Tracing Mississippi

This morning I was headed east of the Mississippi! It was like crossing into a whole new territory, more places I've never seen. Crossing the river, however, was not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. I was expecting a bridge similar to the Astoria Bridge earlier in the trip, but it was just a short little thing, and the river was pretty much a big mud puddle. But I was on the east side! I'd made it to Mississippi.

I had been looking at the map last night to see where to go and found the Natchez Trace Parkway, so I took a left at Jackson, MS and headed up one of the coolest roads I have ever seen. Every state needs to have a road like this. It's a National Park, so there are neat things to see all along it, they don't allow any commercial vehicles on it, so there are no trucks, and there is almost no traffic at all! Sure, the speed limit is only 50, and it was mostly straight, but it was totally worth going slower to not have to deal with traffic. A lot of the road looked like this:

So, the story of the Trace is that it was the old way to travel from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS…on foot. It was a trail that was used by the Native Americans in the area and then later used by the white man to get back and forth. People would bring their goods down the rivers on log rafts to sell in Natchez or New Orleans, and then sell the rafts for lumber and make the 445 mile hike back to Nashville, or somewhere in-between.

Along the way there were primitive inns and stops for essentials, but it was still pretty much wilderness. They say that most of the old Trace looked like this:

Can you imagine hiking 450 miles just to get home with some money just to start the trip all over again? The ingenuity of human beings, and especially Americans is truly remarkable. And then you would encounter things like this along the way (without the bridge of course):

It is a Cypress swamp, and although I have carved a Cypress knee I had forgotten that they grow in swamps.

It was surprising how still it was in there. It was as though nothing had moved for years. I kept hearing frogs jump into the water, but never actual got to see one. I would turn around to look and not even see a ripple in the water. Eerie.

Toward the end of the Trace I met Danielle, a Canadian also riding a motorcycle around the US. Her trip is a little more aimless than mine, but it was fun to talk about the things we have encountered. It was reassuring to hear that someone else felt that from Northeast Texas on has felt less friendly than the West and Southwest. I had thought that it was just me. It's not that all the people I have seen are jerks or anything, but simply that I have had less free-flowing interaction with strangers the last few days. It was nice to meet Danielle and feel that I am not the only one out doing this. Check out her blog!

When I got to Tupelo, MS I went to find a meeting. I found one, and waited until 8pm but no one showed. Then I remembered that there was another 8pm meeting in Tupelo, so I got an address, and went searching. And search I did. The address was for the hospital, with the extra direction that it was in the rehab building. I figured that was easy enough, but I didn't know that it was the Northern Mississippi Regional Hospital, and therefore gigantic! I drove in circles for at least 30 minutes before I found the signs with our logo on them, and then went and tried every door on the building and couldn't get in. Just as I was about to leave I saw the one door I hadn't tried, and it led into a warehouse and then into the rehab building. Just like us to be stuck in a corner where no one can find us. Needless to say, I was late, but it didn't matter because I got a chance to hear a few people speak and share a bit myself. I also had the chance to remind myself that I have gone to much farther lengths to find a drink. It was nice to be among the family again in a new place. Thanks, Fellowship Group!