Travels in a Tin Can

(Kiana) #1

Bellamy and Attenbrough occupied for weeks. The main reason we were on
the road all day was because we elected to avoid main roads in favour of the
scenic routes. Like drivers throughout the world we soon discovered that
scenic does not mean picturesque, but merely very hard to navigate.
We were deep in Bayou country, and there was certainly a lot of water
around, but it was not as pretty as we had imagined. Much of our time was
spent passing through industrialized areas or trailer parks. The most
interesting aspect of our surroundings was local people's tendency to voice
their opinions about religion and patriotism via signs and statues outside their
houses. It all felt a little 'redneck'.
For most of the day we were attempting to follow the 'Lazy River' road,
a route described by a leaflet as one that would take us past numerous
plantation homes and other historic buildings. Unfortunately the map on the
leaflet corresponded only very loosely to the actual geography of the area,
and there were few road signs that referred to the 'River Road'. The river in
question was the Mississippi, although during two days of driving by it we only
glimpsed the river itself on a handful of occasions. This was not even always
because we were not on the right road, but because driving by this huge river
means driving next to towering man-made embankments. Picturesque?
Hardly.... better than flooding though I suppose.
Once we finally found our way on to the River Road there was much
rejoicing.... until we lost it again! The next time we got back to the right place
we soon found one of the sights marked on the leaflet, the Nottoway
Plantation. We had planned to visit this home - many of the plantations will
happily take your money in return for a tour - however it was late by the time

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