we managed to keep from staying at the nasty hotel in meridian. we stayed at a place across the street from it instead. we got up and took awhile to find jimmie rodger’s grave. then we hit the road. we took us80 from meridian to brandon. at brandon we stopped and ate a place called annie d’s. (a cop at the gas station recommended it.) it was good – home-style cooking. we jumped on i-20 then headed south on the natchez trace parkway. that’s a very nice road – scenic, little traffic, etc. the only problem was a 50mph speed limit…but i guess maybe that explains the minimal number of vehicles on it. at natchez we took 84 into louisiana. (nowhere to stop for a state sign pic…grr.) we decided to try to make it to natchitoches (pronounced “knack-uh-tosh” evidently), but it got dark and chilly pretty fast so we stopped in winnfield. we put in right at 300 miles. instead of eating supper, we just went to a convenience store and bought some junk food. i got some bbq corn nuts, a chocolate moon pie, a chocolate yoo-hoo, and a starbucks mocha drink.