Day Two

With a good nights sleep and a hot shower, we said goodbye to the boys and left Thelma with her brother Wally (another dog that now lives with the in-laws) and headed South. Our first stop was Franklin, TN for a Starbucks venti house blend and some groceries. Franklin is a beautiful bedroom community just Southwest of Nashville full of well kept old homes, horse farms, and historic landmarks.

Natchez Trace Parkway in Tennessee

From just west of Franklin, Zoobley and I got on the Natchez Trace Parkway and headed south. The Trace was an early trail from Natchez, Missippi north to Nashville, Tennessee used by early traders who floated crops and other goods down the Missippi River and needed a path back home to Ohio, Indiana, etc. Built on old Indian trails, the Trace was first mapped in 1733 and fell out of favor with the advent of steamboats. Today, the Natchez Trace Parkway, a National Scenic Byway, runs beside remnants of the original trail 440 miles from Natchez to Nashville, or vice versa in mine and Zoobley's case. I can't begin to describe how beautiful the Parkway is other than to say that this is public works at their best.

Remnant of the old Trace

Starting in Tennessee, the Parkway is a beautiful, gently rolling two lane through hardwood forests spotted with mistletoe and wild turkeys foraging along the roadside. As you pass briefly into Alabama and then into Mississippi, the forests give way briefly to acres of cotton, bolls bursting white. Some days, just being alive is enough.