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1 to 15 April 2015 16 to 30 April 2015

Wednesday April 1, 2015

This morning I make sure our black and gray water tanks are really empty and I fill the fresh water tank at the max. We are now ready to boondock At Rocky Springs campground on the Natchez trace. The campground has no service.
We leave Louisiana and cross the mighty Mississippi. Once in Natchez we move onto the Natchez Trace Parkway and start to travel northeast.

We will be on the Trace for the next 700 kilometers.

What a nice parkway.

One hour and thirty minutes later, we arrive at Rocky Springs Campground.

We are in luck, one of the site we saw and liked is not occupied. We move right in.

In front of the motorhome.

From the picnic table.

And from way in the back.

When I turn around, I see a small creek.

No electricity, no water or sewer. We are in boondocking mode. We should be able to last until next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The temperature outside is a hot and humid 30° C. Very little human noise, just many birds and natural sounds. Perfect!

Thursday April 2, 2015

I out for short walk this morning. A short 4 km.
I am trying something different today with our camera. On the left is a photo on "automatic" and on the right, the camera is set to "vivid". Hummmm?

A little walk by the little creek.

On the trail I am on, I also walk on the "real" Trace for about 1 km.

To finish my 4 km walk I have to come back home by the road.

After eating a good lunch home, we head out to Vicksburg and the information center. The GPS tells us we are only 16 miles from Vicksburg, but one the tell the GPS to go, it is now at more than 30 miles! What is up with that?
With the Mississippi river high, many of the tributaries are also at very high level.

Once in Vicksburg we look for a car wash.

The information center gave us a lot of information, I think we may have to come back here again. Did some grocery shopping and back home we go.

We certainly will come back to Vicksburg.

Friday April 3,, 2015

Close to the campground there is another walking trail. This one takes me to the village of Rocky Springs, a ghost town with no building whatsoever.

As with most ghost town, at one time this was a very prosperous town.

What is left of the town, two safes, a few cisterns and a church.

It is just amazing what erosion does over time.

The Methodist church of Rocky Springs with its small cemetery in the back.

I could not read what was written on the small headstones. I think this is the oldest date ever found by me, I think.

Little Sand Creek. We walk a few hundred feet on the creek bed.

Once again, the normal photo and the one with the camera set to "Vivid".

A few photos of the campground, remember, it is free.

Another beautiful 30° C with the humidity at 95%. I even try a fire, but the bugs were so bad, we gave up.

The campground is really full, some sites are even doubled or even tripled up.
I notice a motorhome going around the loop twice and park in a car only parking. I talk to them and tell them they can park in front of us if they want to, they accept. It turns out they are from Québec. After diner, we start a campfire and they join us at the fire. Christine and Bernard are really nice people, but Christine has a very bad cold and she leaves the fire early. We stayed at the fire with Bernard until about 10 pm. We can see lightning and hear thunder all around us, but nothing on us. Once in the motorhome, the rain starts and so does the lightning and thunder.

Saturday April 4, 2015

A look at both motorhome this morning.

Sadly Christine and Bernard have to get back on the road. See you later and we hope our path will cross again in the near future.

I almost forgot, last evening while we were at the campfire, I learn that Christine was a friend with a girl I knew. Our common friend's name is Micheline. We talked about all the stuff we did back then. Oh the memories that came back to both of us. Ah, being 14 again.
So this morning we say our goodbye and talk some more about those years! What are the chances to meet someone on the Natchez Trace, who was a friend with my friend? Thank you Bernard for the book you gave me, I will read it for sure.
Once again, to both of you, be safe in your travels and hope we see each other again in the near future.

With Christine and Bernard gone, we hit the road too. We will be driving the Trace toward Jackson and stop at points of interests along the way. We will also check out the RV Park we want to get to for a few days once we leave here.

One of the point of interest is about the boundaries between the Americans and the Choctaw Natives.

This part of Mississippi was an important place during the civil war. One of the battle took place near here in Raymond.

There are a few cemeteries along he Trace. Most are on private land. This one is still open for visits.

It is a very small family lot. I believe the date is 1776.

Remember we are traveling the Trace all the way to Nashville. We are still a long way from there!

The RV Park where we will be staying for two nights. We will dump our gray and black water tanks and fill the fresh water tank for our next stop. We reserveed for Tuesday and Wednesday. We hope we will have fresh water until then!

A good lunch at Wendy's.

The African-Americans love big cars and this one has very big wheels with rubber bad tires...

The weather has cooled off from yesterday. We now have long pants and a light jacket.

Sunday April 5, 2015

Get ready because there are a lot of photos for today! Why?
We are visiting the "Vicksburg National Military Park Louisiana/Mississippi".

This is where one of the most important battle took place during the civil war in the U.S. It was all about the control of the Mississippi river. The first part of the tour is a short talk from one of the park employee. She was very good and fun to listen to. We are not really into the American Revolution/civil war, but it gave us a good understanding of what it was all about.
I am not even going to try to tell you the history of the American Revolution...

