Spring Training 2019 - Day 67

We left Anniston, AL around 9:30 am after getting mochas at the local Starbucks.  It was about a 200 mile drive to our stop for today, an RV park just south of Tupelo, MS on the Natchez Trace Parkway.  

The drive was pretty much due west to Birmingham then slightly northwest to Tupelo.  It is Interstate all the way, except the GPS got disoriented going through Birmingham highway construction and we had a nice little tour of the city before getting back on track.  The drive was also windy as we had a pretty good crosswind out of the south all the way here.  There was little traffic after we left Birmingham and a lot of open space through the rolling hills of northern Alabama.

We are staying at a small "mom & pop" RV park just off the Natchez Trace Parkway about 12 miles south of Tupelo.  Nothing special here, but we are in a level pull-through site with full hook-ups.

We will continue down the Natchez Trace Parkway tomorrow to its terminus at Natchez, MS.  We did the upper part last year from Nashville, TN to Tupelo, MS and we wanted to do the rest of it this year.  

The Natchez Trace National Parkway is 444 miles long and was established as part of the National Park System in 1938 and officially completed in 2005. The parkway commemorates the most significant highway of the Old Southwest.

This natural trail corridor that became the Natchez Trace dates back many centuries and bisected the traditional homelands of the Natchez, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Native American nations.  As the United States expanded westward in the late 1700s and early 1800s, growing numbers of travelers tramped the rough trail into a clearly marked path. Where the ground was relatively soft, walkers, riders and wagons wore down the "sunken" sections that are still visible today.  In 1801 President Jefferson designated the Trace as a national post road for delivery of mail between Nashville and Natchez.

Many famous Americans have travelled on the Trace, but most were working folks.  In the early 1800s through the mid-1800s "Kaintucks" from the Ohio River Valley floated cash crops, livestock and other materials down the Mississippi River on wooden flatboats.  At Natchez or New Orleans they sold their goods, sold their boats for lumber, and walked back or rode horseback home via the Old Trace.  As the road was improved, stands (inns) provided food and lodging to travelers.

Today, the parkway creates a greenway from the southern Appalachian foothills of Tennessee to the bluffs of the Mississippi River.  It crosses four distinct ecosystems and eight major watersheds.  It is habitat for nearly 1,500 species of plants, 33 mammal species, 134 bird species and 70 species of reptiles and amphibians.

The temperature here is in the 80s.  It is still windy and some rain is expected tonight, but nothing severe.  It will be dinner in and a quiet night.