Southern Retreat

Mr. Cowboy would not tell me where he was taking me. He only told me what kind of clothes to bring and he said it was something I have been wanting to do. Secretly in the back of my mind I really wanted him to be taking me to some big time horse show, but I knew he would never go for that. I know, I am weird. First I drove with the kids to a friends house. This drive is always kinda scary. In order to get to the big city I have to drive on this really long bridge. I think it's like 22 miles long. And this is what I see on either side.



Water, lots and lots of water. It's amazing how this bridge was built. It really goes through the middle of the swamp lands.

Lots of trees and water everywhere. Lots of alligators too. Just 22 miles of water, trees and alligators. I think it's a bit unnerving. After a two hour drive with three potty stops, we made it to our friend's house. I was so excited to see them. But my good friend came and hugged me ant then told me the bad news, their air conditioner was broken. Talk about a hot night! The next day we were off to our get away. I was excited.

Here is Mr. Cowboy driving. I told him to smile because we were finally kid-less for the first time in a very very long time. Then I took this picture.

We were both so happy to be kid-less for the weekend. Mr. Cowboy said, "Don't you dare show your Dad this picture. He will flip if he sees you taking pictures of us while I am driving." Well, sorry Mr. Cowboy, my Dad reads this and is probably wondering how I have not managed to not have a car accident yet with all my photo taking while driving. I must say that woman are just wonderful multi taskers.

When we got into the town of Natchez, he had to stop and get directions. He refused to put it on the navigation system in the van because he didn't want me peeking at our final destination. Mr. Cowboy had told me that we were in Mississippi. I didn't believe him. I told him, "We are not!! I do not believe you! I will have to start looking at the licence plates." Sure enough, the next car in front of us had a Louisiana licence plate. I then said, "See, we are still in Louisiana!" I bet Mr. Cowboy was just so pleased with himself. He had me all sorts of confused.

While we were driving around trying to find the secret stop, I was getting nervous. We were not in the best part of town and I was not so sure about his idea of a wonderful weekend. Then we rounded the corner and I saw Dunleith! It is so beautiful. I was so excited. I said, "Are we are staying here!! " Mr. Cowboy then said, "Yes, you have been saying you wanted to spend the night in a plantation home. So, I thought you would like this one." Oh, he is so smooth! We checked in and then the Bellhop took our bags and showed us to our room. We stayed on the third floor of the plantation house. It was the attic. Each room had a different name on the door. This was our room's name.




I do not know who William Martin is. I will have to Google him. But one thing I do know is that he has a beautiful room.

The bed.

The chairs and fire place.

The strange small door in our room. There were two of them. We were up in the attic. I am sure they were used for storage. We also had two strange windows in our room. They had bars on them. We were told during our tour that the second owners of the house had two boys that loved to play in the attic and they would climb out the window and onto the roof. So, the mother put bars on the window to stop the boys from playing on the roof. I don't blame that mother for being scared.

The room had really neat switch plates. Mr. Cowboy asked me if I wanted them. I, being blond, said, "Really, you can get some like these, they are so cool!" He was thinking more on the lines of just unscrewing them. But he was joking. I still thought they were cool.

Here we are on the bed. Mr. Cowboy is such a great sport for letting me take so many photos. We then lounged on the back porch that over looked the small courtyard garden.

We then went on a carriage ride. To tour the historic down town. It's so amazing how old some of those houses and buildings are! Some date back to 1790. The main reason that there are so many plantation homes still in tact here is because during the civil war nobody really invaded Natchez. If people came to invade from the ports, their canons could not shoot 280 feet into the air to hit the large homes. Thus, a lot of the plantation homes down here are still standing and being used as bed and breakfasts and you can tour them. It's so very neat.

This was our carriage. And we had it all to ourselves.

This is Mo. He was the nice Belgian that pulled the carriage. He is 10 years old and he is new to this job. Well, new to the driver. She just bought him. She said that he walks all over the road and hits the curbs and doesn't really know when to stop. It made for a fun ride. And yes I am the only one out there that asks what's the horse's name, how old he is, does he like his job, how much does he eat, and so on and so on. I think the lady didn't get to give the first part of our tour because I was too busy talking about Mo.

So, here we are. All ready for our ride. It was fun. The tour guide was very informative. She was born and raised in that small town. But this post is quickly becoming a novel, so I will post about the tour and the rest of our trip tomorrow. I know you all will be sitting on the edges of your seats, but you will just have to contain your excitement. So, my southern retreat part two, tomorrow!