On Thursday we traveled from Branson to Tupelo ( pronounced Two-po-Low ) which was a 7 hour drive and it is where we spent the night. Our "intentions" were to head south Natchez, on Friday morning on the Trace Parkway Express.
Friday:
The Natchez Trace is a 440 mile journey from Natchez, MS and ends 20 miles south of Nashville , TN and it crosses 4 states. Tupelo is approximately 1/2 way between Natchez and Nashville. The Trace Parkway is a beautiful 2 lane highway which winds it way the entire 440 miles with NO billboards, commerical vehicles, gas station or businesses; just cars,light trucks and RV's. You can get off to visit a small town for gas or food. The speed limit is mostly 50 MPH but does drop to 40. This is a scenic hwy, so if you are in a hurry take another road. The trip from Tupelo to Nashville take 3 1/2 hours nonstop but there are so many Historical monuments to see and read that we took 6 hours. Most of the land is farm land and any land that isn't agriculture is covered with forest. I'm sure that originally this land was all forest and it has been cleared since the 1800's.
So why did we change our plans? There is a Visitors Centre in Tupelo before you enter the Trace Parkway so we stopped to pick up some info and to be brief on the journey. The visitors centre had a 15 min movie which we took in. We then realized that we would only see 1/2 of the Trace if we headed south and the visitors center was also advising people not to go south due to snow covered roads. That's when we decided to go to Nashville. Besides that, when we tell people that we did the Natchez Trace we want to say we did all 440 miles. ( I know.... that info and a dollar will get you a coffee at MacDonald's).
If you are interested in the history of the Trace you can Google it so I will be brief. In the 1800's before steam power the Kiantuck people from Kentucky would float their "Wares" down the Mississippi River to Natchez to sell them. And since their flat bottom boat could only go down river they would sell it for the lumber and walk 440 miles back to Nashville on this trail which became the Trace. The trail was narrow, rough, and infested with mosquitoes, flies, alligators and not so friendly Indians. They would form a group for safety.
Nashville is no longer the small city with Music as it's main industry. They have two vehicle manufacturing plants and they are the Hub of the Health Care Industry. The population is between 1 million and 1.8 million if you count the outlying areas.
We took a cab downtown to "Music" street and had supper and then went to a bar to listen to C and W music. It was the Tequila Cowboy bar and it was a Zoo but the music was great. A fight was about to develop about 2 feet from us but the bartender handled it and both parties left by separate exits. Cheers
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