Natchez Trace

The sign says the trace is 200 years old but one theory is that it was an animal trail way before that. Having grown up on a small dairy farm I quickly learned that if you follow the cow paths you get there in the most efficient way.

These small Indian mounds were thought to be where the chief built his home but I thought if that were true they would have been flatter on top.

Sometimes the trace was narrow and had cut quite a deep way into the ground. How many feet did it take to do that?

Sometimes it was more like a highway.

This is a picture of the Meriwether Lewis monument. He died, whether suicide or murder, along the trace. It was a dangerous trip with a few crude waystops along the way. When the mail was carried from Natchez to Nashville by horse (pony express has nothing on the east) a man would start from each end and they would meet in the middle and exchange mail bags. The trip took 2 weeks.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 2 lane 445 mile highway from Natchez, Mississippi to near Nashville, Tennessee. It passes through Miss., a corner of Alabama, and Tenn. There are no trucks or commercial signs allowed. I drove 347 miles of it from Jackson, Miss. to the north end. The speed limit is 50 MPH and there were few cars on it. Every 10-15 minutes I met a car and every hour or so a car would pass me. There are many historical markers and places to stop and take a hike. Sometimes there it passes through farm fields but it is mostly through forest.

Near Koscuisko, Miss. I saw a sign for a museum so I stopped to check it out. It was all about Oprah Winfrey's birthplace. The road to it also led to a busy road. I didn't stay long. Many state highways cross the parkway so you can get off if you need anything. Many of the campgrounds they show on their map are commercial ones near the parkway. There were 2 short detours for road work.

It's was a beautiful drive, the dogwood and redbud were in bloom. I would recommend that someone plan ahead where they want to stop as they only give you 1/2 mile to decide whether you want to stop and you don't know what it's going to be if you don't have a navigator.

Now I want to tell you about Time Warner Cable company. I made the mistake of having my cable service turned off while I was away. That included my phone as well as my internet and TV. I requested service to be turned back on while I was still in Texas. They called me while I was driving at 70 MPH on the way home and I told them they would have to call another time. They called the afternoon I got home and scheduled it for April 3rd. When they didn't show up I tried to call their automated answering service to find out what happened. I am afraid I got abusive on their recorder. Only after 6 calls when I agreed to accept a call to evaluate their service did I get a real live person to talk to. Until then I got a recording saying they couldn't take my call and to call later. So if I wasn't going to tell on them they weren't going to take my call.

The reason they hadn't shown up was that they had been calling the phone that they disconnected in Nov. and when it didn't work they decided they didn't need to show up.

They got an earful. The real live person asked for my home phone number at least 3 times then he got tired of me yelling "I DON"T HAVE ONE".

Today I got phone service as well as a fancy new box on my TV that will pause and record TV shows. This was something that I had been paying for for a few years but had never gotten. They tell me I will have a free month of phone service. When that is up I think I will change my phone service.

I'm just glad to be back in communication with the world. Also sad to hear that one of my faithful friends and readers has passed away this week. A moment of silence for Jon, you will be missed.