RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Top Mississippi River PT 2 Road Trip Stops for RV Travelers
In this exciting Part 2 of the *Mississippi Valley Traveler* I, Patti Hunt welcomes back Dean Klinkenberg, the expert behind explore hidden gems along the *Lower Mississippi River*, sharing insights on historical sites, must-visit campgrounds, and cultural experiences perfect for RV travelers. From **Kentucky to Louisiana**, they highlight scenic drives, Civil War history, off-the-beaten-path adventures, and the best spots for RV camping. Whether you're a history buff, nature enthusiast, or full-time RVer, this episode is packed with valuable travel tips and local secrets!
Dean Klinkenberg reach out to Dean with questions and comments.
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This is part two of Hidden Gems along the mighty Mississippi River. My name is Patti Hunt and you are listening to the RV Life Podcast. If you missed part one, which was just last week, you may wanna go back and listen. My expert guest, dean Klinkenberg, from Mississippi Valley Traveler, was on talking about the Upper Mississippi River, the five states that the Mississippi River runs through, and gave so much valuable information information we knew we needed a part two and we are going to jump into part two. First, I want to talk about open road resorts, with five amazing locations in Idaho, nebraska, new Mexico and two locations in Dallas. These five locations are featured parks on the RVLifeCampgroundscom featured parks on the RVLifeCampgroundscom app, so you could go to campgroundsrvlifecom and check out all of these campgrounds and what they have to offer. Like I said, they are a featured park and you could see all the reviews from RVers who have stayed at these parks, or you could go to OpenRoadResortscom to find out about these campgrounds.
Speaker 1:Dean Klinkenberg is here. He is back. We are going to talk about the lower Mississippi River and get back into it and I'm so excited there's been such a wealth of information. Again, I recommend people going back and listening to what he had to say about the five states that are in the upper Mississippi River. Okay, welcome back, dean.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1:Great, let's jump in, and we are going to go through the five lower states and we're going to start with Kentucky.
Speaker 2:And I want to start with kind of an overview of the lower Mississippi too.
Speaker 2:I think it's a very different kind of experience than the upper part of the river, and part of it is that the Mississippi isn't quite as accessible in the lower part of the river and it's levied off. They're very big levees. It has a history of some really tragic floods, so we've built these giant levees that tend to separate the Mississippi from everything else. So there aren't nearly as many communities right on the river as there are on the upper part of the Mississippi and in some places it's really hard to get to the river itself. But having said that, the cultural and historical sites to visit are still impressive and there's still plenty to see and do along the way. So I think it's a matter of kind of setting your expectations, for when you cross down into the lower part of the river You're going to be diving more into the cultural and historical aspects and you're going to have to work harder if you want to get to the river itself and experience some of the natural world of the river.
Speaker 1:As you say. You know, getting there might be a little more challenging. I think that's what a lot of RVers are all about let's find those places, let's hike out to them, let's get to them. So I think for a lot of my RV listeners, you're talking their language.
Speaker 2:And I think the general tip to consider with all of this too is especially if you want to have a chance to really experience the river directly that there aren't nearly as many state parks along the lower part of the river, but there are a lot of less developed areas that might be called a state natural area or a state wildlife area, and I would really look to those kinds of places as sites that you might consider going to to really get near the river itself. Again, pay attention to whether or not the river is in flood stage, because some of these sites will be completely inaccessible during high water periods.
Speaker 1:And, as we talked about before we go to that, as we talk for people who didn't listen to part two, I'm going to recommend they go back and listen. But if you haven't, while you're talking, just to let people know that you're not an RVer, you've not done that. You do know of some. You know campgrounds you talked about. The road is a highway and it's pretty easy to navigate in an RV. For those people, as you talk about these different areas, to find a campground whether it's a city, state, national park, BLM land, private campground they can go to campgroundsrvlifecom or on Trip Wizard, which is all part of the RV Life Pro suite of products, and you can center in on an area from Trip Wizard to find a campground in the area of these places you're talking about. So to help our RV friends to find the camping that works best for them, that is a resource as they listen to these cool places to visit.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And keep in mind too, like some of these lesser, some of these state natural areas and wildlife areas, the places you might go to get closer to the river. Once you leave the main road, you know you might be on a dirt road or a gravel road, so if it's rained you know it might be a bit of a mess, it might be a muddy mess in some places. So, yeah, I have another book called the Wild Mississippi that goes. That describes just the state parks and public lands where you can go along the Mississippi. I chose places that were the most accessible to get to, that you wouldn't have to have a four wheel drive vehicle to get to. So you might check that book for some ideas too. But keep in mind again, like the quality of the roads can vary when you get off the main Great River Road, right there, yeah. So in Kentucky I think when we get talking Kentucky and Tennessee now, they have much smaller sections of road along the Mississippi or shoreline along the Mississippi, so there are fewer places to visit in there. And Kentucky in particular is almost entirely rural in its stretch along the Mississippi. So when you cross the river from Cairo, illinois into Kentucky, the first town you see is Wycliffe, and Wycliffe has a historic site of Native American mounds and an old community that was built on that site. I think the Wycliffe Mountains is a good place to visit for some of that history of indigenous communities in North America and they do a really good job of explaining what life was like in that community and they have a couple of exhibits that showcase a little bit of the work of archaeologists and how they go about researching a site and digging and trying to figure out what's what. So that's a good place to visit.
