N E X T J O U R N E Y . O R G

	The main stops on my trip were Montgomery - Selma - Marrero (near New Orleans) - Vacherie - St. Francisville - Natchez - Jackson - Tupelo - Birmingham - and back to Montgomery. I put 1,600 miles on that rental car. I wouldn't have been able to find Rodney (the ghost town) or to bypass New Orleans smoothly without a GPS. In retrospect, the drive from Selma to Louisiana as I took it was way too long for one evening, and the Tupelo area wasn't all that interesting. I wish I had driven all the way to Mound Bayou, MS, the significance of which I realized too late, and that I hadn't felt too tired or lazy to stop in Donaldsonville, LA, instead of rushing through. Traveling with an independent vehicle was different from my usual bus-based style. Not having to carry my bag all the time was a great advantage, but I made fewer human contacts and I tended to drive too far every evening. Also, the $40 a night lodging options were uniformly depressing - and depressingly located away from anything of interest. This precluded my natural rhythm for discovering a new place: getting a room, dropping my bag, throwing a bit of water on my face, and going back out on foot to see the sights. The food was hit or miss, with some happy surprises.
	Montgomery is the prime place to get an education about Civil Rights.The best possible start is the Civil Rights Memorial Center, a small but moving museum where you can enter your name on a Wall of Tolerance. Maya Lin's Civil Rights Memorial (the fountain next to the waterfall) is actually part of the complex. Do not  let the nondescript exterior of the Rosa Parks Museum - or thoughts that you already know the story - deter you from this visit. What Rosa did was out of the ordinary, but equally heroic was the lengthy Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed. I can't wait to have grandchildren so that I can take them to the Children's Wing.
	A few steps from the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery stands the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. This church was where the Montgomery Bus Boycott was quickly organized following Rosa Parks' arrest. The pastor at the time was a young Martin Luther King, and you can visit the unprepossessing parsonage nearby, where King and his family lived at the time. Guides and docents have first-hand knowledge of the history, adding to the interest of these visits. The Malden Barber Shop is one block from the parsonage, in an old hotel where important meetings took place.
	The verdant Selma to Montgomery Highway has been designated a National Historic Trail by the National Park Service. The first of three planned museums along the way is the flatly named yet magnificent Lowndes County Interpretive Center. This was, to me, the best Civil Rights museum of all, a shattering and awe-inspiring visit. I will never forget a photo - amongst many - of the marchers passing a poor sharecroppers' cabin. The marchers look like Ray Charles or Shirley Verrett, confident in their sixtiness. The farmers look like terrified Africans in 1880.
	The Birmigham Civil Rights Institute is a rock-solid resource which covers methodically the main and the lesser known events between the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 and the present day, with an emphasis on the 1955-1968 period. It is the least specialized of the museums I visited, and thus it sheds some light on not-so-local history such as the Little Rock school integration drama. Incidentally, I never knew that Birmingham - the archetypal Colored Only drinking fountain town - was founded after the Civil War, and thus had no history of slavery.
	The Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum, next to the Angola Penitentiary, is an interesting place if you happen to be in the broiling hot area between Baton Rouge and Natchez. The penitentiary stands on the grounds of an old plantation and was notorious for brutality from the time of its foundation in 1880 (in former slave quarters) until the 1970s.
	The Natchez Trace Parkway, with its myriad of interesting historical and natural stopping points, is covered in detail on numerous web sites, including: Natchez Trace Parkway Scenic Trace Natchez Trace Travel The ghost town of Old Cahawba has a web site which makes it appear to be somewhat more than it actually is. The other ghost town I visited, Rodney, does not have a dedicated site, but you will find out all you need to know about it by surfing the web.
	The Barataria Preserve is part of the Jean Laffite National Park complex. If you enjoy swamps, it is well worth the drive through antiseptic suburbs of New Orleans. The Magnolia Trail at the St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Natchez is hard to find. Don't give up if you've come that far. The trail features "photography blinds" or, in other words, tiny cabins in which you can hide and take photos of swamp birds - while roasting, yourself, like a chicken. When in Birmingham, you can enjoy the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, a green oasis at the edge of the industrial city. The Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, near Birmingham, is an interesting spot combining nature, the Alabama Iron and Steel Museum, and a campground.
	Also of metallurgical interest are the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham. This "stabilized ruin" will exert its magic on geeky urban explorers and on cool music video types alike. Plan to snoop around for at least a couple of hours, and dress dirty. As cool, clean, and polished as the furnaces are hot and dusty, you will also enjoy the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson. The building is handsome, and the exhibits well presented.
	When it comes to plantations, the key is to visit more than one in order to get a more complete and nuanced impression. Many plantations are still standing and open to the public. I found a good list here. Oak Alley is spectacular, but the carefully engineered visit almost feels like "Louisiana Land" in a theme park. The tour at Laura Créole Plantation is more in-depth, with solid detail about slave life (the entrance is pricy). The Oakley Plantation House (from which J. J. Audubon was fired as a tutor) is most intimate and closest to nature. And Rosedown Plantation offers a combination of beautiful grounds and authentically lived-in interiors.

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