Along the Natchez Trace Parkway

This is being written from the Motel 6 in Amarillo, TX. A long stint of horizontality is needed. The pictures were taken yesterday in Natchez, Mississippi and along the Natchez Trace Parkway. Pictures are posted at the web album but not explained, yet. Today's journey was interesting if contemporary. It started with dueling Garmin GPS's. My older expensive one (with the "dominatrix" voice) and the new cheaper one (with the British Secretary voice) were at odds on how to get to Amarillo. The dominatrix insisted on Highway 69. I finally shut the Brit up and trusted in God and Garmin as I was led way north above Dallas. It was the kind of route I love-where real people live and carry on their lives. I almost stopped at a stand to buy "Hallopeenyos." I saw pickup trucks so tricked out I swear the owners were suppressing a gay streak. I saw every cockamamie Christian sect known to man, and some Muslim ones. I passed up a chance to go to "Redemption Camp" and "Holiness Camp." There were dilapidated shacks, single wides, double wides, modulars, regular homes, McMansions, Mini estates and a few genuine estates. Sadly, rich farmland is being gobbled up at an alarming rate for ready-made communities with advertised price ranges. The infrastucture can't keep up with the growth. I avoided the gilded turd of the plains -Dallas, and found myself in drier, but still green, west Texas with more than its share of burgs on their way to becoming ghost towns. More than one farmer has a sign listing his property as "prime hunting land for sale."

Like the Oregon Trail, the original Natchez Trace exists only in remnants and segments (above). "Kaintucks" from Ohio and Kentucky would build large flatbottomed boats and move goods down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Pre-steamboats, they would disassemble the boats and sell the lumber. Then they would walk up the Trace (35 days) or ride a horse if they had done particularly well (20 days) mostly camping out but there a few stopping places in the 440 mile trail. The Indian mound below is evidence the Trace was used way before the white man started trading goods. This one is quite large and was ceremonial-not a burial mound.

This old church is relatively modern in the the history of the Trace. Today there are lots of churches ranging from the decrepit to the grand and seem to be less traditional denominations: "Enough is Enough. Stand Up for Jesus." I don't get it but I do recognize the emotional call to anger.) It made me sad to see in the midst of such rich natural beauty-it is a beautiful drive.

I toured a Plantation at Natchez. The big thing over the dining table is a huge mahogany "shoo-fly." Pre-air-conditioning and fans this device was used to move air and bugs. You can see the rope by the left hand back window. A slave would stand there and pull the rope and the massive fan would slowly do its job. This plantation dates from the 1830's.