Speaker 2:The other really main site to visit, I think on the Kentucky side, is going to be Columbus Belmont State Park and that's one of the few places you can get to on the lower Mississippi that has an overlook. So in this part of the river, in the upper part of the Mississippi, the bluffs were built by water that carved out rock and dug down. So especially as the glaciers melted, they cut through and cut deep through the rock Along the lower Mississippi. Wind picked up fine sediment and blew it and built up the hills along the lower Mississippi. So Wycliffe sorry, wycliffe Columbus Belmont State Park is on one kind of these hills that were built up by this fine sediment that blew across the river and grew taller and taller, so it's a good place to visit. I know there's a campground there, but it's also a historic site.
Speaker 2:There's some Civil War history. I think that's one of the other main attractions For me. When I think about this part of the lower Mississippi, a lot of what's going to interest me, and maybe what interests other travelers, would be the history of indigenous communities, which runs deep through here, and then the Civil War history. There's also many, many sites that go deep into the Civil War history and the antebellum South. So yeah, that's about. I mean, those are the highlights for Kentucky. Really Just a couple of places that probably you'd be interested in visiting.
Speaker 1:And I want to share. In Kentucky now this is I don't know how far east, but it's quite a bit east of the Mississippi River, but people traveling across there is a campground called Firefly Hills and it is in Beattie, kentucky, and again, I don't know that it's right near the Mississippi. As a matter of fact it's a distance, but for my RV travelers this is a incredibly unique resort park. Call it what you want to stay at. I'm going to invite people to go again to campgroundsrvlifecom. They are a featured park. I have not. I've spoken to the owner, I have looked at their site and their pictures and videos and I am looking to visit in the spring and it is hard to describe the uniqueness of that campground. So people who are in the area check that out and I will add that to the show notes. But that said, I guess we're off to Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, I just remember one other quick thing about Kentucky, and I'll just this will be a general statement again too, and I'm not an RVer, so this is something that you would probably have to research on your own. There are places along the Mississippi where you can still take a ferry to get from one side to the other, and then there is one that connects Hickman, kentucky, with rural Missouri, so the Doreen and Hickman ferry. Again, it doesn't run if the river is too high or too low. Looking at a picture of it right now, and I think you could probably fit an RV on there, but I don't know if they have any restrictions on vehicle size.
Speaker 2:Some of these ferries are used to moving trucks. This is an agricultural country, so they often will move trucks loaded down with corn or soybeans from one side to another, so it's a really in some places that is. The best way to get on the river is to hop on one of these ferries and ride from one side to the other, and Dorena is the last opportunity. You have to do that until you get to the New Orleans area.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was in Kentucky, right.
Speaker 2:That was in Kentucky, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, great.
Speaker 2:So in Tennessee Tennessee again, like until you get to Memphis is really rural in that whole northeast section of Tennessee and there's an area up in the far corner, just across the border from Kentucky, called Real Foot Lake. That is a really interesting place to visit. It's a lake that was created by the New Madrid earthquake of 1812. So it's an old, like Oxbow Lake, with cypress swamps, and most of the land around there at this point is public and protected in one way or another. There is National Wildlife Refuge around some of it, there are some state protected areas and it's a fairly popular place to go for a weekend or to fish. So there are campgrounds and there's some lodging around there. Not a lot of places to eat. So you know you'll probably want to make sure you have done some grocery shopping if you're going to be staying around there. I've always struggled when I'm down there, trying to figure out where to go out to eat if I didn't bring food with me. But it's otherwise. It's a beautiful area and you can hike around the lake and there are park rangers that give guided nature walks and you might even be able to rent a boat like a canoe or something to get out on the water too, so that's a beautiful spot. I know at the National Wildlife Refuge section they do occasional guided canoe tours through parts of the refuge, so if you can manage that, that tends to be late spring to early summer when they do those.
Speaker 2:So heading into the South now so the seasons matter a lot People may not want to go to Minnesota in December or January. I don't know why. Frankly, I love going up there in winter and then leaving, and same like in the South, when you get into July, august, the heat can be so oppressive it's probably not the ideal time to go, so a lot of the can be so oppressive, it's probably not the ideal time to go, so a lot of the recreational activities tend to scale back that time of year as people take a break from the heat. So keep that in mind if you're going to visit. I think it's probably best to go in spring, probably until May or so, and then probably October again is when it really becomes ideal to go back. And you're nodding your head. So I think you probably have some experience with these weather variations.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, yes, and that is a big thing for RVers. And when we talk about RVers and I'm going to do an episode on the things that new RVers should consider weather is a big one. So it seems, now that I've been in places, I shouldn't have been during certain times of the year. It seems like that's obvious, but, yes, I agree with that. So, as we're in Tennessee and we're talking about that May timeframe, a couple things going on. Nirvc that I have previously that I speak about on the podcast has a location in Lebanon, tennessee, and May 31st they're doing the Music City Motorhome Expo and this is a way to be the first to see the 2026 model year coaches and it's from all the major manufacturers. This event is incredible. You can go, do all the test driving you want, chat with manufacturers, product developers and engineers, and they have three meals a day and incredible entertainment. I was there last year and it is an incredible event. Anybody in the Tennessee area that just wants to stop in and check out this event or looking to buy their next unit, this event or looking to buy their next unit. The other thing I want to talk about in Tennessee I stayed at a place called Spacious Guys and it was Spacious Guys.
