Delta Blues Road Trip Help
 

Hi All

I'm working on a section of our upcoming US trip and I'm a little worried I am being too ambitious in regards to time and underestimating driving distances. This is what I'm currently looking at, but would appreciate your thoughts:

• Depart NOLA and head to Vicksburg via Natchez
  • Stop in Natchez to see the town and perhaps Houmas House
  • Overnight in Vicksburg - National Military Park and learn about the Civil War, tour the town
• Vicksburg to Clarksdale via Indianola
  • Indianola - BB King Museum, Club Ebony + Dockery Farm
  • Overnight in Clarksdale - Blues Museum, perhaps a walking tour of Tennessee Williams neighbourhood, Red's or Club Zero, Hopson Plantation
• Clarksdale to Birmingham or Montgomery - this is where I really get stuck. I don't know which one to stay in (we will spend a few nights as we want to check out a number of Civil Right sites in both areas).

Do we push on to Montgomery and do a day trip to Birmingham (or do we skip Birmingham completely) or vice versa (it's quite a drive to Montogomery, we're not afraid of a long drive and it was my first choice to stay as there seem to be a few more sites I'd like to see here)? The sites I'm looking at are:

• Birmingham - Civil Rights Museum
• Montgomery - Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Freedom Rides Museum, Civil Rights Memorial Centre + Dexter Avenue Parsonage Museum

From there we head to Savannah, though I think I will need to find a stop between Montgomery/Birmingham to Savannah (perhaps Macon) to break it up.

Or, do I skip the Delta Blues area and be satisfied with experiencing the music scene NOLA and go straight to Montgomery. It's our first trip to the US (we're coming from Australia) and unfortunately, we can't see it all!

Sorry, I should also mention we will be visiting in late Sept/Oct.

blues trip schedule comment
 

Well you are planning to do a lot of driving each day. Probably not my preference. The drive from NOLA to Natchez is 3 hours. Natchez to Vicksburg is another 1 1/2 hours. Natchez is a very charming southern town with a lot of history. I would encourage you to stay the first night in Natchez in an antebellum house. I don't know how much of a US civil war buff you are. (If you are interested, there is a great biography of Grant that was recently published which I enjoyed a great deal. You could at least look at the Vicksburg section of the book. I didn't find the town of Vicksburg to be nearly as interesting as Natchez. If you merely want to visit the battlefield, that would take only an hour or so (unless, of course, you have a more substantial interest in the battle.)..Northern Mississippi is interesting to tour to get a sense of the extreme poverty, if nothing else. Don't know how interested you are in blues history.