Years ago, one of the longest road-trips, I'd driven, was from the Chicago Suburbs all the way to the remarkable natural site, the (vast) Mississippi River Delta and the mouth and estuaries of the Mississippi River...And then back to Chicago...! The trip traverses 6 U.S. states and involves 975 miles (call it 1,000 miles rounded) that would require 14 hours of non-stop driving, from the Great Lakes directly south to the end of the mainland at Gulf of Mexico. 

I did stop overnight in Memphis (please see my close-up MFD display Route MAP, where I've marked the two major cities/airports (KSUS/St. Louis and KMEM/Memphis) enroute on this long journey). With one overnight stay, each way, I'd driven nearly 2,000 miles on this (memorable) trip. Another curious thing is that there is pretty much just one Highway (Interstate 55), that starts off a few of miles away from where I live, that would take me across all these 1,000 miles (across the country) to the city of New Orleans. So, I simply get on I-55 and stay on it till my destination.... that easy...🙂... (except that it would not be probably that easy these days for me, when I might be looking for more frequent Rest Stops...🙂...) ...

Anyway, please come along with me, on this flight, over the same route, in my trusty (and competent) Beech Baron G58 Twin, lifting off from KORD, across the plains and flatlands (absolutely no mountains to encounter; please see my MFD MAP terrain), all the way to the farthest edge of Cajun Country of the South. The below screenshots reflect a sampling of what I saw enroute, mostly (low elevation) picturesque prairies, with abundance of gentle meadows, small hills, river lowlands, and pine woods. The Mississippi River, always on my mind, seemed to never part company with me, and, just as on the road-trip, I have crossed this river twice on this flight, once at St. Louis and once at Memphis (images of the crossings and overfly of the airports included below). 

In the evening light, I've reached and flown past the New Orleans skyline, all the way near the mouth of the Mississippi (about 100 miles out), where it appeared to me (from my vantage point), as if the forceful Mississippi did not want to meekly succumb to the ocean....the last miles of its route are replete with (unruly) twists and turns while it carries its astounding mass of sediments forming marshy swamp lands for itself, in a desperate bid to prolong its life on the ground, before finally forced into submission in a losing battle to the ocean (my very last image reflects the mood and locale of this finality)...where eventually the sweet waters of the mighty river have mingled with the salt waters of the vast ocean...creating the 2nd largest Dead Zone in the world...

Hope you enjoy this set of pictures from my flight. Thanks for viewing.

Edited December 1, 20232 yr by P_7878

Great trips (the original and then this one), great shots, and a commentary paragraph (the fourth one) bordering on the poetic. 🙂

Nice shots! 😉 

Beautiful shots from a beautiful Trip with some nice landscape around..

cheers 😉

Awesome!!! As a Chicago native my Son earned a Scholarship to Tulane University some yrs back...My Wife and I used to Love to head to "The Big Easy" for visits during his time there...Early Spring was a great time to depart Still Cold Chicago for some welcomed Gulf warmth and various festivals/Parades and of course Mardi Gras....We did drive in the early yrs....Illinois  is a Very Big state when traveling south from Lake Michigan....there were times I thought the state line would never appear.

John, Will, pmplayer, and Patrick: Thanks for the nice comments....🙂...

 

6 hours ago, Phantom88 said:

Awesome!!! As a Chicago native my Son earned a Scholarship to Tulane University some yrs back...My Wife and I used to Love to head to "The Big Easy" for visits during his time there...Early Spring was a great time to depart Still Cold Chicago for some welcomed Gulf warmth and various festivals/Parades and of course Mardi Gras....We did drive in the early yrs....Illinois  is a Very Big state when traveling south from Lake Michigan....there were times I thought the state line would never appear.

That's wonderful, Patrick...so, you're a veteran of this long voyage then...🙂...I was the sole driver on that single journey...my company was the music of Kenny Rogers and Patsy Cline...🙂..., to keep me awake on the road...

Very true about weather differences between the two locales...Chicagoans might end up in The Big Easy with coats on, and folks from there, might show up here in T-shirts when the temp is sub-freezing...🙂....

Excellent trip, P_7878. Isn't it fantastic that we can use today MSFS to relive some fond memories from days gone by. I do the same all over Asia and although the countryside is not (yet, I hope for MSFS 2024) as detailed as the US and parts of Europe in MSFS, it's good enough for me to relive part of my past travels 🙂

Appreciated the comments, Bernd...!

[Need to do an educative tour of the (mighty) Danube River one of these days...🙂...though I've never been there...]