On your left is Lt. General John C. Pemberton, and on the right is Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant.

I do not need to re-write this information, but check out the tree trunk with the canon ball in it.

In the information center there are two presentation you can listen to. One is this one. It is explaining the battle over many days. The other is a movie explaining the same thing with some comment from the local population and how they suffered during the war. It is very interesting.

On these two granite blocks you can see what States to part of the battle and for which side they fought on.

Michele with all the different type of canons use during the battle.

Next is the driving tour and it is about 25 km, or 16 miles and this is lunchtime...
We decide to go for a Chinese Buffet close to the park.

The buffet was just OK.

Back at the information center we purchase the audio tour of the park on CD.

Off we go for the audio tour!

This is the first arch we drive through. The Memorial Arch honouring all soldiers who took part in the battle here in Vicksburg.

The memorial from the State of Minnesota to honour all soldiers who fought here. There will be many similar to this one.

On the left is the Memorial from Illinois and on the right is the "Shirley" house.

The Battery "De Golyer".

Some of the original trenches in a zigzag pattern.

The Shirley house, the story goes like this. She refuses to leave her house and the battle took place all around her and both side spared the house.

The Illinois memorial commemorates the sacrifices of over 36,000 soldiers that fought here in Vicksburg.

Every soldier's name is on these walls.

The view as you come out of the Memorial. This is where the battle took place.

This is the "Mississippi African-American Monuments.
It is to honour the contribution of the African-American soldiers who participated in the battle of Vicksburg.
175 regiments with over 178,000 African-Americans battles on the last two years of the Revolution war.

On tunnel used during the war.

We are getting closer to the U.S.S. Cairo Museum where the only Ironclad ship is located.

The U.S.S. Cairo.

The U.S.S Cairo was a gunboat warped in iron to protect it from bullet and canon balls.

You can see many original planks on the ship and also where some new one had to be added because they no longer existed.
The black planks are to represent where the ironclad was located.

Another view of the U.S.S. Cairo.

A crosscut view of the front of the ship. You can see how thick it was.

Underneath the photos are the explanation on how this ship operated.

WOW!

Do not go by the numbers in the photos. Just read what is on the next few photos you will see and it will explain better how this works.

Go to have chimney! This is an example of where the chimney would have been located.
One questions is how come the position of the shipwreck lost?
Once the U.S.S. Cairo sunk, the other Ironclad ran over the chimney so the Confederate army could not find it.

As explained in the photo..

More information about the plating.

Isn't it amazing?

The back end of the U.S.S. Cairo with is twin rudder.

There is also a part of the museum indoor where you can see many artefact from the U.S.S Cairo.

About the canons and carriages.

A part of the "...Military Park" has the "Vicksburg National Cemetery". Here are more then 17,000 Union soldiers buried here.

The Mississippi memorial.

The Memorial from our favourite State, Alabama.

We did enjoy the tour of the "Vicksburg National Military Park". For those that are into this kind of museum it is great.

Monday April 6, 2015

What? No photos for today?
We must be getting lazy!
We only spent the day at our site with a good book, a glass of wine and just being plain happy.

Tuesday April 7, 2015

We probably could have stayed one more day, but we would have had to be really careful with our fresh water. We have reserved a site at a campground anyway so off we go.
Good roads and we arrive next to the Ross Barnett Reservoir where our campground is next to.

There are many anglers on the other side of the reservoir.

Our new home for the next two nights.

For the remainder of the day we dump our used water, fill the fresh water tank, do laundry and plan our day for tomorrow.

Wednesday April 8, 2015

Wednesday is our only full day here in Jackson, Mississippi.
First place we go is to the Mississippi State Capitol. They are renovating the outside, but we can still tour the inside.
In neoclassical design, it was built between 1901 and 1903 at a cost of $1,093,641.

The bas-relief sculpture within the pediment depicts Mississippi's history.

Sitting a the dome's apex stands the gold coated copper eagle, eight feet tall and fifteen feet across.

This collage of the Grand Staircase.

The main dome stands 180 feet above the rotunda. We cannot get right under the dome because of the renovation going on the dome.

The Senate.

The architect designed a way to "move" light from the outside to the inside. As the light comes in the top floor it also "travel" through the floor to the next floor below. The photo on the left is the floor with glass that let the light through and on the right photo, it is the ceiling of the floor below, which allows the light to come in from above. Pretty smart!

We really enjoyed the tour in the State Capitol. Our next stop will be at the Governor's Mansion.
Here is the first Skyscraper of Jackson.

The Mississippi Governor's Mansion is the second oldest continuously occupied governor's residence in the United States.
It was built in 1841 and cost $50,000.

The tour was half an hour and very good, but we could not take photos.

Next is the "first" State Capitol. It was built in 1839 and used until 1903 when the new State Capitol was ready.

The architectural style is Greek Revival.

The House Chamber.

The Dome above the Rotunda.

The Senate Chamber.

Michele having fun.

The "old" Capitol is not as grandiose as the new one, but it is worth the detour.
The tour of all three places was a lot of fun and interesting.

