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I have always been fascinated by the image of the American South but have never really seen it outside of a 70MPH trip down Interstate 95 to Florida. I would love to spend a few weeks driving down the two lane roads of the American South far from the big Cities and freeways. I want to see what the deep-deep South Eastern USA looks like. I am particularly interested in seeing Alabama, Mississippi, LA and Arkansas. Does anyone have advice on where I can go to see the old deep south. I would like to drive through small towns and villages that have not changed as rapidly and still have some old fashioned looks from the past. Not touristy places but towns that will give me a view of the deep South. Does anyone have any advice?
I live in Maryland and took a road trip down Skyline Drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then slowly made my way back on two-lane or country roads. It was truely spectacular. Also, Amtrak runs trains from New Orleans to Baltimore that travel through Mississippi, Alabama, Atlanta, North Carolina which was another very nice experience. You are allowed three stops along the way.
A comparable parkway to the Blue Ridge Parkway is the Natchez Trace Parkway which runs a couple hundred miles from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS (at the border of LA and MS, just east of the Mississippi river). It is a beautiful drive that you should plan at least two days for traveling either direction. Charleston and Savannah are two of my favorite southern cities, but they are on the coast and might be out of the way from your planned itinerary. Get yourself some authentic BBQ in Memphis and get yourself anything truly cajun or creole in New Orleans. Vicksburg, MS is an interesting civil-war area town and larger cities like Birmingham and Montgomery, AL are steeped in southern traditions.
Follow the Great River Road through LA, MS, AK. It's all two lane, winding and low traffic. It's even gravel in a few stretches. It takes you through the Delta, past cotton fields, through old tumbled-down towns, wooded areas and Civil War battlefields. Some highlights are Vicksburg, Natchez, Clarksdale, and Helena, AK (which may probably be too authentic for some!) Beautiful countryside, interesting scenery.
Another great dive I took years ago was south from New Orleans down to Grand Isle, LA. A unique drive thru the bayous.
U.S. 61 from Memphis to New Orleans is a good drive. Be sure to make stops in Vicksburg, Natchez, St. Francisville, and Port Hudson. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to go see False River, an oxbow lake, it's only a thirty minutes off of 61. Be sure to make a few trips off of 61 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans to see river road plantation houses. From New Orleans, you can hit U.S. 90, which will take you along the Mississippi gulf coast. (check to make sure that the causeways at Bay St. Louis and Biloxi-Ocean Springs are opened first). Once you get to Mobile, you can get on Hwy 98 and take it to Foley, Alabama, home of Lambert's restaurant (the absolute greatest restaurant in Alabama, and home of throwed rolls, you might have seen it on the travel channel).
U.S. 61 from Memphis to New Orleans is a good drive. Be sure to make stops in Vicksburg, Natchez, St. Francisville, and Port Hudson. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to go see False River, an oxbow lake, it's only a thirty minutes off of 61. Be sure to make a few trips off of 61 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans to see river road plantation houses. From New Orleans, you can hit U.S. 90, which will take you along the Mississippi gulf coast. (check to make sure that the causeways at Bay St. Louis and Biloxi-Ocean Springs are opened first). Once you get to Mobile, you can get on Hwy 98 and take it to Foley, Alabama, home of Lambert's restaurant (the absolute greatest restaurant in Alabama, and home of throwed rolls, you might have seen it on the travel channel).
There's a Lambert's in Missouri too (I think Springfield) and they are DELICIOUS!
Those towns you speak of that are slow to progress....
Try US 84 through Alabama. Covington, Coffee counties into Houston county where Dothan is located.
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