Just after we got back from dinner last night, the wind blew and the rain came down in buckets, sideways. The storm was over in a few minutes, but the clouds were still with us in the morning. We donned our rain gear and rode through showers, rain, and heavy, heavy rain – all before noon. Sorry, no pictures of the rain.

The afternoon was hot and humid. It was in the upper 90s. Again,sorry, no pictures of the humidity.

Before we left in the morning we decided to shorten our time on the Natchez Trace and pick it up near Jackson, MS. We rode through rural Arkansas, crossed over the Mississippi on an old bridge (a new one is about to open a mile downstream,) and rode through rural Mississippi.

We finally picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway.

The parkway was built in the ’30s along the Natchez Trace, an old Indian trail. The parkway is 444 miles long and runs from Natchez to Nashville. There are no stop signs or lights along the way. The speed limit in the 85 mile section we rode was 50 mph.

There are markers for historic and natural sites along the way. We stopped at most of them. One particularly interesting spot is the site of an old settlement, Rocky Springs. Of the 2616 population in 1860, 2000 were slaves.

The Methodist Church has been updated and is still in use, but the rest of the town is gone.

We took pictures of each of the markers to give you an idea of what is displayed. I’ll add those pictures at the end.

Once we got to Natchez we found a parking lot near the river and took a couple of pictures of the Mighty Mississippi.

We had a great brisket barbeque dinner at the “Pig Out Inn,” then headed for our motel and the pool.

Parkway Markers.