Natchez Trace

I have wanted to explore the Natchez Trace for a long time, and we're finally doing it!!  On Wednesday we drove from Poplar Bluff to the Natchez Trace Wilderness RV Park in Tennessee.  This is a Thousand Trails park, and we got in through RPI.   We were going to be here 5 nights, but have decided to go to Tupelo on Saturday to explore some of the southern parts of the Trace.

On the way in, Google maps took us about 5 miles on the Trace out of Hohenwald, TN, and the road that it took us on to to get to the RV park has an 11 foot bridge.   Our motorhome needs about 13 feet of clearance.  OH CRAP!   LUCKILY there was a dirt bypass - still going under the bridge - but gave us JUST ENOUGH clearance to get by.

We measured the rig when we got in, just to be sure. Yep, it's 12.5 feet high!

Mike measuring the height

Our spot in the RV park

This park is huge, with mostly water/electric hookups.  Most of the full hookups have full time members living there.  The park is kind of junky, they allow all sorts of stuff around the rig.  Nothing like Hart Ranch. 

You also pick your spot when you drive in. Luckily we got one of the few full hookup sites left for the weekend.

Thursday we drove from the RV park north toward Nashville.   I just love the history here.  A lot of the Trace crosses the Trail of Tears - which was actually 4 or 5 routes from the southeastern states to Oklahoma when the Feds decided to relocate the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Chocktaw tribes.  The Seminoles refused to go, they stayed in Florida.

The house where Meriwether Lewis died

Meriwether Lewis gravesite

There are lots of spots where you can see the original Trace

The fall colors are spectacularly beautiful, and these pictures do not do them justice.

An old tobacco drying barn along the old Trace road

You can actually drive in spots along the original Trace

Monument to the War of 1812.  Andrew Jackson's men marched along the Trace to return home after the Battle of New Orleans.   Many are buried in unmarked graves along the Trace.

An original home along one of the rivers.  The owners ran a ferry service.

A view of the longest bridge on the Trace.

The same bridge from down below

On Friday we drove south out of the RV park about 80 miles. One of the first spots we saw was a "sunken Trace".  These are spots that would get so muddy the carts and wagons would get bogged down, so they would cut new routes around the old ones.  This spot has three separate paths that they had used.

The next spot we stopped was Bear Creek Mound.  We've seen lots of Indian mounds around the southeast, but were surprised to find that this was used as early as 8000 BC.

Next we stopped at Cave Spring.  There is a spring of water in the cave.  Now it's mostly a sinkhole, and we tried to get pictures in the cave of the spring, but they didn't turn out well.

We stopped at a spot where George Colbert, a Chickasaw Chief, ran a ferry service across the Tennessee River.  We also had a picnic there.

A cotton field along the Trace

We left Hohenwald two days early, and drove south along the Trace to Tupelo.  We figured we could see more of the southern portion toward Jackson.  Then, when we leave Georgia in the spring, we'll stay in Natchez, MS and explore north and south out of there, finishing the Trace!

On Sunday we explored as far south as milepost # 195.

Owl Creek Mounds

Owl Creek Mounds

On the Road - REALLY RVing NOW!!

We had the last day of work, and we've hit the road.

Yesterday when we left Hart Ranch it was 35 degrees and drizzle. Really miserable.  Luckily we had hooked the car up the night before (and it was illegally parked on the grass so that we could still hook up water....don't tell Security!).

We made it to North Platte, and met the Wilkinsons and Ralstons for supper. It was good to see them one more time.   Karen Sue and Floyd couldn't make it because they had gone to Lincoln for the dentist.  I really hated to miss them, but God willing, we'll see them at Hart Ranch next summer.

We'll be in Branson, MO on Friday for 4 nights - using our new RPI membership!!

The waitress took this one

The "selfie"

We got to Branson, and this RV park is awesome!   It sits high on a ridge, overlooking Branson (ergo "Branson View Campground"!).

View from our patio

This is the campsite

View out the front window

On Saturday we drove downtown to main street.  We checked out Dick's 5 and dime (a lot of junk and way too crowded), and found the train station.  We're going to take the Branson railway on Monday.

Then we headed to the King's Castle Theater to see the Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies.   I suspect that none of them are really from Ireland or Celtic, but it was a great show.   Lots of Irish ballads, rock and roll, and some opera.   One woman did an aria from La Traviata - which was Dad's favorite opera (and the one he took us to see at the SF Opera house when I was 12 or so).   It was a really nice afternoon.   It was also a beautiful day - mid 80's.

We also checked out the RPI Preferred park here, Treasure Lake Resort.  It was hugh - 488 sites and 70+ cabins.   The sites were very close together compared to Hart Ranch - and butt up back to back so that you could touch your neighbor's rear end.   I didn't like that.  They also have a huge storage area, and we even saw some sleepers so they must have a toter too!

Today is pretty crappy. It started raining about 11:00 last night and has been pouring ever since!  And it's so foggy on this ridge we can't see a thing.   We took a drive to scope out a route that doesn't have so many hills when we leave for Poplar Bluff on Tuesday.   It'll be a slow, windy, trip on US 160, but should be a pretty drive. 

This afternoon we're going to see the Acrobats of Shanghai at the Mickey Gilley Theater.  We're looking forward to that.

On Monday we rode the Branson Scenic Railway.  It was a fun trip, lots of pretty fall colors.   The car we sat in was decorated for the Polar Express which starts in November.

View from the trestle when we turned around to go back to Branson. 

Wine on the deck with a great view of Branson