Speaker 1:Bell Ridge no-transcript. East coast, tennessee. It's on the eastern side, so again I'm not sure how close to the river it is. But as we RVers travel around, this campground is an incredible campground, everything in the feel of it, from the time you enter the gate you walk in and register, it's just got this incredible feel. That area of Tennessee is just beautiful to explore in the campground and around the campground. So I highly recommend that and I'll put all this in the show notes. But if we're done Tennessee, should we move into Arkansas?
Speaker 2:Well, let me just highlight a couple other quick places in Tennessee, because there are a lot of public lands in Tennessee along the Mississippi and many of them are in the floodplain, so again you got to check to make sure the river's not flooding when you're there. Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge is massive and there's lots of forests. Most of it is set aside for conservation, but there are places you can go for hikes and I would just touch base with a park ranger if you're interested in looking for a good hike or two. They do have some pretty good information on their website. Most of the hikes are pretty short there. It's not like you know you're not going to go for a 20-mile hike in the Chickasaw Refuge, but you might find a good two or three-mile hike somewhere.
Speaker 2:And then a couple of state parks I do want to mention, like the Fort Pillow State Park is another one that's kind of a mix of history and recreation, so I've camped there a couple times. There's a nice little campground on top of the bluff, but it's also a site of a significant Civil War battle. So most of the people who go there are going for the Civil War history. So I highly recommend that, and there is a hiking trail that goes along the bluff that opens up this fantastic view, looking up the Mississippi River from the bluff, and it just happens to be in the right direction. So if you can hike later in the day, you can catch a good sunset from there. And I'm cheating a little bit here because I'm forgetting some of the names of these places, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:And while you're cheating, I love my sunset, so that sounds amazing to be standing on the bluff looking at the sunset. That is one of my top things. Favorite things to do is watch the sunset.
Speaker 2:I never get tired of it myself.
Speaker 1:No, you never do.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm biased here, but I still think the best sunsets around are along the Mississippi. So from what I hear. Sunrise is pretty special too, but I'm not usually up early enough to catch those.
Speaker 1:Right, and a lot of times I'm not, but, if you can, the times that I have gotten up like when I was at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and you're getting up before 5 am, you tend to catch some amazing sunrises. So I do recommend people catch a sunrise at some point. But yeah, that early morning isn't necessarily my favorite.
Speaker 2:I will make my plug for the few sunrises that I've caught. You know that have caught on the Mississippi is if you can do it in fall, especially along the upper part of the Mississippi, those fall mornings, I think, are really atmospheric and if you catch it just right, you know, after an especially cool night, when you wake up there'll be like a mist that's hanging over the river. I like to think of it as, like these river spirits are just sort of hanging over the water and they will gradually float away and burn off as the sun comes up. And when you get mixed that with some of the colors as the sun is coming up over the horizon, those can be some pretty special moments too.
Speaker 1:And I want to stop for a second and again tell people that they can hear so much more about you at MississippiValleyTravelercom. But you also have Mississippi Valley Podcast and I had told you when we did our pre-interview that listening to you on the podcast, I just felt like I was listening to a storyteller. Truly just I could feel myself there, and I'm feeling that same way now as you're talking about it. So thank you for that. It's really just incredible.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know, patty, maybe one of these days, you know, you'll come by my area and we'll we'll find a place where we can camp and I'll wake you up early in the morning and we'll make some coffee and we'll watch the sun come up.
Speaker 1:So that sounds amazing for me.
Speaker 2:And then we'll take a nap in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:There you go. Sounds amazing.
Speaker 2:The last thing I'll mention in Tennessee, like Memphis, is obviously a great cultural capital, so you have to visit. If you can spend some time in Memphis visiting the cultural sites, you should do that. But just north of Memphis, Meem and Shelby Forest State Park, right on the Mississippi a big state park, lots of places to camp there. It's a very popular place to go as well and it's got a lot more hiking trails than some of the other places in Tennessee along the Mississippi and there's some dirt bike trails and it's also bike friendly along the park road. So it offers a really good mix of different kinds of ecosystems. You can visit from things in the floodplain to these forests on top of the loft, so I really am a big fan of that park as well.
Speaker 1:Great. Are we still in Tennessee, did we I? It doesn't matter how much time, you're never going to cover everything there is to cover. So I'm very thankful for all of your books that you've written and all the materials that people can really dive in, as much as you know they want, because, again, it's just a wealth of information. As they want, because, again, it's just a wealth of information. Okay, are?
Speaker 1:we ready to go to Arkansas. Go on, okay, let's go on. We're going south, and right now I'm in Pennsylvania. It is February, the end of February. We're recording this. It is cold, so I wouldn't mind being south, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's about 60 degrees today here in St Louis, so I'm getting some spring fever.
Speaker 1:I'm jealous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in Arkansas again, it's going to be a little bit like the other states in that there's very few cities right on the Mississippi through this stretch. There are some parks to visit, there's some really fantastic places to visit, but there's not much in the way of big parks. To essentially build one long, continuous bike trail on top of the levees south of Memphis along the Arkansas side of the Mississippi and you can do some of those stretches now. So if you bring a bicycle with you, you could pick a stretch of that. They have really good maps that show you where you can access the trails or where you can park, and it's not anything you could do as a loop. You'd have to double back if you wanted to get back to where you started okay, so and I'm not sure you even know this I have an electric bike perfect you know?
