We drove south out of Mississippi in the continuing hard rain. The rangers at Melrose had advised us against taking the mansion tour so we could get on the road and get to a good stopping place in Louisiana before dark, especially with the bad weather which made for slow going. We had again turned to iOverlander for a parking spot for the night, and this time the iOverlander advice was spot on with the recommendation for the old ferry landing in Saint Francisville. The town of Saint Francisville is quite charming, with lots of little shops and old houses which have been beautifully restored. All of the old buildings and historical points of interest are marked with informational plaques, as is the old ferry landing where we parked. The ferry landing is at the end of the road and runs into the river, and the wide open gravel parking lot is lined with “Public Parking” signs. The rain took a break just as we pulled in about an hour before dark, so we put on our walking shoes and took the dogs for a walk through the town. The night was quiet and we weren’t bothered, although for some reason through the night a lot of cars drove to the end of the road, did a loop through the parking lot, and then headed back down the road. We had expected cars in and out with people fishing, but not the cars just driving around for no apparent reason. We probably would have slept better if we had spent a second night there, but for just one night, both of us were awake off and on trying to figure out what was going on outside.
The road runs into the Mississippi River where the ferries landed until 2012, and we had the whole parking lot to ourselves for most of the night.
The town is full of charming old houses, all painstakingly maintained.
Even the small houses are well kept . After widespread disrepair everywhere in Mississippi, where it looked like nobody cared about making things nice, this town in Louisiana was a welcome change.
In the morning, we took another walk through the town before heading for Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana. After being disappointed in both Alabama and Mississippi, we were ready for more disappointment, but we were pleasantly surprised. While some parts of Baton Rouge are definitely better off than others, we didn’t feel the hopelessness we felt in Mississippi, and it looked like people actually tried to make whatever they had nice. And, the capitol itself is not only the tallest capitol building in the country, built in the Art Deco style, but it is also surrounded by well tended grounds, with a lake on one side, a garden where an assassinated governor is buried on another, the original Louisiana State University grounds on the third, and another park with an ammunition magazine museum and an ancient Indian mound on the fourth side. Even on a chilly Sunday morning, people were around, walking dogs, looking at the gardens, and generally enjoying the grounds.
The Louisiana capitol is the tallest in the country.
A lake is on one side of the capitol complex, seen here from the top of the Indian mound.
The white plinth in the center of this photo is the grave of the governed who was assassinated in the capitol building.
We left Baton Rouge in the sunshine, heading for a few days in New Orleans.