Monday 3-27 Downtown Baton Rouge

We spent Sunday night in the Hollywood Casino parking lot. It’s right by a railroad track so every once in awhile you heard a train go by and I heard a few employees coming and going but it wasn’t bad. Today we did a bit of a walking, site seeing tour of downtown Baton Rouge. Unfortunately some of the things we wanted to see were closed on Monday’s. 

We started out by walking across the casino parking lot and across a main street to get to the Louisiana State Capitol Building. It is open to public and the tour is a self-guided tour. The front of the building had a gorgeous staircase that leads into the main area of the building but it was closed and you had to enter through security in the basement. We thought it had been closed due to security concerns but they had actually closed it because pieces of the building were falling and they had not yet fixed it. Each step of the entrance staircase represented the 48 states listed in the order of their admittance to the Union, Alaska and Hawaii were added to the top step when they entered the statehood. This building was built during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Huey P. Long was the governor at the time, he was a powerful politician that convinced the public and the Legislature that it was the thing to do to help Louisiana. He was assassinated in the same Capitol Building in 1935 and is buried on the grounds. It is the tallest Capitol Building in the United States with 34 floors. There are beautiful statues of Patriots and Pioneers who created Louisiana throughout the building and on the grounds. We walked around the building and looked in both the Senate and House Chambers and we went to the observation deck on the 27^th floor. We had to take two elevators, one took you to the 24^th floor and the another one took you the rest of the way. Once there we went outside and looked at the magnificent views of Baton Rouge. The inside of the Capitol Building was pretty with different marbles. The grounds were very well maintained by prisoners from the local prison. While walking around we saw the prisoners mowing the grass and the guards watching over them. It was a very nice tour.

After touring the Capitol Building we walked around downtown Baton Rouge. The downtown is terrific, it has walking trails through the center of town and along the Mississippi River. They have many attractions for tourist to see. As we walked around I took pictures. There were a lot of different churches. St. Joseph Cathedral caught our eyes so we walked inside to check it out. It was very nice but not as impressive as others we have seen. It did have a gorgeous organ and a gentleman was practicing on it. As we continued our walk we saw sculptures, museums and people enjoying the walking trails. We stopped by and took pictures of the Old Governor’s Mansion and the Old Capitol Building, both were closed on Monday. When we got to the river we rested, watched tug boats moving barges down the river and I took pictures of USS Kidd DD-661. We walked around downtown Baton Rouge for two and a half hours and had a great time.
 

The Capitol Building

A couple views from the observation tower in the Capitol Building

St. Joseph Cathedral

The Old Governor’s Mansion                           The Old Capitol Building

                      The USS Kidd DD-661                     Drinking fountain for adults, kids and dogs

A tug boat pushing a barge down the river

As we were walking back to the Minnie we met a gentleman and lady who were promoting the Egg Café by giving away free samples of their beignet’s which are a deep fried pastry covered in powdered sugar, they are similar to doughnut holes, they gave us a bag of 6. We had them for dessert after lunch, they were really good.

When we got back to the Minnie I took Flo for a walk and then I made lunch. After lunch we left the Hollywood Casino and headed down the Great River Road towards our next destination.

The next stop was Natchez State Park in Natchez, Mississippi. On the way to the park we drove through the city of Natchez and decided that we would explore it tomorrow.

Larry had read that the entrance road to Natchez State Park had a lot of chuck holes and very rough. It wasn’t as bad as we feared, we have driven much worse. We stopped at the office to check in. Larry was told that they only had one site available, they only had one of the two camping loops open. While he was getting the site I walked around and took pictures. After checking in we went and found the site. Once we setup the Minnie for the night we took Flo for a walk. We hadn’t gotten far when we met our neighbor. She had a dog and he wanted to say hi to Flo. While we were visiting she asked if we wanted a book on Natchez, we thought that was very nice of her.

The book on Natchez our neighbor gave us

When we got back to our site it was early so we sat outside at the picnic table and relaxed. A lady stopped by and said they had a RV just like ours except it was 27’ and ours is 21’. We talked to her for a little while.

When it was time for dinner Larry barbecued hamburgers. I was going to heat up leftovers but Larry said it was way too nice of a day for leftovers. After dinner Larry and I decided we wanted to go for a walk. We were just about to do so when another lady showed up and wanted to talk about the Minnie. While talking to her we found out she was with the other lady that had the bigger Minnie. When she left we decided to go for our walk before it got dark. As we were walking we stopped by the two ladies Minnie and visited with them for a little while. 

  

Larry barbecuing dinner

The neighbors’ Minnie and our Minnie

Natchez State Park is very beautiful and has a lot of trees throughout the park including the camping sites. It has a cute little lake with a fishing pier. The day area is pretty with a group picnic area and a playground for the kids. It has two loops and a nice bathhouse. The bathhouse is set up a little different then other state parks we have visited. You walk into a building and there is a washer and dryer along with a soda vending machine. There is a door to the ladies bathroom on one side and a door to the men’s bathroom on the other side. The bathrooms had showers in them.

The fishing pier at Natchez State Park                       The playground for the kids