River View RV Resort – Vidalia LA

Balloon Festival!! – River View RV Resort – Vidalia LA

October 17-19, 2025 – River View RV Resort – Site # 157

We’re back to River View RV Resort in Vidalia, LA for our second Natchez Air Balloon Festival. Also though, the weather did not cooperate with the Hot Air Balloons, it was great for riding our bikes, going to the markets and just relaxing.

https://natchezballoonfestival.com/

Natchez, Mississippi, October 17-19, 2025
We’re returning to River View RV Resort in Vidalia, Louisiana, for our second Natchez Air Balloon Festival. We’re planning to have a relaxing weekend.

Friday – October 17, 2025
We left about 9 o’clock. The travel down the Natchez Trace is always an easy and pleasurable drive. We couldn’t check in until 1:00pm so we went to park by the Mississippi River in a parking lot, next to the train depot. WOW— it was beautiful view, and peaceful, and it wasn’t too hot in the shade. We could have left earlier this morning and enjoyed this spot longer, maybe next time.

We got set up and had gumbo for lunch. We got our bikes out and rode some. There are four other Airstreams here this afternoon. That’s the most we have seen at Riverview in a while and we had an older airstream came in Friday night late.

We took a rest and sat outside a bit. We ate pulled pork and went to watch the fireworks at 7:45 p.m.

While waiting, we watched all the kids running around and screaming. They made me laugh. All the small kids were running/playing while waiting on the fireworks; that was a welcome sight. I remember doing that as a kid, well, I mostly remember how itchy the grass was when we got home. I’m sure the kids will fall asleep in the car on the ride home.

The fireworks finally started at about 8:15 p.m. Once the fireworks started, it was a very good show. After the show was over, we had to walk our bikes until we got out of the crowd. There were so many people.

Natchez Balloon Festival

Saturday – October 18, 2025
We are up early to watch the sunrise over the Mississippi River Bridge, and hopefully to see some balloons flying. The fog was so thick you could only see part of the bridge, but an interesting view, as the sun came over the fog.

With the fog and wind, no balloon flights today. We came back and had some breakfast and headed into Natchez. We messed around at the Merry Market, farmers market, and a few shops downtown. We had lunch at Wardo’s, and had a couple poboy’s.

Then Jack treating me to a ride through the cemetery. Our quest was to find the “Turning Angel” statue……. which we did.

Afterwards, we came back to the rig and watched football and relaxed. The rain is coming, so we took our last ride on the bikes then got everything loaded in the truck for the way home. The rain came in around 8:00pm and did not last very long. But there is more coming after midnight.

Sunday – October 19, 2025
Around 1:30 a.m., the hard rain arrived and lasted until around 3 a.m. Jack was watching the weather on his phone. We were okay, but a couple of hours north of us, there were tornado and wind warnings with more intense rain in that area.

Well, with the clouds, there was no sunrise to watch this morning and no flights due to high winds and early fog. It’s been a short, relaxing weekend. We enjoyed the bike rides on the sidewalk by the river and all the boat traffic.

Our trip home was good. Jack thinks the first 20 miles of the Natchez Trace is amazing, with the winding road and beautiful trees. Around mile marker 50, there was a tree that had fallen overnight, due to the weather, and part of the road was covered. Fortunately, someone had cleared off the other lane of the road, so no big issue here. There were also a lot of bikers this weekend on the Trace; it always makes it a little interesting getting around them safely.

Natchez Cemetery – Turning Angel

The Turning Angel

On March 14, 1908, there was a HUGE explosion at the Natchez Drug Company, which was a 5-story brick structure located at the corner of Main and South Union Street, cattycorner from the Natchez Cathedral. The explosion was so massive that it totally destroyed the 5-story building, killing numerous people, including the business’s employees that were working at the time.

The explosion put the drug company out of business. The owner of the Natchez Drug Company, John H. Chambliss, was so devastated that he purchased a lot to bury his employees and he purchased this angel monument to place at their gravesite to honor the victims. This established a memorial known as the ‘Turning Angel’ and is located in the Natchez City Cemetery. This beautiful angel monument is overlooking five headstones, each with the same date of death.

The explosion resulted in the deaths of ten individuals, including five young female employees aged between 12 and 22. The victims were Carrie O. Murray (22), Inez Netterville (17), Luella D. Booth (17), Mary E. Worthy (12), and Ada White (19).

This monument is now referred to as ‘The Turning Angel’ because at night when cars drive by on Cemetery Road, their headlights shine upon the monument and to some it appears to turn as their car passes by.