We potter around Bill’s House and The Shack Inn’s grounds in the morning, enjoying a final look at a singular and memorable place to lay one’s head. Then it is to the motor, for we have a long day’s drive ahead down some celebrated roads: Highway 61 – The Blues Highway; Route 1 along the great Mississippi; and finally the Natchez Trace, the most beautiful stretch of road in our whole trip.

The group stop for a mesmerically disappointing lunch at ‘Garfield’s’ in Greenville – one of a succession of somewhat impoverished towns in Western Mississippi. The service was achingly slow – while White Castle served undoubtedly more evil fare, at least its cruel punishment was swift and expeditious…

Our time well wasted we speed off towards Vicksburg, the ‘key to the South’ to quote big Abe Lincoln. And when I say ‘speed’, I do mean ‘speed’. One of the many annoying things about my crashing of the car back in Bowling Green is that it has stripped me of all critiquing privileges vis-a-vis the driving of m’colleagues. This is scarcely a problem in regards to The Big Man who is somewhat masterful behind the wheel (despite the fact that today, on a flat, empty, ridiculously straight bit of road, he coaxed the beast north of 120, the bastard). No…’tis Silver who would suffer my disdain, were circumstances different, for he drives like an eighteen year-old Essex boy with five WKD Blues in his belly and one in his hand.

Now you might say, ‘Tom, isn’t it equally churlish to criticize his driving on these blog posts, rather than face-to-face?’ And to that I would say, ‘Thank you so much for reading the blog, I do hope you are enjoying it!’

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On the outskirts of Vicksburg we take a driving tour around the historic battleground – an extensive and highly impressive thirteen-mile monument to one of the Civil War’s defining clashes. The whole place is littered with obelisks, gravestones and statues of varying sizes, and red and blue plaques are placed hither and thither to show the Confederate and Union battle-lines.

The Yankee is in his element here. He demanded at least one battlefield at the start of the trip, and the trip (as is its wont) has delivered manfully. We then march into the town itself and have a drink by the wide and muddy Mississippi. It’s a big river, there’s no denying it.

We leave pretty promptly from Vicksburg (not a town, in my opinion, deserving a 47-day siege) and take the beauteous Natchez Trace to the lovely riverside town of Natchez, full of grand antebellum architecture and wide, pleasant streets.

NowThe Eagle has been hiding something in his feathery nest, and that something happens to be over 100,000 Holiday Inn reward points from his travels and travails at his work. So, being the very finest of birds, he sorts us out complimentary rooms, much to our delight.

However, we promptly squander those savings in Natchez’s only casino – which doesn’t even have the good grace to be a riverboat. However, we do enjoy a meal and a few beers there right on the surprisingly peaceful riverfront, and we all have a decent enough time, despite our periodic losses to one-armed bandits (fruit machines) and two-armed bandits (blackjack dealers). The casino puts on a shuttle-bus back to the town’s hotels and we use this to get an earlier night than usual. It is to be our last pre-New Orleans night, so a good eight hours of the dreamless is absolutely imperative!