Michigan to Mississippi

(Oct 30th - PM - I've spent the last 7 or 8 days parked at the south end of the Natchez Trace Parkway, near Vicksburg, MS. The really great part about this area was that not only was there no electricity, there was also no cell service nor internet access!!! For some silly reason I decided it was time to leave MS and head west. I'm somewhere in Louisiana and will attempt to get the blog updated with happenings from the past month.)

Well, after two months and the weather cooling down, it was time to leave Michigan and make my way to the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival. So I headed south through Ohio and Kentucky, into Tennessee. I picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway just south of Nashville. The Trace is a National Park System road which is 440 miles of uninterrupted road, with no buildings along its meticulously groomed shoulders and no commercial traffic allowed. This means no stops and no trucks to share the road with. Since I was traveling on week days, for the most part I was the only vehicle on the road.

I parked at the Meriwether Lewis site that has picnic and camping areas amidst the historic markers, one of which being this ‘broken shaft’ to commemorate Lewis’s untimely death at a young age. Lon’s History Lesson – one theory in Lewis’s death is that due to depression, he committed suicide. However, he had two gunshot wounds, one in the chest and one in the head. The intriguing thing about this theory was the fact that he would have been using a muzzle loader, which takes a quite a bit of effort to reload! Other theories learn toward a jilted lover or perhaps an angry husband.

Anyway, I met a lot of great people at the camping area. Vicki was the first, and had the most unique story I had ever heard. She was making quilts while she was traveling, to give to her grandchildren. The interesting thing was that she had written letters to many, many famous people (artists, sports stars, politicians, actors, etc, etc) and requested that they signed the enclosed material swatches, that she’d put into a quilt. Many not only sent them back signed, but also sent letters, cards and other memorabilia, addressed to Vicki and signed in their own hand. She had a couple books with all the letters and signatures that she shared with me. It was quite amazing. Folks like George Forman and Don Rickles. It was cute watching her eyes glisten as she showed me both McCain and Obama, and said “so, I’ll have a President soon”. (8-) I’m sorry to say that I was walking Coffey when I met her and didn’t have my camera with me.

I met Darryl when he pulled in on his Goldwing and set up near me. He was traveling between NASCAR races. The next morning over coffee, he suggested I join him on a ride across Tennessee countryside to Lynchburg, to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery. I’ll admit at first I wasn’t too interested in the tour, but the ride sounded good. Well, I was wrong! The tour was incredibly interesting, even if you don’t drink Jack Daniels! I learned so much about all that goes into making the varying versions of Jack, including that they make their own charcoal to filter the liquor in the process! Another interesting tidbit is that the distillery is located in a “dry” country (since its still on the original site, from before prohibition), so at the end of the tour, they offer you a glass of ice cold lemonade. Also, roughly 65% of the cost of a bottle is TAXES!

As usual, meeting people was another fun aspect of this journey. There were many full-timers as well as the occasional weekend visitor. JoAnn was another lady staying in the park for an extended period of time, and she and Darryl and I managed to share many meals (pot luck style, over the fire) and campfire visits. Here’s a picture of them on the night that a couple from Brussels (in the middle) joined us for some interesting political and cultural discussions!

I also stayed at a couple other pull-outs and campgrounds on my way to Helena for the fest. This was what I woke up to one morning in Alabama. As a matter of fact, it was a Sunday morning, so Coffey and I took a cup of coffee and my Bible and sat under these trees and had ‘church’.

Life is Good,

God is Great.

Lon