Thanksgiving is over – the
sweet potatoes and pies are all devoured.
All our doctor appointments are completed. The Ohio State-Michigan football game has been played and the boys
in the winged maize and blue helmets let the Buckeyes win again. It’s now December! The trailer is packed and ready to go!
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| Crossing into Kentucky |
Our southern direction has
changed from heading southeast to southwest since we’re heading for the Gulf of
Mexico first on this trip. Our journey
down and across Indiana on state roads (not expressways) was great and we
watched the landscape gradually change from flatland farming with their
corduroy textured, harvested fields to gently rolling hills covered with
pastures or wooded acres. Along with
all the rest of the Friday afternoon traffic, we crossed the wide Ohio River on
one of the multiple spans of the I 65 bridges – so much for the peaceful
ride! Down below, there were tugboats
and long narrow coal barges chugging their way downstream on their own watery expressway.
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| The Natchez Trace |
From Louisville thru Nashville
we stayed in the middle lane and let the traffic flow around us! Thru Nashville and finally onto the Natchez
Trace – we could breathe again! We slowed down and began to enjoy the ride once
more! No semi trucks and not much
traffic at all – just a deer darting across the blacktop and leaping into the
brushy undergrowth and a humongous flock of dark black turkeys that thought
they owned the road and wanted to play chicken with the big blue truck! Then the rains came! And they kept coming for 3 more days!
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| The Tenn-Tom River |
We parked that night in David
Crockett State Park, just outside of Lawrenceburg Tennessee. The town is full of history from the
infamous Trail of Tears to the famous folks who called the town home, including
Fred Thompson the actor and congressman.
The MOST famous tho, is Davy Crockett himself! His history and lure permeates every inch of the town and the
state park that is his namesake! The
park boasts 2 modern campgrounds, cabins, a restaurant, archery, tennis and
Frisbee golf. There is a museum/grist
mill and a covered bridge that straddle the Shoal Creek where Davy once lived,
worked and earned the title of Colonel before heading to the Alamo.
Tennessee and Mississippi on
the Trace and then off for the last time as we followed more state roads thru
BIG sounding small towns of Louisville and Philadelphia to another state park –
Clarkco State Park. Another set up and take down in the rain! This park was easy to get to from Meridian
but the park roads were extremely narrow and tall pine trees stood guard at and
behind every narrow site and at each bend of road.
It was a comparatively short
jaunt across the cotton fields of Alabama to the gulf coast city of Mobile and
US Route 10. Route 10 seemed like one
continuous bridge from Mobile, over creeks, swamps and low areas to the Florida
border! As we crossed the bridges from
Pensacola to the barrier island of Santa Rosa the skies opened up even further
and the watery deluge came in waves of blinding precipitation. The windshield wipers struggled to keep
up! We later found out that the amount
of rain that day set a new record of 4 inches! Once in the Fort Pickens Campground in the Gulf Shores National
Seashore Park, the downpour let up long enough for us to park on site A14,
which will be our home for the next week and a half. That respite was brief however and the downpour returned and
continued thru the night. Our camping
loop fared pretty well but the other one did not and most everything except the
parking pads and roadway was underwater the entire next day!
