Jackson, Mississippi

If you looked at the previous post, you might have noticed rain clouds building in the sky. It started to rain as we left Baton Rouge and headed toward Jackson, Mississippi. We had been watching the forecasts and expected that the next day, Saturday, would be a rain day. Friday night turned out to be a very rainy night, too. We got as far as McComb, Mississippi, mostly via smaller roads in Louisiana to avoid more of that New Orleans bound traffic.

During a break in the weather on Saturday, we backtracked to the border and visited the Welcome Center for Mississippi. There we encountered the first person at one of these centers who was not helpful. She told us "There really isn't anything worthwhile to see between here and Jackson." As experienced travelers, we knew that had to be wrong. Fortunately, the Welcome Center had plenty of literature.

We were traveling Interstate 55 and got off at Magnolia, just a few miles north of the Welcome Center. There are a set of 1930's WPA murals in the post office there.


And there are a large number of well preserved, old Southern homes. They are nicely marked to fit with a driving tour brochure. A few even qualify as antebellum. (For those of you in the North, the "bellum" in question was "The War Between the States, 1861-65.")


McComb, by the way, played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It also has an historic railway museum and was home to Bo Diddly.

We waited until late in the afternoon when the rain was forecast to stop before heading up to Jackson. Jackson has two capitols, the old and the new.

The old capitol was our first stop. I took this picture while standing in the middle of the street.


Let's just say that Jackson, Mississippi is a quiet town on Saturday afternoon. Here is a picture of Congress Street facing away from the current capitol.


We did, of course get a picture of the current capitol, too. Linda is in this one.


With that accomplished, we looked for a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant scene is about as dead as the traffic on Saturday. While driving around, we found this museum exhibit that surprised us.


Here is an article about Jackson's Muslim Museum in Saudi Aramco Magazine. Who knew?

Finally, we drove past this cafe.


It turns out that the Mayflower Cafe has been serving great seafood since 1935 and is considered a Jackson institution. Yahoo Travel reviewers mostly give it 4 or 5 stars. We were among the first to arrive for dinner. We had a great meal starting out with this crabmeat and eggplant appetizer.


The whole dinner was very good.

Just one bit of advice. The route to the restrooms takes you outside, down the block and up a long steep stairway. And, O yes, this is a BYOB place.