Sunny and Rainy Tuesday

After a rainy night we were awake early and on the road just before seven.  We had some rain early and then even some sunshine before the clouds all filled in and we ere back into rain.  The highways are strange I that is would seem that only the middle lanes are in awful condition with holes.  We made good time getting around Knoxville and the over to Nashville and onto the Natchez Trace.

This is the proof that we really did have some sunshine on Tuesday.  Still on route 81 in Tennessee in the morning.

Note that trucks are supposed to have a 55 mph limit...right...as we were cruising at about 63-4 we were sucks up by the big rigs.  Oh well, maybe the speed limits are strictly "suggestions."

South of Nashville we entered the Natchez Trace.  The Trace stretches some 440 miles from Nashville, TN, to Natchez, MS.  In the 18th century, traders would bring their goods down the rivers to Natchez where they sold their goods along with their boats for timber then traveled by foot, wagon or horseback via the Trace back to Nashville; there to repeat the process.  We have traveled the Trace twice before, but this time was the first experience in clouds, fog and rain.  The speed limit is 50 mph, so the pleasure comes from the scenery and the relative absence of traffic.  This year we had the latter, but the weather obscured much of the viewing.

We have even had a detour which must have died a good 30 minutes of driving time and a few extra miles to the 500+ miles we have driven.  We are camped in the Tishomingo State Park in Mississippi.  This was not planned, but we miscalculated where the Trace campground was and so needed to stop short of that.  We are, however, the only campers in this totally beautiful park.  We are right on the water and are listening to spring peepers!  

This is our campsite.  We are the only ones here as far as we can tell unless there is another camping area we didn't see.  This is a lovely park and one we might consider again in the future!

It did rain like crazy last night.  We didn't get the wind, nor the tornados or massive thunderstorms which would have affected us had we been near New Orleans.  Today we head to Poverty Point State Park and will be there for two days/three nights.

Happy 75th to David, celebrating with coffee in Starbucks in Tupelo, Mississippi.