A Cross-Country Driving Trip in Our Morgan

Journal Pages
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Preparation

The Caboose Run

Boise and Park City

Bryce and Zion

Antelope Canyon

Grand Canyon

Cumbres & Toltek R'way

Getting to Nachez

Nachez Trace

Franklin & Athens

Blue Ridge Parkway

Concours

Autocross

Virginia

Annapolis

Finger Lakes

Niagara Falls

Iowa

The Home Stretch

Driving the Natchez Trace from Natchez, MS to Franklin, TN

Monday, June 19 - Natchez, MS to Tupelo, MS on the Natchez Trace

The Natchez Trace is a treasure, and to a driver of a Morgan, a heaven.  We left the town of Natchez relatively early and headed north on this wonderful parkway - closed to commercial traffic, speed limit enforced at 50 mph, pristine country, groomed by the National Park Service.  It is a wonderful and unique park - narrow - running along a route that was very important to the development of this country.

We were blessed with idyllic weather - clear skies for the 279 miles, with only a bit of a shower that was insignificant along the way.  We stopped at several points of interest (photos below).  We hadn't realized that this area was so instrumental in the development of this country.  Farmers from the Ohio River Valley would take barges, laden with their crops, down the Mississippi to either Natchez or New Orleans, sell the crops and the barges (for lumber), then hike back to their homes.  The journeys back must have been incredibly dangerous - bandits, unfriendly Indians, disease bearing insects and venomous snakes were all hazards these hardy souls faced.  It is amazing they survived the journey!

    Elizabeth Female Academy

        Mount Locust Stand

        Spanish Moss and active Methodist Church on the site of an abandoned cotton town

    Ross Barnett Reservoir

    Moggie burbles along the southern part of the trace

We spent the night in Tupelo and, no, we didn't do an Elvis pilgrimage (nothing against The King, we just aren't into him).

Tuesday, June 20 - Tupelo, MS to Brentwood, TN on the Natchez Trace

One of Tom's Morgan friends calls the Natchez Trace (Trace is apparently a derivative of a French word meaning 'animal') therapeutic.  Well, it is that - miles of pristine forest and well tended farms, no trucks, some wildlife (especially at night, we were told).  It is by no means spectacular as is the Grand Canyon - instead, it is calming - a vacation from our vacation.  We do not know why it is not more widely publicized.

    Moggie creeps along a stretch of the original trace

    The Meriwether Lewis monument at the site of his death

Once we got off the Trace we went to our lodging in a town called Brentwood.  Along the way we passed beautiful homes and farms, obviously very expensive.  They were the types of places one imagines the wealthy in the South would live in - white fences around their pastures, large brick homes in Colonial style.  We learned later that this is one of the richest areas (monetarily) in the US.  Easy to see the wealth.

We aren't 'into' country music, so we by-passed the pleasures of Nashville.  Somehow, we got a late start for dinner.  What a fiasco - Antonella (our GPS) took us to four Italian/pizza restaurants, but they were either closed, non-existent or take away.  We eventually parked Moggie at the hotel and walked to a Chili's.

Our hotel was not satisfactory - it was the first time we've ever stayed in a Main Stay by Choice and it will be the last.  The so-called kitchen had one pot, no lid.  Exactly how is one supposed to cook a meal when one has only one pot?