Speaker 1:okay good, because I I'm thinking I'm going to get there by pedaling, but I'm going to need some assistance getting back.
Speaker 2:Okay, great yeah, and these are still pretty flat. There's not much in the way of elevation change along these. It's just like if you're going to do 20 miles or so by 10 miles there and 10 miles back, that electric assist will come in handy on those 10 miles back right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, a must-have. Yes, I'm grateful for my electric bike. Sounds like a good place to make use of it.
Speaker 2:They're awesome. That's on my short list of things to get to. So that's the Big River Trail you might want to check out, and let's just kind of go on down a little bit. The one community that is pretty much that is right on the Mississippi is Helena. It's technically Helena slash West Helena Again kind of a rich cultural history in this area. There's a city park that's right on the Mississippi. That's a great place to stop and get a good view of the river. If you have access to a boat, like if you brought a canoe or kayaks with you, you could paddle upstream not quite as bad as it sounds from that park to get big. I'm blanking on the name Buck Island.
Speaker 2:That was quick OK so you could paddle up there. It's a short paddle and then you can spend a day hiking around one of the bigger islands in the middle of the Mississippi, so there's no way to drive to it. It's entirely surrounded by water, but there are options to paddle up to that and explore that undeveloped island, so that'd be pretty cool. Helena is also the center of where the King Biscuit Blues Festival takes place. So if you're into blues and you like festivals, I believe it's where the king biscuit blues festival takes place. So if you're into blues, uh, and you like festivals, I believe it's fall, like I want to say october, but you probably should look that up. I have not been to it yet myself. I know it draws a pretty good sized crowd, uh, but uh, I will. Yeah, it's one of those kind of essential experiences when you get into south. Right, even if you're not a huge blues fan, you got to find some place to go listen to some blues while you're there, and King Biscuit Blues Festival is a way to do that.
Speaker 1:Sounds like something, yes, that people absolutely should check out. I love festivals, so that sounds cool. Blues music I can you know I enjoy. It might not be my favorite, but I certainly enjoy and being down there in the South it's certainly one of those things that you have to do.
Speaker 2:Yep absolutely.
Speaker 1:How about food down there? I'm sure by now the types of food has changed drastically, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be a little harder to find a good salad, you know, and if you're a vegetarian, you know it might be a bit of a struggle in some of these places.
Speaker 1:And spicy food I found when I was down there. Everything was like soul food, is that what they call it and it's all spicy, which I don't do, so, yeah, a little more difficult, but for those people that like this spice and are not vegetarians or vegans, probably a good place to be.
Speaker 2:Right, and probably most everything is going to be deep fried, so even the vegetables tend to be deep fried. So, yeah, prepare for that. A catfish will be. They wanted to know if I wanted it river caught or farm raised. So most catfish that you eat in restaurants and you buy commercially is farm raised. But there are some places along the Mississippi where they will serve you catfish that was caught fresh in the Mississippi, so that's an option. And then they wanted to know whether I wanted steaks or fillets. I think that was it. It's just how it's cut basically. So if you're not used to I've never had that happen since like so, but I'm sure there are other places where you may get those questions you may get the option at least of whether you want some locally caught catfish or farm-raised.
Speaker 1:Interesting Okay, good to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what else should we do in Arkansas? Well, there's an archaeological site up around Memphis that I also really like a lot. It's Hampson Archaeological, something or other. I should look this up.
Speaker 1:Okay, you look it up and that does sound like something I would be very interested in. And while you're looking it up, I'm actually I'm delayed Give you time to look it up A lot of those. So, when it comes to archaeological sites, I think it'd be really cool to have somebody that explains what's there. We I took a helicopter over the Grand Canyon and the pilot was able to explain some of the archaeological information that was there. It was just a little bit of it, but it was very intriguing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, yeah, I think you get a deeper appreciation for the history of these areas when you get to do this, because people lived along the Mississippi for at least 10,000 years and there are spots here and there where you can get some insights and some peek into those cultures of the people who lived along Mississippi. So it's Hampson Archaeological Museum State Park and it's right at Wilson, arkansas, which is a little north of Memphis, and one of the things that I like about this place is they have a really good collection of artifacts, so pottery, daily items, everyday items used in life. This section of the Mississippi, kind of around where the Arkansas River meets the Mississippi today, is basically in the Memphis area. At one time it was heavily populated. There were more people living there in 1500 than there are today. So there are several different sites here and there that give you. There are archaeological sites that spotlight that history, that period of time, and tell you about those communities. I like the Hampson Museum archaeological site because there's so many of these tangible artifacts you can see, you know heads and bowls and all kinds of interesting pieces that were created for ceremonial use and for everyday use, so it's a highly recommended spot.
Speaker 2:Let's just wrap it up Arkansas with one other spot. The Chico Lake is an old oxbow of the Mississippi but it's huge. Yeah, it's a very big lake. At one time it was part of the main channel of the river and then the river diverted, changed channel and cut that off. But today it's a pretty popular area to visit. So there are lots of camping around there, some big campgrounds and then the lake itself. People will go boating out on the lake and there's some hiking not too far away and that's kind of down in the southeast part of Arkansas and that is Lake Village. I think, yeah, lake Village, arkansas is the community that's right there. But there are a couple, three different parks right around that big lake, so good place to chill.