We stop for lunch in a fast food place and it was a little questionable, but still good.

We still have the afternoon in front of us so we decide to drive the Trace to the Cypress Swamp stop.
We are driving next to the Ross Barnett reservoir and we soon find ourselves in the forest again.

I have nothing more to add then what is written .

The trail to the swamp.

Many cypresses in the water.

My pretty Michele.

This is not a very flattering photo of me!!!

Just random photos.

After we got back home, we had a good conversation with our neighbours.

We had a very good day.

Thursday April 9, 2015

We are getting back to the Trace this morning and continue our travel north, but not too fast...
The site we had.

The Trace.

The entrance of the Jeff Busby campground. Jeff Busby was a U.S. representative from Mississippi from 1923 to 1955.

I love the panel for direction.

A very special camper!

We easily found a site and relaxed the rest of the day.

Friday April 10, 2015

After breakfast, I go for a walk on the trail to the top of "Little Mountain".

A little history...

A view to the east.

The view to the west.

I went up to the top of Little Mountain by the road and I am going back to the campground by the trail "Little Mountain Trail".

I think it is just cute...

Our home and backyard...

After lunch, we go to the little town of Eupora to look for some caches. You got to have a cache at the welcome sign.

A lucky break for me, while looking for the cache, I kicked on some of the roots and surprise, it is loose. I turn it around and here it is, well, just the cap. I will have to send an e-mail to the cache owner.

Downtown Eupora.

A nice day.

Saturday April 121, 2015

What is going on? One more day without photos!
We were busy reading, drinking wine and just having fun.

Sunday April 12, 2015

Yesterday we had many conversations with different neighbour, a lot of fun!
They all left this morning! We decide to try the cache located at the top of "Little Mountain".
Another view of our home.

This cache is a multi-cache. This means we go to the coordinates indicated on the cache. Once at the coordinates, you have to answer a few questions to get the actual coordinates of the cache. We answer the question base with the information found at the first coordinates ( a board with information and dates in this case). We enter them in the GPS and go...

We look and we look, but no luck for us...

Either way, we did a nice 3 kilometres walk.
We spend the rest of the day talking with our neighbours. They are really nice people.
We had a little rain at suppertime and by 6 o'clock, we are back out with our fake, propane campfire with the neighbour.
Tomorrow we are moving to a private RV Park in Tupelo.

Monday April 13, 2015

We leave the Jeff Busby campground and drive to Tupelo.

The campground is only two kilometers off the Trace.

The motorhome is not really working right. The transmission has some hesitation at time. We hope we will make it to Nashville to get it looked at before it quits entirely.

Once we are settle in, we go looking for some Thrift Shops for Michele and some caches for me.
We find Thrift Shops, but for the caches, I was not so lucky.

Tuesday April 14, 2015

I am taking a short walk around the campground and took some photos for you.
Here, you can see the entrance on the right and the office.

The entrance is right in front of you. This is where we came from to get to our site.

I just turned around and this is where we are going.

Can you see our motorhome? Nice long sites and level too.

From the bottom of the hill...

Another view of our site. The cost is $70 US for two nights. We use this time to dump the used water and fill the fresh water tank.
Our next stop is the other free campground on the trace and it has no services.

Tupelo, Mississippi is where Elvis Presley was born. Go to go and see that!

The back of the two-room house where he was born.

The front porch with the swing. You have to buy a ticket to visit the interior, but many people told us that it was not worth the money.

Some more information on Elvis.

Another view of the house with some nice flowery bush.

A statue of Elvis at 13 years old.

The church where Elvis used to go and listen to the black community services and gospel signing. This had a great influence on him and his music later on in life. The church was moved here a few years back to save it from being demolished.

Some of the stories about Elvis from friends and family members.

Elvis had a bigger influence that we imagined.

Lucky for us, there is a cache just outside the museum..

I think I will just let you read this part...

The interior of "Tupelo Hardware Co."

We liked visiting the city of Tupelo and the Elvis site. We have to get ready to leave tomorrow morning.

Wednesday April 15, 2015

We are back on the Trace by 8:30 am. We have a little ways to go before we get to our next campground.
Some of the scenery's.

Ouppss! We missed the sign that we were entering Alabama, but we did not stay in Alabama very long anyway.
Next is the State of Tennessee and the Tennessee River. The river is about one mile wide at this point.

And all of a sudden, bam! The transmission quits. I can only drive about 40 to 50 km/h. Michele is following me with the car. We are only about 100 km from the campground. Just so you know, there are no places who will work on Allison transmission until we get to Nashville.

We finally made it.

Our site.

The view from our site is down in a valley. Very nice view.

After much thinking and planning, we decide to move at the entrance of the campground where we can leave early to get to Nashville. Nashville is about 3 hours away, but at 40 to 50 km/h, it will take much longer.

That was the plan!?!?! We barely made it to the entrance of the campground. No more moving for the motorhome. Now onto plan "B".
I called Goodsam ERS services and they will tow us to Nashville.

Until next time.

Life is good...