Mississippi travel

Laissez les bon temps rouler!'―Let the good times roll and travel the Mississippi, preferably by paddle steamer, for a historic take on the American south. Listen to jazz passing through New Orleans, delta blues in Memphis, play roulette in St. Louis, dine on Cajun food in Baton Rouge and enjoy other southern clichés as you watch the pretty towns, old, grand, pillared plantations, memorials to the civil war, burgeoning cities, farmland and mangroves pass by you on either bank. Mississippi runs 2,000 miles beginning in Ohio and meeting the sea via its famous river delta. The delta end is most popular for its romance and traditions. One old river lady to cruise aboard is the Natchez IX, the most recent in a ling of steamers bearing the same proud name; Natchez VI was the steamboat that famously lost to the Robert E. Lee in the last great steamboat race in 1870. Built in the style of the old steamships, the current Natchez has some vintage features, including a bell made from smelted silver dollars.