Natchez Trace — Part 2

The Natchez Trace is such a beautiful road it's hard to imagine it as a "snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path." It was also a constant work in process as new pathways were cut to accommodate changing natural conditions. There are many places along the way where you can see small sections of the original -- or at least old -- Trace.



A dozen or so miles into our drive this morning, we crossed into the very northwest corner of Alabama. A few miles after that we crossed the beautiful Tennessee River. In case you are wondering, the deal that Happy and I have on road trips is simple: If we stop for more than a minute, she's allowed to get out of the truck for a look-see in her own way. Believe me, she makes the most of her explorations!



One of the heaviest early uses of the Natchez Trace was by folks from Kentucky and Tennessee who would build flat boats to float their crops and merchandise down the Tennessee-Ohio-Mississippi River complex to the Gulf. There they would sell their goods -- including the boats for lumber -- then walk back north on the Trace. Steam power changed this routine to a round-trip river journey.

Until midday today, the Trace has been almost completely tree-line by various hardwoods. We've now crossed one of the major ecosystem dividing lines and are into some more open areas with softer trees. The Trace crosses several ecosystems and many watersheds along its 444 mile course.




The weather has been spectacular and is predicted to continue tomorrow, but Friday is supposed to be pretty crappy. So, we are going to push a little farther than we have the past two days and aim for Jackson, MS. After that it will be a shorter run to the terminus in Natchez, MS, to minimize bad weather driving... Stay tuned!

Natchez Trace — Collinwood, TN

Picking up where I left off in my last post... After having lunch at a family diner in the small rural town of Collinwood, TN, the weather was overcast and not encouraging for an enjoyable continuation on the Natchez Trace. I inquired at the town's "Welcome Center" about the possibility of a place to stay, and was told that the couple who own the local hardware store have two "motel rooms" available. A phone call and a walk across the street later, I'd booked myself in at the Coast To Coast Motel:




Everything you need on an expedition, right? You might be surprised to know that this establishment and its innkeepers are given complimentary mentioned in an article in the 9/13/15 edition of The Washington Post's Fall Travel Magazine. Happy and I are very well set up for the night!

Looking across the street, I noticed a well renovated and maintained old train depot. Turns out it is the town's library and museum.




Although it's much more library than museum, it has a small but interesting collection of memorabilia.



My favorite is the timetable from 1918 for the local train service. Looks to me like you had one shot a day getting into or out of town!



Having had lunch at the local family diner, I've been informed there's another restaurant "just down the road" and will give it a try for dinner. The weather is supposed to be perfect again tomorrow morning, so Happy and I will hit the road with Tupelo, MS, as our tentative goal... Stay tuned!

Natchez Trace — Part 1

Happy and I were on station at a reasonable hour this morning, positioned to begin our leisurely drive of the Natchez Trace. Looking back at my May 2014 post about my first sampling of this part of the road, I don't think I can do any better explaining the history, various sites and overall experience. Rather than repeat it, I will reprise my invitation for you to read it for yourself.



What's different this time, of course, is the season. Rather than lush green everywhere, it's now ebbing toward winter with a pretty good showing of fall color. The sun was low in the sky this morning, making the views vibrant but the photography challenging.







The Natchez Trace is an impossibly beautiful, possibly perfect road. In addition to lovely views around every bend, the roadway itself is very smooth, well maintained and made of a composition that generates little tire noise. The speed limit is 50mph, but I found that 45mph was a better speed for fully enjoying the experience. On top of everything, there was practically no traffic besides a few bikes, motorcycles and an occasional car.

As the morning wore on, the sky started filling with puffy little photogenic clouds. What a drive!





Early afternoon, I pulled off in the small rural town of Collinwood, TN, and found a typical little family diner for lunch. By the time I was done eating, the sky had filled with clouds and darkened with threat of rain. Rather than push on in less than ideal conditions, I inquired at the town's "welcome center" about the possibility of a place to stay. What follows is a story worthy of its own post... Stay tuned!

Next Up: Natchez Trace

Greetings from Nashville! After our weekend in Atlanta, Happy and I have driven here to be in position for our next road trip...

Back in May, 2014 -- during our US70 "Coast-to-End" road trip -- Happy and I spent a day on this amazing road and it's been on our list ever since.



You can read an intro and overview in the post about it and view the National Park Service website.