Speaker 1:Sounds like it, wow, and it's warmer, so you're talking my language a little more here. Okay, so did we wrap up Arkansas? We ready to move into Louisiana.
Speaker 2:Well, let's do Mississippi.
Speaker 1:Oh, you want to do Mississippi first. Okay, I will let you take control of my podcast.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're the answer, if you don't mind, then we'll finish up with Louisiana.
Speaker 1:Not at all. Let's do Mississippi.
Speaker 2:So Mississippi has a few places I really do want to highlight too, and again it's that mix of like cultural sites with a few places you can really get into the rivers world itself. Tunica County River Park is just south of Memphis. Tunica, mississippi is an old Delta community. There are a lot of casinos in that region, in that area today, but there's a really good river history museum right next to the Mississippi and next to the casinos and there's also a nice section of woods around it that you can go hike in if it's not too muddy or if the river's not too high. So that's at Tunica County River Park. I recommend a stop there. From there let's see If you venture away from the river a little bit.
Speaker 2:So much of this part of Mississippi before the Civil War were really thick swamps, mostly cypress swamps. Civil War were really thick swamps, mostly cypress swamps. Most of that was cut down and drained for the cotton fields you see today. So it's one of those things that's kind of hard to imagine. As you're driving through the area today you see all this flat land and all these agricultural fields. It's hard to imagine that that was all one thick swamp, but that's what it was. So there's this area about an hour hour and a half east of the Mississippi Skylake Wildlife Management Area that has preserved this small little bit of old growth cypress tupelo swamp and there's a boardwalk that takes you that you can walk on to get deeper into the swamp. I really I highly recommend a stop there as well. Again, I would say spring or fall would be ideal, and midsummer it's going to be, you know, uncomfortably warm and muggy and lots of bugs, but spring and fall would be an awesome time to visit there.
Speaker 1:You're saying swamp, so I'm going to go to. What do I have to be concerned about?
Speaker 2:We're talking swamp alligators and you probably won't see any alligators there. It's just kind of at the northern edge of their range.
Speaker 1:Okay, good to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but there will be snakes. You might see some snakes.
Speaker 1:Again with the snakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry. I can just kind of keep an eye out for them and keep a respectful distance.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm more than willing to keep a distance that is not a problem yeah, uh, I hear you especially like.
Speaker 2:If you're not great at identifying the different kinds of stakes, it's just best to give them a wide berth. But there's, like I said, there's a boardwalk, uh, so you're above the water level quite a bit, depending depending upon the time of year. So really it's more of the mosquitoes that probably might get annoying after a while. The cultural centers like Clarksdale, mississippi is a traditional blues town. There's still a couple of clubs that you can go to that have blues regularly. One of those clubs is Ground Zero, is co-owned by the actor Morgan Freeman. So if you get lucky, you might show up some night when Morgan Freeman is hanging out and you can maybe strike up a conversation if he's in the mood for it. But otherwise, the Blues history is the centerpiece of that town's identity today and people from around the world go to Clarksdale for that. It's also the home of the Quapaw Canoe Company. So if you want to put your RV aside for a little bit and get in a canoe and go out on the Mississippi under your own power, the Quapaw Canoe Company takes people out on guided tours. They take them out in big canoes. They're like 29-foot Voyager-style canoes that can hold 10 people, 12 people depending on how much gear, and they will do day trips. So if you just want a little taste of it, or they will do longer trips where you could camp a night or more on an island in the middle of Mississippi and they'll take care of all the arrangements for you for doing that. So for me, like this is like the cultural sites are great. If you really want to experience the river itself, you know you have to figure out a way to get on the water and I think to the Quapaw Canoe Company that's really the best way to do that. There are a couple other places associated with them that will do some day trips, some shorter tours in kayaks or canoes on the Mississippi as well Memphis, vicksburg, a couple other places, so you might check into that as well. But uh, the quapaw canoe company in clarksdale, they're the masters and uh, john rusky is, uh, is the master river rat for all of us that we all admire. So, um, so clarksdale has that. And then when you get a little further south, you know you get into the ot bellum. South you've got vicksburg and natchez, both on bluffs, overlooking the Mississippi. Different kinds of experiences there.
Speaker 2:Vicksburg, the primary draw is the Civil War history, the siege of Vicksburg. That was a turning point in the Civil War and there's a big national park site that you can take as much time as you want to explore that area and really go deep into what happened around that lengthy battle and that siege. And then the downtown area. It's got a kind of a small historic downtown with some locally owned businesses, some places to eat and the Corps of Engineers has a river museum in that area as well. But for most folks it's the Civil war history that draws people to vicksburg.
Speaker 2:And then natchez is the opposite end of that. It's kind of that antebellum south history. You know it's the place where a lot of plantation owners built their mansions to show off. So there are lots of big old historic homes in natchez. I think at one time the city claimed more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the US. So it's got that history, that pre-Civil War history, where you can tour some of these mansions, learn about the slave culture and Southern history. And it's just also like this it's a river town with such a big and deep history to it, uh, and just about any kind of story about the river you want to find, you can probably find it in Natchez, but good, it's also good places to eat a lot of bed and breakfasts, um, and then St Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge is just south of town. It's a good place to again to kind of get close to the Mississippi and experience some of those different kinds of ecosystems that exist next to the river.
