Thursday on the Trace (5/1/14)

Thursdays.  After yesterday's marathon day, we got a pretty good night's sleep and a decent start today.  By 9:25 we were back on the Trace (since it was only about 2 miles), and saw 3 deer right away. I had just taken a photo of the pretty, empty road in front of us.  As soon as I put the camera down, those three deer jumped across the road.  Just by a minute or two, I missed getting them in my picture accidentally!

We had a few more stops on the Trace that we wanted to see, but Joe was worn out from yesterday and wanted to stop early.  Our first stop was the historic town site of Rocky Springs.  Here we encountered another very nice Mississippian, who stopped and told us about this site (we had driven on past because she was parked in our way).  So we went back and walked through it.  There was a pretty church that is still open and being used, along with cisterns and safes left from the days when the town thrived.

Down the road from that was the Owens Creek Waterfall, which fortunately was running a little bit.

 Our next stop was the Sunken Trace, a deeply eroded section of the original Trace that we could walk down into.

The last site we had marked to stop at was Mount Locust, a "restored plantation."  But actually it was an old inn.  It had a nice setting and was restored in good shape.

We decided to end our day so we found a place to camp, the Natchez State Park, just a few miles off the Trace.   We had about 10 miles of the Trace still to run, but we could save that for tomorrow. I called ahead and got directions, but we had to wait about 20 minutes for the park ranger to get back to the office to check us in.  The park was on a beautiful lake, and our site was very nice.  We hooked up electricity and took a nap!

We were off the road at 2:00, and set up camp by 2:35.  We only drove 88 miles today, and the weather was beautiful.

We finished the Trace in the car, and then drove around Natchez to look over the town and find some place for dinner.
 

 There are lots of huge churches in Mississippi -- of all denominations.  And Natchez has a Grand Hotel that takes up an entire block.  It is only 4-5 stories high, but it is quite impressive.

We considered trying to take a city tour tomorrow, but we found our way around sufficiently that we decided it was not necessary.  Here was another encounter with a nice Mississippian -- the Visitor Center was closed when I went up to the door, and this guy asked me if I needed a map.  I said yes, and he said he had a couple in his truck (he thought I wanted a state map, but he was more than kind, and willing to give me his).  He told me about the tours and recommended his favorite.

We then drove down to the river, and found a nice place to eat right on the waterfront -- Magnolia Grill.  We got some beautiful pictures of the bridge over the Mississippi River at sunset, and the poppies blooming along the riverfront.

After dinner, we drove out to the National Cemetery, then back along the waterfront.  We ended up at the Magnolia Bluffs casino right on the river for a little while (I broke even, Joe spent $20). On our way back to the state park, we saw two raccoons. We were back at the RV and in bed by 10:00.

The three Mississippi towns we drove through were nice, with beautiful churches and yards. And the people were just wonderful.  Mississippi gets high marks from both of us.

Wednesday on the Trace (4/30/14)

Wednesday.  After a good night's sleep, we both woke up early, and I cajoled Joe into getting on the move.  We were, amazingly, on the road by 7:15 (hoping to see some early morning wildlife).  And we did -- we saw 2 turkeys in the first 5 minutes, and just a few minutes later,  4 deer crossed the road. 

We saw turkeys off and on until we got to Mississippi, and then no more showed up.  But we also saw a red fox, which was really cool.  It stopped and looked at us for a while, so we got a good look at it.  We crossed the Tennessee/Alabama state line at 9:00.  We pulled into one historic site (I forget which one) and there were 2 trucks behind us.  The first one had a wrecked car loaded on it, but the second one was hauling a covered wagon!  I was sorry I didn't get a picture of that.  We hoped to cross paths with that one again but never did.

Joe's hip was bothering him today so I took over the wheel for a while.  I probably drove for 1 1/2 hours.  Did I mention that the Trace is very narrow!  I had a little trouble keeping it between the lines, but I didn't run over anyone.  I even missed a baby turtle that was very slowly crossing my lane.  I don't know what it was thinking.

