‘Early to bed, early to rise’ was our plan and we set our alarm for 6:00. You know, most people leave an RV park in the morning and come into a new park in the afternoon. But, every now and then we see RV’s arriving and leaving at different times and it’s probably not good news. We once left at 4:00 pm from San Diego because we wanted to get over the mountain passes by dark and dry camp in El Centro in the flat lands. We were hurrying home because Gary’s father was in the hospital and it wasn’t good.
Last night we had one neighbor leave at 8:30 pm and another arrive at 10:45 pm. As we were lying in bed about 10:45, we heard a low ramble that could only be a diesel engine. First we thought it a diesel truck coming home late but the roar continued and was louder than a truck so we decided it was a late arriving RV - at 10:45? I can’t even imagine the kind of day those people must have had to be rolling into a dark RV site at 11:00 pm. In the morning, I saw the woman as she was walking up the steps to her door and said, ‘Must have been a long day yesterday.’ ‘Yes, it was’ she replied. She looked beat.
Well, we arose at 6:00 and were on our way by 8:00 after breakfast and a few last leaving chores. Our first stop was at Shipley’s Donuts (or du nuts as our GPS says). Their store was crowded and they had a line of at least 4 cars for the 1/2 hours we were there. In fact, one of their employees was going out to the cars in line and asking them what they wanted so their order would be ready when they got to the window.
We left and were heading for Hwy 61 down to Natchez when we looked over and saw $3.09 diesel. WOW. You don’t have to tell us twice - that’s the lowest we’ve seen.
OK, now, the car is full, we are full and it’s time to be leaving. Our first stop was at the Sunken Trace, near Port Clinton, a city that General Grand said was ‘too pretty to burn’ when he came through on his way to circle Vicksburg. We were looking for a spot to unhook the Jeep because one of the volunteers at the VC told us that our rig was too long for the parking circle there. When we got there, we saw that our whole rig, RV, tow bar and Jeep, would all have fit. Shucks. We found an empty business with a large parking lot, parked, unhooked and were on our way. The Sunken Trace is a spot that so many ‘Kaintucks’ walked through so often that it is at least 20’ lower than the ground above it. It’s pretty steep here.
We had thought we might be able to walk a ways through the Trace but at one end was a house and at the other was lots of brush. I don’t think this is a trail that many hike through - people come to take pictures and leave - just like we’re going to do.
It doesn’t look as if many people actually hike the Trace these days - they only come here, walk a few feet and take a picture - exactly what we did today.
However, between 1790 and 1820 many walked this route, the quickest route between Natchez, MS and Nashville, TN. Not alone, mind you, since there were many along the route who would like to relieve you of your burden of gold, the gold you got from selling your produce or furs or crops along with your flatboat. Most men traveling the Trace traveled in groups of 6 or more for protection. It was a long route, over 400 miles and, at first there were no places along the route to find a comfortable bed and food. However, some enterprising farmers decided that, if the Trace passed in front of their home, they might as well open a ‘stand’ or what we today might call a B&B. These cropped up every 15 miles or so, the mileage an average person could walk along the Trace in a day. The first one of these, 15 miles outside of Natchez, was Mount Locust. Here for 25 cents a weary traveler could sleep on a covered porch and get a nice warm meal of corn meal mush and milk. What more could you want? And, actually, after walking 15 miles and contemplating sleeping out in the open, a warm meal and a roof over their head, this was luxurious.
Mount Locust is still in very good shape. There are volunteers (workampers) here who ‘woman’ the VC and give the tours of the house. In 1801, when William died. Paulina then married James Chamberlain, an overseer at the farm and they continued to build the farm. Sometime after 1810, James was gone and Paulina was on her own with the farm and her 11 children. She continued farming and running the inn.
Here is the kitchen
the boys room with a fireplace
the girls room with a down comforter (no fireplace here)
the porch for the ‘Kaintucks’ in the center here.
and the family cemetery out back.
When the steamboat ended the need for the Natchez Trace, she turned to offering a ‘rural’ vacation for Natchez residents. The NPS owns Mount Locust now and opens it for those who want to see life in early Mississippi.
Our final stop along the Natchez Trace was Emerald Mount, built by the Mississippians, 35’ high, 770’ x 435’. Lets see, a football field is 360’ x 159’ so this would be 4 football fields big. All built by carrying in dirt in a bucket, piling it up and filling another bucket. How many people, now many days, how many bucket loads? Countless. Amazing. Here for perspective is the mound with Gary climbing the stairs and 3 people off in the background.
While we were on top of the mound, we got a great view of the top of our RV.
Touristing done, we’re on our way to New Orleans. We know we need propane so were checking out places where we might get it easily on our journey today. Pilot? Nope, Loves? Nope. I checked other truck stops along our route and continued to call. I’d ask, ‘Do you pump propane into RV’s?’ My answer was - always - ‘Huh?’ ‘Do you pump propane into RV’s?’ I felt as if I were speaking a different language. Which word did they not understand? pump? propane? RV’s? One young person said ‘I don’t know.’ and left it at that. I then had to ask, ‘Could you please find out?’ ‘OK.’ And, none of them did. We’ll get it in Summerdale, AL, our stop after New Orleans.
We drove through some marvelous territory - well, I think it was. It was dark as we drove through New Orleans over water, lights of the city in a haze off in the distance slowly growing as we drew closer. And, yeah, the traffic was heavy. What a trip that was: in the dark, over unfamiliar roads, in heavy traffic - but we made it to out campground and into our site. Whew.
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