Mississippi...

First, another note about yesterday... I forgot to mention that near Dahlonega is the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi (although I cannot personnally attest to this since it was raining so hard we didn't want to go looking for it). The other bit of info... the start of the Appalachian Trail is near there. Again, the rain kept us away. However, we DID get plenty of "hiking" last night in Douglasville. John thought it might be a good time to find a replacement for his glass French coffee press that got "separated" into several pieces during the "relocation" part of the drive to Vicki & George's. Sounds easy enough except John had remembered he'd only spent $20 for his (he conveniently forgot it was also on closeout sale) so insisted we keep looking until we found one that was comparable in price. Two malls and at least nine stores later... (I was about ready to send out a call for one of you to please ship him one and I'd reimburse you on the sly!)

I apologize to Alabama (especially to the northern part that's very beautiful) for having breezed right through today. George had recommended we drive part of the Natchez Trace that runs between Nashville & (you guessed it) Natchez and we wanted to get there while we still had daylight. (We started the parkway drive in Jackson, MS.) For those of you who aren't familiar with the Natchez Trace, it was first used by Native Americans as they moved from the north to the south and back. Later, the trail was used by boatmen who took boats down to Natchez, sold them, and walked back to their homes in the north. Some walked for six months or more. Now the National Park Service maintains it as a scenic parkway. There are numerous points of historical interest along the way and several places where you can still see and/or walk the trail (including the section in the photo). We could have camped there (for free this time of year) but it was a brisk day, they had no hookups (electric or water) and the back of the van is at the moment not much neater than the rooms of some teenagers. But the real truth was, the thought of a real bed in a warm room with running water and a shower was worth the price (even John didn't complain).

Tonight we're in Natchez. For being the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi and as wealthy as NYC at one time, it's much smaller than we expected. We didn't make reservations at the historic hotel downtown because they didn't mention parking in their ad and we assumed Rambo would be a problem. Next time we'll know better, get a room there and stay a couple of days. Turns out parking would NOT have been a problem plus the hotel is right in the middle of the city. Everywhere is walkable from there with lots of interesting shops and many, many historical buildings. Perhaps next trip.

Tomorrow? Still heading west...