Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my morning south of Hattiesburg Mississippi at historic Camp Shelby to visit the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum. After that – I drove to the bluffs overlooking – and the banks of – the Mighty Mississippi River at historic Natchez. I didn’t get to see and do everything that I wanted to in Natchez, so I’ll just have to visit again on a future road-trip.
Natchez and the surrounding area intrigues me with so much history. The U.S. 84 / U.S. 98 drive across the south of Mississippi leading to Natchez is quite scenic and serene.
Day 4 of my recent retirement road-trip began on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. It’s actually two bridges side-by-side. Westbound (into Louisiana) is the original bridge that has been there since 1940. Eastbound (into Mississippi) is the newer (and a bit wider) bridge that was built 48 years later.
I continued my westward trek on U.S. 84. It’s definitely one of my favorite highways in the U.S.A. It has a very interesting intersection with U.S. 165 where – in order to continue on U.S. 84 – you have to make a right-hand turn onto U.S. 165, immediately get in the left-hand turning lane, make a U-turn, quickly get in the right-hand turning lane, and then turn right back onto U.S. 84. (There was a high incidence of collisions at this intersection, so it was reconfigured in 2018 to 2019.)
Fun Facts: U.S. 165 is a 412-mile highway in Arkansas and Louisiana. Its northern-end is at U.S. 70, and its southern-end is at U.S. 90. Technically – U.S. 165 forms a concurrency with U.S. 84 at the unusual intersection described above. (I’m such a U.S. route nerd.)
I entered Texas from Louisiana via rural Keatchie-Marshall Road. There was no big “Welcome To Texas” sign at the state line – just an ordinary “Panola County Line” sign with a smaller route sign above it designating it as Texas Farm Road 123. Oh – and the speed limit increased. (Texans love their high speed limits.) That quick moment began a 10-day stay for me in North Texas.
It was on to Marshall Texas from there, and my first stop was the historic Starr Family Home. I introduced myself as a fellow docent of a historic house, and I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with two of the docents on duty at the time before, during, and after my self-guided tour on both floors of the house. They gave me some good ideas to ponder.
After that I ventured over to the Harrison County Historical Museum. I was a little disappointed that there were no docents on duty during my visit to their museum (located in two different buildings across the street from each other). In fact – I was able to enter and tour virtually the entire museum without any human contact whatsoever. That’s not really a good thing. Open museums should always be visibly manned and supervised for information and security purposes. I did finally find someone working in an office near the gift shop, and I briefly talked to her about the other museum location across the street. Their museum (in both buildings) contained great displays, but they lacked guidance, direction, and written material.
My final stop in downtown Marshall was the highly-rated (via Google reviews) Pazzeria By Pietro’s. I got myself a 9″ pizza with pepperoni and Canadian bacon. It was very good – truly hot and delicious !
Next #TravelThursday – I’m settled in North Texas with my family for 9 days. I’ll share some fun moments – including the total solar eclipse. Let’s keep traveling together.
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