Friday, December 27, 2013

NATCHEZ TRACE PARKWAY, DAY 2

A cold night at the Meriweteher Lewis campground Monday night. I know it is all relative and I keep complaining about the cold - but when you live in a van - cold - means cold. In these conditions - even with keeping the furnace on low, we go through a ton of propane. I'm sure we could have seen our breath in the van overnight. Not sure that our insulation job this summer has had much of an impact. We really can't gauge because we didn't have temps this cold last year - seeing as we spent most of the winter in Mexico.

Another early morning - for a different reason every morning we are averaging a wake up time of 6:30 am to 7:00 am. A bit early for this non-morning person like me.


Sunrise through the trees at Meriwether Lewis Campground - site #22 - courtesy of Derek.


Back on the Trace.


Last photo of Tennessee!


Leaving Tennessee - entering Alabama - only for about 30 miles though - from miles 340 to 310.




Getting on the  John Coffee Memorial Bridge - the Parkway's longest bridge crossing the Tennessee River. 






We decided to stop on the other side for a break and some tea. This is the site where Chickasaw George Colbert operated a stand (inn) and ferry in the early 1800's. 


Looking back at the bridge from the rest area.




Last photo of Alabama! Yup - blue sky but cold!




Such a nice drive. We are really enjoying the Parkway - although traffic was a little heavier today.


At mile 286 we stopped to have lunch and see the Pharr Mounds.




Hmmm - a bit of a distance away - this is as far as we got.


There is a very nice Visitor Center upon entering Tupelo. A couple of Class A's from Northern USA there as well.




We stayed long enough to read up on the history and watch a bit of the video. We also spent some time visiting with the Ranger as she is a fan of huskies - Derek brought Rufus over.

Although it was early, around 2:30 pm, we decided to stop - after all it was Christmas Eve.

We did a crazy thing first and ventured over to Walmart to grab some groceries. It wasn't so bad - I went in alone. Since every till seemed to be open I got in and out pretty fast.

Then over to Home Depot. Nice that Tupelo's HD is set away a little bit - it was a very quiet night. Better still that they closed at 5:00pm.


Derek broke the seal on the Tadpole Porter from Frog Level Brewing for our evening.


Our battery operated Christmas Lights hung from Cassia's railing.


Ok - crazy picture - it doesn't look anything like this in iPhoto but I have tried three times and can't get it back to the original. Obviously lighter because the original is so dark. Cassia has never gone to bed so fast - 6:30pm! This is the first year that she has been old enough to really understand Christmas - so it has been fun for us. 


Christmas present wrapping time! This was Cassia's stash from Santa. 

An interesting but fun Christmas Eve in Tupelo, Mississippi. We had a fun night.

Since we have been on the road for the previous three winters, we have spent Christmas Eve and Day somewhere different each year. Looking back we spent - 

2012 in Mexico at Hacienda Contreras

2011 in Venice, Florida at Walmart

and 2010 at Pilot Knob, Arizona - Boondocking - no pictures here…..

I wonder where it will be next year!

Good news! I have 83% battery power left so I am going to get another post out tonight in order to sort of catch up!

Teresa 

If you are looking for more of Rantin' n Raven we are not hard to find out there in the social media world. We are on FacebookTwitter and Pinterest. See you there!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...