From Mississippi to Texas

The Mississippi River forms the entire western boundary of the state of Mississippi and can only be crossed at three places .The Greenville crossing is in the north between Mississippi and Arkansas and the Vicksburg and Natchez crossings are between Mississippi and Louisiana. Chorro and I have now crossed at all three places.

Greenville--

Vicksburg (we did this crossing last year)--

and here we are at the bridge at Natchez.

Louisiana is a rather small state and even at our snail's pace of about 150 miles a day, we could easily reach the Texas border in a day. Here's dawn on my birthday.

Of all the gifts I could possibly think of getting on my birthday, being greeted with a sky like this is among the best.

We'll let you amble through Louisiana with us so you can see the changing terrain.

By the time we reach Texas, it is noticeably drier. The trees are shorter and the grass is taller and brown. The majestic loblolly pines with their long soft-looking needles disappear and a shorter scrubbier pine takes it place. There is more openness, fewer heavily wooded area. Our destination is Livingston, Texas, which I think of as the southern counterpart to my hometown of Livingston, Montana. We will settle in here and greet 2009.

Tomorrow will be a new year !

The Natchez Trace

After a great holiday visit with my family in Jackson, Mississippi, it was time for this Vagabond and her Wandering Wonder Dog to move along their way.

We set out on a sunny Sunday after solving various problems that come into life from time to time. A low tire that just happened. A cell phone that didn't survive being laundered. A wonder dog that likes the beds in a bricks and sticks house better than the one in the RV!

Today, we took the Natchez Trace Parkway from Jackson southwest to Natchez. The parkway is a lovely road that winds through the rural terrain, past cypress swamps, planted fields, and forests, ending up at the Mississippi River. I especially liked travelling it because it has little traffic, a low speedlimit, and, best of all, beautiful scenery!

The Natchez Trace is one of the oldest known roadways on this continent. It probably began as a game trail as buffalo, elk and deer moved north along it to salt licks in Tennessee. Then it became a footpath for Native Americans as they moved from place to place or travelled to trade with one another. Just look at that Mississippi sky they walked under!

Thomas Jefferson expanded it into "The Columbian Highway" and it fostered the development of settlements along the way. On an earlier visit, my son took me to see the old wagon train ruts that still endure in a few places today.

The Trace ran from Memphis in the north down to Natchez, on the Mississippi, in the south.

At Natchez, we found the delightful little "Natchez State Park," which was our home for the night.

As you can see, at this time of year state park campgrounds are not very full, especially on weekdays. There were a very few other campers here. Since we were only staying one night, we took advantage of a "pull through' site, which means that I didn't have to unhitch the car and back in, I could just pull out in the morning with my little Toad still hooked up behind.

Natchez State Park is arranged around Natchez Lake.

Would you believe that the largest of the large mouth bass ever caught in Mississippi was caught in this lake? I know that my brother-in-law Gene, back in Wyoming, would just love to be out on that lake with his fishin' pole! The bass, by the way, weighed over 18 lbs.

While visiting in Jackson, I stayed in two different campgrounds, having been flooded out of the first one. Both were very nice, but city lights and noises surrounded them. Here, back in a state park away from the city, it is quiet and dark. I love the peacefulness and it settles my soul. The stars are amazing. One day I will learn how to take pictures of night skies to share them with you.

Today was a good day.