10 days on the Natchez Trace Parkway

We made a 20 mile (32 km) detour off the Trace yesterday to take in a ruins site that Ruth had read about.

Another really interesting story, where this wealthy landowner had built himself a huge mansion back in 1861. After completing the mansion, he died at age 34 only weeks later! The mansion survived the turmoil of the Civil War, only to be destroyed by fire when it accidentally burnt to the ground in 1890.

Clinton, Mississippi is worth a stop...

The city of Jackson, Mississippi (pop 170,000) didn't really offer much that we were interested in, plus the Natchez Trace Parkway goes around the outskirts of the city so we didn't feel the need to go off course too much when we were going through that area.

However, Ruth had seen a media display at the visitors center in Kosciusko that advertised the town of Clinton, which is sort of a suburb of Jackson.

A friendly welcome to Madison, Mississippi

We left Jeff Busby Campground early, hitting the road just after 8:00am. Nice clear blue sky all day, but still a little on the cool side. First stop was French Camp, a sort of recreation of old buildings from the 1800's.

They have a sort of visitors center there as well, but I think I read that it doesn't open until 10:00am.

The batteries will do for another six months or so...

Definitely a nicer day yesterday, with the temperature going up to about 63F (17C). We had already decided to make Monday a non-driving day, and just relax at the Jeff Busby Campground. We took our time getting outside, and finally went out to enjoy the day at about 11:00am.

Not many places to hike in this park, so we did the same route we had done on Sunday, but in reverse. Because we needed some exercise!

Note to self: Don't plan to purchase propane on a weekend!

Slept great at the Tupelo airport, and took off fairly early in Sherman to get to Jeff Busby Campground at a decent hour. We had a turkey to cook!

We had bought a 12 lb frozen turkey on Friday, and it was busy thawing all day Saturday. Of course the inside of the motorhome was about the same temperature as the inside of the fridge Saturday night! So it wasn't in any risk of going bad but we wanted to cook it as soon as possible and if we were going to have Sunday roast dinner it needed to get in the oven round 3:00pm.

Being tourists in Tupelo

Yesterday morning, we drove over to the airport, just to check out if it would be any good to park for a night. We've parked overnight at many small airports, but Tupelo, Mississippi is a little larger of a city. Sure enough they have a decent sized parking lot and less than half full. And, from where we parked, we got a good free wifi signal from the terminal.

I went inside the very quiet terminal and looked for somebody to ask. But couldn't find anybody. I finally went to one of the two car rental counters and explained to the lady that we wanted to park overnight.

Through Alabama and into Mississippi

Our internet allotment was getting low, and we rely on being connected. And Verizon doesn't make it easy to have an online account when you are a Canadian citizen, so we couldn't recharge our pay as you go data pack without finding an actual Verizon store.

Having used cellular internet in many different countries, I have to say that they sure do make it difficult and expensive both in the U.S. and in Canada. Must be something to do with too many rules. Looking forward to getting into Mexico where it's easy and cheap!

Not the nicest overnight stop... but it's not all bad

Only a short drive for us yesterday, just enough to change locations.

Actually, we were on a bit of a mission to empty our holding tanks. They weren't really that full... but we both were due for showers and that would fill up the grey tank to the point where we would want to empty it.

I had read about Laurel Hill Lake which was just off the Trace. We headed there first.

It might take us two weeks to do the Natchez Trace!

The rain stopped, but the skies never really cleared up. Still, it gave us a chance to get out and do some hiking. We chose the loop trail that goes around the property here at Meriwether Lewis Campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Still a little chilly, but so long as there is no snow, and we can hike... we're doing fine!

We don't find it any hardship to be boondocking

Yesterday was a rain day. It was pouring before we woke up, and it continued to rain on and off until well after lunch. We had already made the decision to simply stay put, so we had an indoor day. Other than a few strolls to the bathroom, we didn't even get out for a walk.

That's not like us, but a one day break isn't necessarily a bad thing.