Speaker 1:So a lot of my RV listeners are traveling with kids and you know certainly the history, their schooling, homeschooling, road schooling and but you know so many adults my really good friend would love to go to these places and learn more about the Civil War and you know, actually being where it happened. How cool is that? So a lot of great information, a lot of great things. Just in Mississippi there's a lot of great things to see.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And that Vicksburg, the Battle National Park, just you get such a good sense of how much it affected the entire country because there was these monuments all throughout the historic site to troops from Pennsylvania, from Wisconsin, from every state you know. So you really get a sense of the scale of this conflict, of this war, and how it pulled people from all across the country.
Speaker 2:I will say, like you know my slight editorial hate when it comes to Natchez and the plantation tours, there's still some places I think that soft-pedal that history too much. They're getting a little bit better, but I think there's still a reluctance to really go too deep into the full history of how that economy was dependent on slaves and how enslaved people were treated, how that economy was dependent on slaves and how enslaved people were treated. You can get some of that and there are smaller museums in particular that present that story in depth. Natchez has one. So I definitely I think it's important to get the full picture for me when I'm traveling around. I don't want just the highly curated and polished version of history, I want to see all the warts too.
Speaker 1:And it's part of our past and we need to understand it all. I agree.
Speaker 2:I agree with that and Mississippi also like well you know the blues history like, which grew out of some of those horrific conditions. Mississippi has a blues trail that they've designated. You can drive, you can download a map from the state tourism website that takes you to different sites around the state that are tied to different aspects of blues history and blues musicians. There's a museum for BB King, for example, in Indianola. So if you're going to be in that area you know, driving down along Mississippi through that state then I think you're probably going to want to take some time to explore that wider history as well. And one of the unique foods down in the Delta are tamales, and it's not what you might think. It's a hybrid version of tamales that brings in African-American food traditions and mixes them with Mexican food traditions and you get a whole new product out of it. So if you're down in the Delta and you see signs for tamales it's not what you think it is. You should definitely try one.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming it's spicy though.
Speaker 2:It could be. It's not always spicy, oh okay, but it might be.
Speaker 1:I'll have to look for the ones that aren't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good to ask yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm a wimp when it comes to spices and that was my you know, tough time in the Mississippi Louisiana area. But okay, so I'll check before I bite into it. That sounds I mean, that sounds amazing. I'm going to want Mexican food now tonight. Thanks, you're welcome. Okay, that's what dinner is there? We go All kinds of suggestions.
Speaker 2:Anything else I can help with, you know. If you need, yeah, so just ask them.
Speaker 1:Where to see the sunrise. Food for tonight yes, great, you've covered a lot of it. Yeah, okay, so anything else in Mississippi? Is there anything else we're ready to?
Speaker 2:I think we should probably move on.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's move on to Louisiana Now. I did spend some time in Louisiana. I wish I could remember the area. I don't think it was near the Mississippi, that was near the Mississippi, you know. So, again, each state, as people travel, each state has their own types of foods, obviously, and they do a lot of fried food. I had my fried seafood. I was very happy. A lot of that Creole, I guess it's called soul food, and you know those different types of flavors. But I'll let you take Louisiana.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, probably the first thing to say is, when you're in Louisiana, just eat. You know the variety of food. The quality of the food is very good. You're going to find a lot of fresh seafood and fish everywhere you go and I would say, just enjoy as much of that as you can everywhere you go. A lot of the cafes in small towns are really really good right, and they're often working with food that they just bought, you know, from some local purveyor. So that is kind of one of the high level tips about traveling down there is check out the local cafes and don't be afraid to go in and try something there. It's so like the Mississippi is a very different experience in through the, through Louisiana. Again, it's a much bigger river and there are it's going to be harder to get to it in most places.
Speaker 2:I don't think we'll really take much time at all to talk about New Orleans on this In this conversation. People, there's so much out there. On new orleans, I will say like, um, there are some, um, national or not national parks. There are some conservation areas that are really close to new orleans. Some of them are national wildlife refuges, some are more state run. Uh, if you have a chance to visit some of those definitely do that. So Bayou Sauvage is just on the edge of town on the east side of New Orleans, and it's a fantastic place just to walk around. Again, it's more swamp, but it's swamp kind of where the Mississippi is starting to merge with the sea, so you get different kinds of wildlife than you do in other parts of further north where it's just all freshwater swamp and I'm blanking on the name again now. So I'll just look this up real quick.
