Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

Sunday, we started back on the Parkway to complete our 444-mile journey.   We stopped at Phosphate Mine where the Parkway passes through or near a geologic region of limestone rich in phosphate deposits.   Phosphate was mined here for fertilizer starting about 1880.   We took a short hike along an abandoned railroad bed that passed a couple of collapsed mineshafts.   The abandoned railroad bed we hiked on was where “Dinkey” engines on miniature tracks hauled small pushcarts of blue phosphate ore to a washer.   We hiked past another collapsed mineshaft. Our next stop was at Fall Hollow where we hiked another short trail to some waterfalls. The first waterfall was easy to hike to and was beautiful. As we continued the trail got steeper and we found another great waterfall. The trail became much steeper and more difficult, but we were rewarded with this beautiful waterfall. Nancy and Tacky at the bottom of the waterfall and the end of the trail.  Now we have to hike back up this steep and

  Saturday morning, we drove back on the Natchez Trace Parkway to Alabama where we left off on Tuesday.   We stopped at the Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall – Te-lah-nay’s Wall.   Tom Hendrix spent over 30 years building a wall in memory of his great-great-grandmother’s journey. His great-great-grandmother Te-lah-nay was part of the Yuchi Indian tribe that lived along the Tennessee River in the 1800s.   Her journey began when she was a teenager and was sent to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma as part of the removal of native peoples from the southeast.   Her tribe called the Tennessee River the Singing River because they believed a woman who lived in the river sang to them.   When Te-lah-nay arrived in Oklahoma she said the streams and rivers did not sing to her and she longed for home.   After spending one winter in Oklahoma, she decides to head home.   Even though she was alone the lessons that her grandmother taught her as a little girl helped her overcome every peril and obstacle

  We left Davis Lake Friday morning as it started raining.   We drove north on the Natchez Trace Parkway about 140 miles north in a thunderstorm.   We had to pull off the Parkway for a while because it was raining so hard we could not see.   The wind was also a problem for a while.   After we turned off the Parkway in Tennessee to go to our campground we were slowed for a while by this Amish buggy. We are staying at Thousand Trails Natchez Trace RV Campground about 70 miles south of Nashville.   We will finish the last 100 miles of the Parkway over the weekend.

Wednesday, we decided to go into Tupelo, MS to see the Tupelo National Battlefield and do some shopping.   On the way to Tupelo, we stopped at the Own Creek Mounds.   The mounds were bbult between 800 and 900 years ago and were used for only about 100 years.   This was determined by dating of charcoal samples collected at the site and by studying the artifacts and type of building remains found in the mounds. We were able to climb some steps to the top of the mound and look down on the smaller mound. We then drove to the Tupelo National Battlefield.   This memorial is in memory of the men of the Federal and Confererate armies who took part in the Battle of Tupelo on July 14-15, 1864 which resulted in a victory for the Federal Forces under Major General Andrew J. Smith. We ate lunch in Tupelo and did some grocery shopping.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and working on the blog. Thursday, we woke to rain, so we decided to stay at the motorhome and get ready to move again.

Tuesday morning, we resumed our tour of the Parkway.   We stopped at a few historical sites that only had signs telling you what used to be there so there was nothing to take pictures of. We stopped at the Parkway Visitor Center where we watched a short film on the Trace.   We also bought a couple of Natchez Trace Parkway T-shirts We then hiked another section of the Old Trace. The trail took us to the gravesites of 13 unknown Confererate soldiers.   Tradition holds that the graves belong to Confererate soldiers who marched and camped along this stretch of the Old Trace.   The grave markers face toward the Trace so travelers might read and remember. The original grave markers may have borne names, but they disappeared long ago.   In 1940 Senator Theodore Bilbo arranged for marble headstones, but they were stolen.   The National Park Service erected the headstones now in place. Our next stop was Dogwood Valley where we took another short hike on the original Trace – this section was s