We crossed the pretty Tennessee River, and right beside that was a side road for the Colbert Ferry.  We drove back to it and parked.  There was a boat ramp there, and a pretty black and white bird posed for me.

There are some pretty famous bridges on the Trace.  This one, over the Tennessee River, is the John Coffee Memorial Bridge, the parkway's longest bridge. 

We crossed into Mississippi around noon and stopped at another historic site -- Bear Creek Mound.

We see lots of wildflowers blooming, including large patches of red ones, that we found out was red clover.  There was a large patch here when we stopped at the Pharr Mounds -- 8 burial mounds built 1,800 to 2,000 years ago.  You can see two small mounds in this photo.

Another interesting sight was the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  This waterway opens a navigable route between the Gulf of Mexico and the Tennessee River.  After seeing so many natural rivers, this was quite a change. 
 

Our next stop was the Natchez Trace Visitor Center.  It would have been nice to have had one of these when we first got on the Trace because there was some information that would have been useful.  However, this one was without power -- and had been since the bad thunderstorms on Monday.

From there, we drove down to the highway that took us into Tupelo -- yes, I finally got to see the birthplace of Elvis.   As we entered the town, we could see repairs underway from the tornado damage on Monday -- power lines were down and irrigation systems had been overturned.  We did not see any of the damage to houses though.

We spent a little time at Elvis' house.  In addition to the house that has been restored (Elvis' father actually built the little 2-room house himself), there is a church, a memorial chapel that plays his gospel music, and of course a gift shop. Also on display is a car like the one Elvis' dad dorve when he moved them from Tupelo to Memphis.  It's either a 1937 or 1939 Plymouth.

I'm waiting for Elvis to come swing with me.

It only had a bedroom and a kitchen. 

We didn't go into the church -- I think it has a video running of the gospel music Elvis grew up listening to (and maybe him singing) and you have to wait until it finishes.  But we did go into the memorial chapel.

 

 And the gift shop.  I've added another cup to my collection.  Joe was very patient and let me spend as much time here as I wanted, but we eventually left and headed into town to find some lunch.  On the corners downtown there were guitars on display.

After lunch, we headed back to the Trace to resume our trip.  We encountered some more bikers, and the mobile van that goes with them.

And then we had to STOP.  There was some road construction, and a flagman.  Joe thought we should call someone and complain, since this road was supposed to not have any stops on it.

Our next stop on the Trace was the Cypress Swamp, which was awesome.  But the mosquitoes were very friendly too.  There was a boardwalk bridge or trail all the way around one part of the swamp, so we got to see it from several different angles.  There are cypress and tupelo trees both.

 From there, we drove on past the Ross R. Barnett Reservoir on the Pearl River.  It was beautiful, and huge.

By now, it was a full day and time to get off the Trace and find someplace to camp.  The hostess at the Visitor Center told us about La Fleur State Park in Jackson, so we put that in the GPS and headed into Jackson, Mississippi.  We found the park, but not the entrance, so we turned around and stopped while I tried to call (of course no one answered because it was already after 6:00).  But a very nice lady stopped and asked if we needed help, and she told us to "follow her" to the campground.  Which we did.  But when we got there, it was closed due to flooding from the storm the day before.  We had pulled into the entryway because it was at a park where lots of kids had baseball games going, and there was no way to turn around.  So we had to unhook the car.  But when I went to start the car, the battery was dead.  (Later we decided I had left the key in the wrong position all day).  Anyway, Joe got out the jumper cables and was trying to figure out how to get the RV turned around to the front of my car when a guy stopped and asked if we needed help.  First, he called another campground for us (it didn't answer either but he gave us directions).  Then he pulled his truck over and hooked up the jumper cables so we could get the car started.  All that worked, and we found the way to the campground he had directed us to.  (I drove the car over, so by the time we got to the campground the battery was back up and it started from then on.)  We found the people in Mississippi to be the nicest people we have ever met.  We had two more encounters the next day with very helpful people, so we have nothing but nice things to say about Mississippians!

