally against her...because not to much further down the road we stumbled up THIS (which thrilled my soul!)

If you recall we have covered the Mississippi side of Old Ulysses' march to Vicksburg during the Civil War. We also, found out there was a Louisiana side to the old fellow's travels.  We have not yet followed it, but I believe we found the tail end today around Winter's Quarters.  One day we will complete this!

Not only was my day made, thanks to Grant's meanderings, but my youngest got the thrill of his short life when we were buzzed by "Dusty Crophopper"!

Heather got some great shots and I plan on blowing these up for my two-year old's wall.  He talked about this the entire way home.

Our last detour, once we got back to Mississippi was a trip down Letourneau Road in Warren County.
There are some amazing river shots to be had from here.

If I remember correctly I believe there were three barges within sight.  It was pretty spectacular.

We survived another trip!  I believe it is time to give the Blue Mazda a check up before out next excursion...she works harder than the rest of us after all!


So this is why we do it.

We find things that other have forgotten...or may not have even known was there without us.  We share the experience so that those who can not spend hours roaming the lesser known roads can follow along at their own pace.

We do it for places like Nil Desperandum. Future generations will drive by and see two chimneys and wonder what was there, but we can look back at our photos and KNOW what was there.

Until next time!
~Rosemary