June 22
Around 11 am we continued our trip south toward the Natchez Trace Parkway, arriving after 111 miles and 3 hours. This Parkway runs 444 miles through three states, starting just south of Nashville, TN and ending in Natchez, MS. It is also designated a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road. This scenic, 2-lane road roughly follows the “Trace” which was a natural travel corridor used by many Native American nations. In the early 1800s it was used by the “Kaintucks”, or boatmen, from the Ohio River Valley to walk or ride home after floating their goods down the Mississippi River. Where the ground was relatively soft, the millions of footsteps wore down the “sunken” sections one can see today. There are various archeological and historical landmarks, including one of the largest American Indian mounds in the United States. Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expeditions, died on the Trace and was buried here.
Shortly into our cruise down the Parkway, we killed a squirrel. It is almost impossible to avoid them when they double back, and double back again in the middle of a narrow road while you are pulling a loaded camper and have eight wheels. William tried his best to swerve but we all heard the bump-bump. We felt horrible, of course, and it turned out to be a bad omen for the day and our well-laid plans.
We pulled over at several sites along the Parkway, including the Meriwether Lewis Monument, not because we were particularly interested in them but because Ethan had to have several bathroom breaks. They seemed unusually frequent. The day before was similar but we blamed it on drinking too much water in the car, or Ethan just being unreasonable. Well, in our expert medical opinion, we decided that Ethan had a urinary tract infection. Our plan was to drive 66 miles past Tupelo, MS and stay at the Jeff Busby Campground along the Trace. Since Tupelo was the only major city within reasonable driving distance we frantically searched for a clinic that was open at 6:45 pm on a Sunday. Of course, we had no such luck. After calling our health insurance and not finding any urgent care facilities anywhere near our route for the next day, we decided to stay in Tupelo and visit a doctor first thing in the morning. We were off schedule and would be even further behind the next day. However, it was not worth the risk to push on, especially as we were going to be in some very remote locations over the next few days.
We drove 16 miles west to Trace State Park, a surprisingly pretty campground right on a lake and among tall pine trees. Thankfully, we once again didn’t need to unhitch and the bonus turned out to be a full-hookup site. We had 110V power. Our plan had us with real power only one night out of 60+. Now we would have two! Oh, and showers…
June 23
We arrived at the urgent care clinic in the morning. Everyone exhibited the famous “southern hospitality”. An hour later we had some antibiotics for Ethan. We intended to stay on the Parkway about another 175 miles until Jackson, MS. Since we were four hours behind schedule and hoping to make up some time, we decided to take the Natchez Trace Parkway for only another 56 miles and cut over to I-55 to Jackson, MS on our way to Vicksburg National Military Park, MS.
We made a quick stop at Bynum Mounds, Native American burial mounds constructed between 2050 and 1800 years ago.
The Davids' Cross-Country Trip 