So we drove 331 miles today, but 22 of them were unproductive -- it was us chasing down the campgrounds.  We drove through town, first trying to get to the one that was closed, then the GPS took us through town instead of onto the freeway to get to the second campground.  We found out the next morning we were only a couple miles off the Trace.  We ended up in Clinton, instead of Jackson, but that didn't matter.

The weather was nice all day -- it started out a little cloudy, then it was sunny, then it clouded us again.  The temperature was in the 60s all day, very pleasant.

Anyway, by now, it had gotten to be a VERY LONG DAY. I think it was about 9:00 p.m. when we got to our campsite.  We hooked up the electricity to the RV, drove back out to a nearby restaurant to get something to eat, and then gladly called it a day.

Tuesday - to the Natchez Trade, April 29

Tuesday.  Today we are heading out of Vincennes.  After much debate and map-studying, Joe picked a roundabout route -- first to Nashville, then onto the Natchez Trace Parkway all the way to Natchez, Mississippi.  So, we began.

We got on the road about 10:30 a.m., after several, several trips up and down the stairs with final loading.  It was windy, then sunny, and eventually we caught up with the rain about 1:00 p.m.  As we traveled across northern Kentucky, it was evident that they have not been able to start farming yet -- in Vincennes, the farmers were hitting the fields hard, working early and late, trying to get some planting done before the next rain.  But the wheat is further along here, and looked pretty in the fields.

We changed time zones as soon as we left Knox County, so we lost an hour.  We managed to actually drive PAST a White Castle Hamburger joint in Owensboro, KY, and had a nice lunch at a Cracker Barrel.  It was a pretty drive down through Kentucky on Hwy. 431.  We did have to stop for road construction once, while the machine mulched part of a tree.

 We crossed the Tennessee State Line about 2:35 (local time), and hit Nashville at rush hour, of course.

 It took us a while to find the beginning the Natchez Trace, we had to circle back once, but we got on it just about 5:00.  Our traveling friends had told us about the Trace several years ago, and we had actually traveled a small piece of it in 2010, on our way to Graceland.  Almost immediately, we saw a couple of turkeys, then 2 deer crossed the road.  I didn't get any pictures of any wildlife, but we did see some.

The Trace runs 444 miles through 3 states and "10,000 years of history."  It was established as a unit of the National Park System in 1938.  Amazingly, there is not a single stop sign or traffic light on the entire 444 miles, and the speed limit is 50 mph.  We LOVED it.  Just our style! I didn't get a photo of the first mile marker, but I finally did.  These were intermittent the entire length of the Trace, sometimes every mile, sometimes a little less frequent.

There was very little traffic, and because we were going 50 or less, we could take in the natural beauty all around us.  Forests, blooming trees, meadows, rivers, creeks, and wildflowers filled our windshield.  Many roads entered and exited the Trace, but none of them required us to stop.  We crossed lots of highways on overpasses so we could see the highway below. 

There are also a lot of bicyclists on the Trace, and we share the road with them.  There are no businesses right on the Trace, so it's a little tricky finding fuel and lodging.  We lucked out Tuesday night and spotted a campground at an overpass just off the Trace about 5:45.  We also lucked out on the weather.  The night before, this campground had received 5-6 inches of rain and had some flooding, but the river or creek was back in its banks tonight.  The host gave us a recommendation for dinner in a nearby town, and we enjoyed a very good Mexican meal there.  The campground host even showed up there too and invited us to join his table, but we didn't move over there.  As we came into town, though, there were several cops with lights flashing right on the edge of town.  Again, our host, very informative, said they had busted a mobile meth lab there. 

The campground, Fall Hollow at Hohenwald, TN, was actually quite nice, grassy, plenty of room, and only 7 miles from town (food and fuel).

We maintained our wildlife count throughout the day -- only the 2 deer we saw right after we got on the Trace, but we saw 11 turkeys in all.

After we ate, we stopped by Walmart to pick up a few groceries, and by then we were just beat.  I was too tired to do the blog, or anything else -- we just went to bed. 

We drove 290 miles today.  We picked up a map of the trace that gives items of interest by milepost, and we made a few stops, but not too many.  Mostly, we just enjoyed the drive.