Return “Home”

It is always nice to explore new routes, especially after a nice and long visit home with family.

After more than a week at home for the Christmas and New Years Holiday, it was time to return back home to Mississippi.  It’s been 4 years now that I have lived in the Jackson metro area, so it has become mundane to take the quick way home.  The quick way home, of course, would be to keep on the Interstate, which at times, is just what the doctor ordered.  I should have listened to my inner monologue today to take the quick way home, but I decided that I would be slightly adventurous.

Baton Rouge to Jackson - Approx. 261 miles

I had wanted to take this route back at Thanksgiving, when I was able to take a quick jaunt home, but this time I actually listened to my inner monologue and took the quick way back to Jackson.

I had traveled various parts of this route in the past.  It had been about 15 years since I had been in the New Roads area, which is a nice little town situated on False River, one of the myriad of oxbow lakes along the Mississippi River.  Heading north from New Roads, you enter into the area of the Mississippi, Red and Atchafalaya Rivers are nearly one river.  Years ago, the Mississippi River started to want to drain down the Atchafalaya River Basin, which would have crippled the ports and the industries of downstream towns such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  So, the US Army Corps of Engineers stepped in and constructed the Old River Control Structure (Powerpoint Presentation).

Headed north out of Old River was virgin territory for me.  I continued on Louisiana Highway 15 until just south of Vidalia, where I picked up LA 131 to the foot of the US 425/US 84 bridge across the Mississippi River to Natchez.  Most of the route of LA 15 is along the Mississippi River levee, which is always an interesting ride.  Mississippi has a short route along the Mississippi River levee in Warren and Issaquena Counties, which is also an open range, so you are as likely to meet a cow as you are another vehicle.   LA 15 is not an open range like its Mississippi counterpart, but it does give some good vistas of farming country, as well as decent shots of the Mississippi River.  It is fairly desolate, so it might not be the route to take if you looking for an interesting short cut or are running low on fuel, but cell service was excellent.

After leaving Natchez, I continued east towards Brookhaven on the divided 4-lane of US 84/98.  I had traveled part of this route in the past, but once beyond the community of Bude, where US 98 breaks off towards McComb, MS, and then on towards Brookhaven, MS, it was all new again, until reaching I-55 heading back North into Jackson.  There are some nice rolling hills in this area, as you drive away from the river, and it is 65 miles per hour (mph), which is a definite plus, compared to the rural 2-lanes or the plodding 50 mph pace of the Natchez Trace Parkway.  Do not get me wrong…  I do enjoy the Natchez Trace.  It is a beautiful drive from Natchez to just south of Nashville, Tennessee, but 50 mph can be a drag, when you are ready to get home.

And, now, I am home.  The car is empty of the goodies brought north, and, now, it is time to take another long Winter’s nap.