Natchez Trace Parkway -- X

 Another Indian burial mound.

 Top of mound.

 The picture above and all the ones below were taken in Vicksburg National Military Park. I love to look around in places like this.  However it is sad when you think about all the you men that died in the Civil War.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- IX

All these pictures are at the Ruins of Windsor near Port Gibson, MS.  It was an old plantation house and was used both by Union and Confederate troops.  It survived the war but was later destroyed by fire.  These columns have appeared in several motion pictures.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- VIII

 This was the normal scene driving down the parkway.  Hardly any traffic and it was green and beautiful.  It was such a relaxing drive.

 A lake along the parkway.  I was along the parkway for something like 8 miles.

 A trail with beautiful flowers.

 Close up of flowers.

 Church along the way.  I thought it was beautiful.

Finally a video of some small kids singing.  I thought this was worth sharing.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- VII

 Another field of flowers.

 All the reflection pictures of the cypress trees were taken in the same area.

 A baby alligator in the same area.  We also saw a couple big ones but they were too far away to get any good pictures.

These are called knees of cypress trees.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- VI

Not anything really great about these but I thought the reflections were interesting and kind of pretty.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- V

Old buildings at a stop right along the parkway. This was not a scheduled stop.  We just happen to see old buildings and thought it would be an interesting place to stop since all of us like old buildings.  I enjoyed this place a lot.  Just as we were getting ready to leave I happen to notice the moon up there so I took a quick shot of it.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- IV

 Lost Confederate graves.  There are no names and they're back in the woods.  We had to use a GPS to find the graves.

 A field of white flowers with a few daffodils mixed it.

 Another shot...same field.

 Daffodil up close with the white flowers around it.

Two more Indian burial mounds.

Natchez Trace Parkway -- III

 Look at that huge beaver dam.  This was a pond that we ran upon along the road.  It had another beaver dam but not near as big.

 Going across the Tennessee River on the parkway.

 A stream along the way.

 Indian mound....burial mound to be exact.

Betsy's mansion.... Just kidding... This was a little cabin in Tishomingo State Park.  We looked for some geocaches in the park.  We found a couple and couldn't find some others. :)

Great start

I forgot (sorry George and Betsy) to mention in the last blog that we got our trip off to a great start by meeting our friends George and Betsy for dinner.  They were gracious enough to  drive probably 85-90 miles to meet us for dinner.  We sure enjoyed seeing them again.... I just made Betsy promise that she wouldn't eat any soup for dinner (if you don't know the story you need to get Betsy to tell it again :) ).

We ran upon this barn driving down the parkway. It was a tobacco barn and it sure brought back memories from when I was growing up.  We raised tobacco as our only source of income so I was used to climbing around all over barns to get the tobacco in.

Here is some tobacco after it has been cut and put in the barn to cure. As you can see it is on a stick and is hung between two poles. Most barns had 2-3 layers of poles. By that, I mean that there would be another set above these poles and possibly another set above those.  It took a few people to get the tobacco into the barn.  You would have a person on the wagon, that had been loaded out in the field, and that person would pass it to a person on the ground.  The person on the ground would pass it to a person straddling the first set of poles (where the tobacco in the picture above is hung).  That person would hand it to a person straddling the second set of poles and he would hang in on the 3rd set of poles.  Of course there were variations of how this worked depending on the layout of the barn and how many sets of poles there were.

Another waterfall along the way.

Daffodils coming to life.

The beginning

We recently took a trip down the Natchez Trace Parkway. The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile drive through exceptional scenery and 10,000 years of North American history.  Used by American Indians, "Kaintucks", settlers, and future presidents, the Old Trace played an important role in American history. Today, visitors can enjoy not only a scenic drive but also hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping. These are the first few pictures that we took when we got on the parkway in Nashville, TN.  It ends in Natchez, MS and is a beautiful and relaxing drive.