Wednesday April 22, 2015 West Point, Mississippi and the Natchez Trace Parkway

 

Sunrise!

Okay so this campground was near Columbia Air Force Base. At least they didn't start their maneuvers before 7am. The birds woke us up first.

 We saw the first of 7 wild turkeys before we left the camp ground.  West Point was a nice little town with some vintage buildings. 

We stopped for a stretch break at a Cracker Barrel restaurant near Tupelo Mississippi. Sorry  Kerry, we didn't order the double chocolate Coke cake.

We joined the Natchez Trace Parkway. It reminded us a lot of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It runs diagonally from the south west corner of Mississippi all the way to the north east corner, bisecting the state. It continues across the north west corner of Alabama then into Tennessee, ending at Nashville. It was originally used by Indians, runaway slaves and boatman among others. The boatmen would travel by boat down the Mississippi River with their wares then sell them at Natchez at the beginning of the trail and then WALK back up north. Bob figured it must have taken about a month to walk it. Lots of wildflowers and dogwood in bloom. We enjoyed having the top down for a good portion of the Trace.



Dogwood

These thistles were huge. I don't know what the pink ones are called but there are a lot of them in Mississippi

We stopped at another Cracker Barrel for a late lunch - still no Coke cake. We did, however have baked sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon and sugar. I'll definitely be serving these at home! Now to find a campground. They are few and far between in northern Kentucky. We finally found the Eagle Valley Resort after driving what seemed to be a ridiculously long way off the highway. Just when we'd about decided to give up, another sign would appear to encourage us on, never saying how much farther it would be. It was after 8:30pm by the time we found it. We put the heater on right away as the temperature according to the car down to 9C. Not many people here, but adequate facilities - no wifi again, so we'll be heading to McDonalds in the morning to post several days worth of this blog. Lots of stars.