This is our third day (October 17th) of travelling with the dogs and our camper.  We were headed to Natchez, Mississippi!

The dogs are loaded up and ready to go (whether they are happy about it, who knows....)

Along the way, when we stop - they dogs get a water break, along with a potty and sometimes food break.

Abby and Ollie got first dibs!

Then Abby let Rue in - I got bigger collapsible bowls for the next journey - but it's nice they that are willing to share.

The drive to Natchez took us through the rest of the pan handle of Florida, Alabama and the majority of Mississippi!  We drove a lot of miles on this particular day (after a short day the day before).  Per a Google map look, it appears this drive today was about 318 miles.  That of course doesn’t count the potty breaks, lunch break or gas breaks (we tried to lump as many of these things together as we could into a single stop).

Along the way I did take some photographs which I will include with this particular blog post since it was things we saw but didn’t stop in any of these given locations along the way.  Soon we will be leaving Florida - this is one of the bridges that is on Interstate 10 along the way (actually we stopped for gas, and this was the view from the gas station!).

So long Florida!  I can't tell you how much Florida has been beaten this year with Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.  The number of trees we saw down was incredible.  Since we were on the road just one week after Hurricane Milton came through, there were a lot of out-of-town electric trucks leaving Florida.  Also, some trucks carrying "portable lodging" (as shown in this photo).

After arriving in Alabama, we began to see some 'swampy' areas along Interstate 10.  Overall, a lot of Interstate 10 is a really boring drive!!

We stayed at a state park located outside of the city deep into the wooded areas (at least that is what I thought at first).  It seems that if you are arriving to this park from the south, that you will go down a pretty long road to get to the state park and there isn't much along that road except trees.  Hence the feeling that I thought we might have to drive a good way just to get to town - but just to the north of this park, less than 10 minutes away is a pretty major 4 lane highway that will take you into the downtown area of Natchez.
We arrived!  Thankfully we did make it around 5pm and it was about an hour before dark.

The entrance to this park is very nice - with a beautiful sign. I always take photographs of the signs to help separate all the photographs out when I finally start working on the photos when I return home.

Why did we stop here?

Well, if you recall earlier in the blog series our friends had all mentioned that you probably don't want to drive more than 350 miles in a given day, so I was looking for something that met some basic criteria:

1) Less than 350 miles from our previous stop

2) Nice looking campground based on internet searching

3) Something to do nearby that might be dog friendly, photographic and interesting

This stop here is definitely one that I would consider going to again - we did have a good time here and the campground was really nice!  One thing that I did find out, unfortunately a bit late in the game is that the 3rd weekend of October they have a big hot air balloon and music festival.  Since our trip was pretty much set, we didn't get to enjoy those festivities, but we did get to see some of the 'setup' that was happening downtown.

Stayed at Natchez Mississippi State Park

Immediately when we pulled into this campground area, it was very pretty!  I knew I had done a good job picking this campground out.
 

Things we liked about this campground:

1. Lots of beautiful trees and shade
2. A concrete slab for the RV
3. Nice bath house including a laundry area
4. Friendly neighbors in campsites (and friendly dogs!)
5. Pet friendly
6. Lake view (yep, we got a lake front campsite here)

Campsite #39 at Natchez State Park

Our dogs were ready to get out and check out this new stop - they saw some very interesting trees? Maybe they just had to go potty.  We did get there just in time to catch some beautiful late afternoon, sunset lighting on the lake so once we did the initial setup, it was time to check it out before it was gone.

I didn't take any photographs inside, but the bath house was a pretty nice looking building here too. They had a nice, clean facility and also had laundry area available.  I didn't check out the laundry since we had only been on the road a couple of days.

Sunrise the next morning found some beautiful scenes next to the lake with a crisp 42 degrees!  It was wonderful to have a nice, wooded area the dogs could enjoy just feet away from our camper.

We headed into downtown Natchez shortly after we had breakfast so we could enjoy a few of the sights along the Mississippi River before heading out to our next stop on our trip.  I had read that they had a nice riverwalk called Bluff Park (101 S. Broadway Natchez Mississippi, 39120) that was dog friendly to walk the kiddos.  We were able to park in a public, no fee, parking lot right by this area.  The view looking to the left shows the bridge over the Mississippi River.

Walkway over the street along the Mississippi River.

Grand Hotel - this particular photograph I turned to black and white - the hotel faces to the west, so in the morning hours I was shooting into the sun which is totally not ideal.  Since we were heading onward in a few hours it was shoot into the sun or don't do it at all.

Natchez Bandstand

Part of the festival setup I'm sure, but it makes for a nice photograph!

My goal on this particular walk was to get closer to the bridge crossing the Mississippi River which we went over later today and to get a bit closer to the paddle boat.  To get to this point, we had to walk down a bit of a hill and of course, eventually walk back up that hill!

The paddle boat on the Mississippi River.

The dogs hanging with Jim while he checks his phone.  We had several people that we were trying to send cell phone photographs to along our way as well as take photos with our digital cameras.  I suspect that the dogs were getting the hang of what was going on, but they did get worn out and slept really well whenever they got a chance.

This particular place is said to be where Mark Twain actually stayed for at least a night back during his lifetime.

Decorations for the Halloween season outside the stores near the Mark Twain place pictured above.

We spent some time driving around and looking at some of the old houses and buildings in downtown Natchez (click on the link to see those photographs).  Jim found a small local place for us to grab some lunch that allowed us to sit outside with the dogs.  Then we headed back to the campground to get ready and head out - moving on to our next stop on our trip.

Stay tuned to see the next blog post soon!  For additional photographs from this camping stop, click Photographs from Natchez, Mississippi