At 444 miles from just south of Nashville to the bluffs of the lower Mississippi River, it's about the same length and driving conditions as the Blue Ridge Parkway we just completed. So, we plan to drive the Natchez Trace in about four days... Stay tuned!

Blue Ridge Parkway — Part 4

We climbed out of Asheville, NC, early this morning, and were almost immediately rewarded with our best view of the entire drive. Morning fog on the valleys is a special treat.





The last hundred miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway are the most visually striking. I would attribute that to the relatively high elevation and sharper terrain of the mountains. At 6,000 feet or so, the highest point on the road is 2,000-3,000 feet higher than most of the peaks, gaps and saddles so far.



It is also the most challenging part of the road to drive, with steeper climbs/descents and sharper turns than elsewhere. The fall foliage has mostly given up, with only the evergreens holding on. The consensus among other travelers and locals is that it hasn't been a very good year for fall color.





We reached the end of the Parkway at Cherokee National Forest. Overall it was a pretty and enjoyable drive. We did it in four days, averaging a little over 100 miles per day. That amounts to 3-4 hours of driving with several more hours stopping for various lengths of time. It could be done faster or slower, but I think four days is a good benchmark.

After continuing south into North Georgia, we are spending the night with very good friends near Lake Rabun. Tomorrow we will continue south to Atlanta for a weekend of shenanigans, and decide on what's up for next week... Stay tuned!

Blue Ridge Parkway — Part 3

It was cold but clear when we resumed our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway this morning, not far from the town of Boone, NC. I'll start off with your daily foliage update photo:



I've been intrigued by the spectrum of fall foliage along the drive. In some places, the trees have barely turned color at all. In others, they've already lost their leaves entirely. I've mused about the possibilities of microclimates, elevation differences, relative densities of particular species, orientation to the sun on mountainsides, etc. No clue what the answer is.

So far, this has been the most interesting and view-licious part of the parkway. The mountains seem to be higher and the road more exposed. There's also more geology going on to highlight the drama.



For those of you who have been traveling along on this excursion from the beginning, you will see that I've succeeded in my quest to find the bit of road shown in my first post. You will also notice that my photo is not nearly as striking!



I'm disappointed at the quality of photos I've been able to take. I partly blame my basic travel camera, but I can cut it some slack because I think it's very hard to capture the views on a drive-by basis. I suspect the best photos available were shot with very high quality gear, after days of waiting for perfect conditions, and ample enhancement on the computer.

That said, I think my shots are good enough to give you a flavor of the views. In these two, you can see the difference in color between areas only a few miles apart.





Truth be told, the road is getting a little boring. The routine of forest drive, side hill climb, saddle apex, side hill descent, forest drive is feeling like wash, rinse, repeat. We are about 80 miles from the end of the parkway and I will be ready for it to be completed... Stay tuned!

Blue Ridge Parkway — Part 2

Happy and I had a bit of an adventurous night camping out. The wind came up pretty strong, we had intermittent periods of rain and the temperature dropped a lot. When I rousted her from her truck house this morning, she was wearing her "I don't like it" face, but a brisk coffee-walk perked her right up. We packed up and hit the road just as the day started to clear and temps came up from the 40s.

Yesterday I mentioned that many of the "overlooks" are blocked by trees. Here's a perfect example of how it's still a good view, but it could be a lot better with a little pruning!



On the other hand, there are still plenty of spectacular, unobstructed views to be had. Ironically, many of the very best views do not have overlooks available and the best you can do is lift your foot from the gas pedal and take a peek as you drive by.



The hardwood forests continued throughout southern Virginia, but seemed to be well past their peak once into North Carolina. I'm guessing recent weather has taken its toll on them and they've gone from green to bare pretty quickly. The NC evergreens are still going strong, of course, and are markedly more prevalent.





So far I've shown you forest views and overlook views, but there's a third view that is common on the parkway: Open areas across gaps and saddles. This picture isn't very good due to the lighting creeping out my camera shooting through the windshield, but it gives you the gist of it.



We have stopped in Boone, NC, and checked into a motel. The temps are predicted to get down into the low 30s tonight and neither of us really feel like dealing with that. Tomorrow we will continue south down to the Asheville area... Stay tuned!