Speaker 2:The place most people will visit if they want swamp tours from New Orleans is the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve, and it is a fantastic place and it's an easy drive from New Orleans is the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve, and it is a fantastic place and it's an easy drive from New Orleans proper. I think I got there in less than 45 minutes from the French Quarter and there's a mix of experiences you can get down there from. You know there's some places you can do some short hikes through swampy areas. There are boat tours through the swamps. You know those airboats, sometimes in airboats, sometimes an airboat, sometimes in quieter boats, and then there are some folks who do guided kayak tours through the swamps as well. So in an area known as Honey Island, which is along the Pearl River just east of New Orleans, I did a kayak tour through there. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:So I think probably the thing here, when you get down into this part of the river in Louisiana again, you've got some of the cultural sites. St Francisville is a pretty historic village to visit with a pretty good art scene, little art galleries, probably more of a day trip kind of thing, but then it's just looking for these places where you might be able to do a kayak tour somewhere and then really eating as much as you can eat, you know, experiencing the food culture as much as you can. And then the areas that kind of border around like puncture terrain. There's several parks and protected areas around there and some of those again have big parks with campgrounds and then maybe some opportunities to rent a canoe or a kayak and go out on the water a little bit too. All of that is fantastic. This is an area where you might encounter alligators, so I don't know how do you feel about alligators?
Speaker 1:So I don't know, how do you feel about alligators? So I spend a lot of time in Florida and anytime you see water there's a potential for alligators, they seem to. I don't want one coming up to me, let me say it that way. But if they're at a distance, in their own environment, you do you, I'll do me. Let's not bother each other. But I don't want to get close.
Speaker 2:Does that?
Speaker 1:how's that sound? Okay, yeah, right, yeah absolutely, that's fair.
Speaker 2:I did a couple of kayak tours where we were on the water and there were alligators nearby and it feels a little odd, but from what everybody has said, like alligators are not the least bit aggressive toward people, so I wouldn't recommend going for a swim necessarily there.
Speaker 2:But if you're in a kayak and you're paddling through there, you're going to be absolutely fine, and I did guided tours in the Manchac Swamp and then on Honey Island, like I said. So I'm there with people who have a lot of experience paddling through. I really would recommend that as a starting point. Especially even if you're an experienced paddler, I think it would be good to probably go with a guided tour, because there's such a labyrinth of channels through some of these swamps. I think it'd be really easy to lose your bearings and have trouble finding your way back out if you're not familiar with it. So I think the guided tours are probably the best way to do that, and for many of them you don't even have to have any real experience handling the kayak. They do tours with people who it might be their first time sitting in a kayak. So I think that's a good way to do it and it gets you on the water and you always see more from the water than you do standing on the shore anyway.
Speaker 1:Oh, totally, and that sounds amazing. I agree, you know, do the guided tour, get the bearings, understand and then go out on your own. That's good advice and that sounds. That's right up my alley. Sounds amazing. If I'm on a guided tour and there's other people and there's an alligator, maybe I won't scream so bad.
Speaker 2:Just watch out for the snakes dangling in the trees.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm out, I'm done. Listen, if I have nightmares about snakes tonight, you're getting a call tomorrow at like 5 am, okay, just so we're clear All right, fair enough. Okay, okay, okay. So Louisiana, are we now at the tip of the Mississippi, where?
Speaker 2:are we? Yeah, I think maybe one of the things that people forget is that the Mississippi does not end at New Orleans. There's another hundred plus miles of river from there, and the Great River Road does continue on past New Orleans to the little town of Venice, louisiana. That's where the pavement ends. There are lots of places within that Delta region where you can follow roads until they end at some old town, on the bayou or in a backwater area. Some of them get a little narrow, so if you're driving a big RV again, you may want to do some research before driving down there, and it can be very difficult sometimes to find a place to turn around once you get down the road a couple miles.
Speaker 2:But there are some places that are really fantastic when you get closer to the Gulf. I won't go into too much of that, but there's a place called Elmer's Island. It's a state refuge that is kind of at the end of the road when you go south of New Orleans toward Grand Isle. It's around Grand Isle but a huge beach, and when I've been there a couple of times I've been there there's almost nobody around. So and now of course I'm telling this on a podcast I know everybody's going to know about it, but it's a really nice wildlife area because it's, you know, it's mostly it's an island with some coastal habitats, a lot of birds around, and then you've got this expansive beach that is almost never very busy. So there are places like that all along the Gulf Coast. I think that's along a side channel of the Mississippi, a distributary channel from the Mississippi that ends in that area. But gosh, there's just so much to see and do down there.
Speaker 1:It sounds like each of these areas you could, we could have done. I'm sitting here thinking we could have done a whole episode on each of the 10 states you know just covered the whole the state near the river and just a separate episode in each of these states. I want to let people know and again, safety, most important thing, when you're in an RV, I don't care if you're in a conversion van or a huge RV, like I drove. Rv Life's trip planning RV Life Pro suite of products will take you on the safest route. So the road you were talking about is not, for I was in a 40 foot. I was towing my Jeep Does not sound like the place my RV should go Turning around. I don't wanna have to get out of the RV and disconnect the Jeep and try and turn around. That's a nightmare. So everybody can avoid that. Use Setup RV Life. It asks you the height, the weight, the length, whether you're towing. It'll do all that for you and let you know if that is a road that you should or should not be on. So safety, be safe is a big part of what we talked about. Okay, we are now at the gulf. You have gone from the top and people could go back if they haven't already listened to part one. We covered the upper Mississippi River and that is for people who don't know. We covered Minnesota, wisconsin, iowa, illinois and Missouri, and yes, I'm reading because I cannot remember. We covered 10 states in two episodes and this has been amazing. Thank you so much. We are not done yet, though.