Blue Ridge Parkway — Part 1

Happy and I were at the north entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway at 9am sharp, right on schedule. The fog was very thick and I thought about waiting for it to burn off, but then figured we would pretty quickly climb above it. I was right and we were soon rewarded with our first excellent view.



Much of the route is a lovely drive through dense hardwood forests. Thicker at lower elevations and thinner at higher ones. There wasn't much traffic and we cruised right along.




There are many turnouts, one every mile or so, throughout the parkway. They are all called "overlooks" despite the fact that many are in the woods and don't look at anything besides trees. Some may once have had views, but the trees in front of them have long since grown up to block the view. According to a park ranger, that's because only the road and a few feet on either side of it actually belong to the park. Everything else belongs to the forest service and they will, as he said, "do whatever they want with it" whether it improves the visitor's experience or not.

Then, of course, there are the overlooks that truly live up to their reputation. We stopped at a number of them, drove slowly through quite a few more, but skipped many just because it could take forever to catch them all. My shots don't do the views justice, but they're worth clicking on for a larger look.




I'm probably a week or so before peak foliage color season, but the many hardwoods were doing their thing and the few softwoods provided nice contrast. All in all, it was a lovely drive all day long.



We've stopped at Rocky Knob, about a third of the way along the parkway, where Happy and I will camp for the night. For us, camping is a minimalist affair, with her sleeping in her backseat truck house and me on a comfy air mattress in the back canopy. I can boil water for coffee and soup. What else does a guy really need?… Stay tuned!

Skyline Drive

The weather yesterday was terrible, with blowing rain that we figured would make the Skyline Drive a miserable experience. Happy and I drove to the visitor's station just inside the north entrance to confirm our conclusion, then spent the day in Front Royal. I did some trip planning/sorting and she got a wet romp in a local dog park, but mostly we just hung out.

The weather was better this morning, but still not great. No rain, but heavily overcast. We thought about waiting another day for better weather, but that would put us into a Saturday which I know from my previous partial drive on the Skyline can be a traffic jam. Sometimes you just need to keep moving, so we loaded up and hit the road.

Climbing up from the north entrance we pretty quickly got into the clouds. It was obvious our scenic views would be few if any, but years of living in the Pacific Northwest have taught me the beauty of a pretty drive on a misty road.



As expected, there were very few other cars on the road. With the mist, it often felt like we had the road to ourselves. I set the speed control at 30mph — 5mph below the park limit — which is a sweet spot for my truck's transmission to cruise in 3rd and comfortably downshift to 2nd when it needs to. (Have I ever mentioned how impressed I am with the drivetrain technology on my 2012 F150?) It's also a more comfortable speed for driving the twisty course and reducing the puke factor.



Throughout the 105 mile route, there are some 75 turnouts, overlooks, waysides, etc. So, there are plenty of opportunities to stop, stretch and enjoy the foliage. We took advantage of several, making our longest stop at Big Meadows, about the halfway point. Happy stuck her nose into everything and made a couple of new doggie friends. I had a so-so bowl of soup and didn't talk to anyone. Go figure.

The sky lightened a bit as the afternoon progressed, giving us at least glimpses of the famous views that were lovely, if not spectacular. Overall, it was a pretty, relaxing and enjoyable ride. I'm glad to have finally driven the whole road.





The Skyline Drive ends where it meets I-64 in Waynesboro, VA. Right across the highway, the road continues as the Blue Ridge Parkway. Happy and I plan to do some camping along its 400+ mile route, so we're going to stay here tomorrow to get supplies and make ready for action... Stay tuned!

Change Of Plan, New Direction, New Roads

My mom has declared that she's ready to fly solo, so I'm back on the road. When I first planned this road trip, I intended to drive back west via US60. It occurred to me the other day that since I'm all the way on the east coast -- and already in "road mode" -- I should take the opportunity to drive a few roads that have been on my list for a very long time. So, change of plan, new direction, new roads.

First on the list is Skyline Drive and its continuation as the Blue Ridge Parkway south through Virginia and North Carolina. Both roads were mostly constructed as part of New Deal programs and are considered two of the most beautiful roadways in the world. I don't know which section of road is in this picture, but I intend to find out. My timing is perfect for trying to catch the amazing fall colors!



I've got at least two more roads in mind after that, but you'll have to wait until I'm sure they're in the cards before I announce them... Stay tuned!