Speaker 1:I'm not letting you go. First of all, I want to remind people that they can go to MississippiValleyTravelercom to get in touch with you, to see all there is about you. There's such a wealth of information. You have books, you have blogs. You have so much information. You have the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, which amazing and, as I've said I think I said it in part one listening to your voice, listening to you tell a story, I just felt like I was there. You truly paint pictures with your words and it was just mesmerizing listening to you. People could also check out Road Tripping the Great River Road and that'll be on your website. They can reach out to you on social media. I'll put that in the show notes. I do want to talk to people about innovative toll solutions because, as you're traveling on those toll roads, this is a toll pass that covers all 48 states costs $24 for the whole year. There's a link in the show notes. Best part is, if you should get a fine or there is a problem with your toll, you just reach out to them and they take care of it for you.
Speaker 1:We talked last time. We asked what was on your bucket list and you said Antarctica. So you were talking about that remote. That's really remote. I don't know a lot about antarctica, so why don't you continue? What is it about antarctica that has you interested?
Speaker 2:um, I think it's partly because I like the experience of being in places that really, uh, take me out of my the world that's familiar to me. I kind of seek out those experiences when I travel, especially when I'm able to do international travel, and the landscape and the wildlife in Antarctica are just going to be unlike anything that I've experienced before. So I think fundamentally it's about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again, I'm going to look into it. Think about putting that on my bucket list because I do like those different areas. When I first started RVing four years ago, we were, hey, let's go full time. And you know, my husband suggested this. I had never been in an RV. I actually spent seven nights in an RV total in an RV. I actually spent seven nights in an RV total. And so he decided, during the pandemic, let's sell everything, buy an RV and go travel across the country. And I thought he was joking. So after I was done laughing, I said what would we do? Like what does this look like? I couldn't even fathom. And he said, well, we can go to every national park in the country. And three and a half years on the road, full time, back and forth across the country, three and a half times. And we went to zero national parks, not one national park.
Speaker 1:Because it's like you said, I liked the little town, the off the beaten path road. We were staying in Lake Mead and I saw this. You know what looked like ruins. We kept passing by it. I'm like what is it? And I started researching it and that, to me, was so cool. We actually did a video on it, but it was just so cool to see that place that most people didn't know about, and that's what I appreciate about what you've shared today. You've shared such a wealth of information and I don't know that, though the common thing somebody goes to Louisiana, they might go to New Orleans. You're talking about things that people may not be aware of, and I love that and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that aware of and I love that and I appreciate that. Thank you for that. But it's now time for the campground of the week and I already mentioned the feature campground is Firefly Hills in Beatty, kentucky. So those people you know, wanting to travel and get to the Mississippi River, this good stopping place and it is this RV RV resort talks about experience. They want you to experience the warm, welcoming environment that makes everybody feel like home. It is a small resort. They have 15 full hookup sites. They also have the opportunity for RV rentals and rooms in the beautiful old historic farmhouse and they have glamping experiences coming in the summer.
Speaker 1:This RV park is near the Red River Gorge. I've had her on the podcast, I've had the owner on the podcast. I'll put it in the show notes. This place is one of the most unique campgrounds. I've heard of experience. In the spring I will be going there and experiencing it for myself. And again, you can go to campgroundsrvlifecom to find out all about Firefly Hills, kentucky. You can see all their pictures and their amenities, everything about this site. And the nice thing is you can book right from that site. You don't have to go anywhere from that site. You don't have to go anywhere. You can book right there.
Speaker 1:I talked about RV Life because the suite of products helps with a lot of things that we talked about. It'll help people find those campgrounds along the Mississippi River, it'll help people to know where they can navigate their RV, based on the size and all of that. So it is very helpful Anybody looking to travel up and down the Mississippi River. Rv Life Pro is a great tool for you to have. I highly recommend it. I just want to thank you so much and I want to make sure my listeners are reaching out to you and or I, telling us about their experience, telling us about what they like, telling us their thoughts, telling us what they don't like. I'd really recommend that.
Speaker 2:And tell people again where they can reach you on social media. I'm on Instagram, at deanclink, and on Facebook. If you just look up the Mississippi Valley Traveler on Facebook, you'll find a page there and you know. If people want to contact me directly, honestly, maybe the best way you could send me an email, and I probably shouldn't put my email out there on podcast, but I will Just you can email me, dean at travelpassagescom. If you have a question, if you question my judgment about something, I'd love to hear about that too and, as Patty said, I would just I'd be curious to know what your experiences are like if you come and travel along this part of the US.
Speaker 1:Great. And all of this is also on your website because you have so many, so much material, so much. You have books, you have the podcast, you have so much information, you have blogs. So I am going to keep leading people to the website, where they'll find everything in one place. My social media is Instagram and Facebook at RV Life Podcast. Reach out to me, I will make sure anything. If you don't get in touch with Dean, I will make that happen, because we definitely want to hear from the listeners you, my listeners. Again, thank you so much for being on for two parts. So much information. I am very grateful.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much, and get out there and explore the Mississippi.
Speaker 1:I'm going to now that I've heard. I just have to figure out where to start. There's so much to do, so thank you for that. Definitely on my bucket list. Well, I want to thank my listeners for tuning in for two parts of the Mississippi River and I want to remind you life's a journey. Live each day to the fullest, without regret. I'm Patty Hunt and you have been listening to the RV Life Podcast. Thank you.