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

Monday morning, we left Canton, MS and drove about 150 miles north where we are staying at Davis Lake, a nice national forest campground in the Tombigbee National Forest about 20 miles south of Tupelo, MS.   We are just 4 miles off the Parkway.   We do not have a sewer connection, but we do have a 50-amp electrical hookup which we will need to run both air conditioners in this heat. We went kayaking around the lake in the early evening.   The cicadas were very loud, and the frogs were singing. In many of the coves around the lake these birdhouses were set up.   We are not sure what kind of bird uses them.                This heron was in the middle of the lake. There were a lot of these flowers blooming around the lake - we don't know what they are. A view of the campground from across the lake.  Our motorhome is in the center back in the shaded area. After dinner we took Tacky for a walk and watched the fireflies....

Saturday, we drove back up the parkway to where we left off yesterday and stopped at a section of the Old Trace.   We took a short hike along the Old Trace. Farther up the parkway we stopped at another section of the Old Trace.   We took a longer hike on this section. It was a beautiful hike, but it was getting hot and humid.   We were glad to get back to the air conditioning in the Jeep. Our last stop for the day was at Bynum Mounds.  Three permanent house foundations were discovered during archeological excavations.  These were built by placing timbers upright in a circular pattern, weaving willows or reed stems into them, and finally plastering mud on the outside.  Roofs were thatched with grass and bark with a center hole for smoke to escape. We enjoyed another great day on the parkway.    Sunday, we went grocery shopping and then spent the day at the motorhome working on the blog and getting ready to move again tomorrow.  

  Thursday morning, we drove north to Canton, MS where we are staying at Movietown RV.   This is a large RV park with mostly long-term residents.   There are about 10 pull-through sites that are for travelers like us.    We are not sure why it is called Movietown as there is nothing here about movies.   We do know that A Time To Kill and Oh Brother Where Art Thou were filmed in Canton, so that might be the reason for the name. Friday, we went back to the Natchez Trace Parkway and continued where we left off on Monday. Our first stop was at the overlook for Ross R. Barnett Reservoir. Archeologists believe that Boyd Mound Site was occupied sometime around 500 A.D. and pottery found in the mounds was made before 700 A.D. We took a half mile hike at Cypress Swamp. Nancy and Tacky are waiting for Rex to start our hike. Water tupelo and bald-cypress trees can live in deep water for long periods.   This trail goes through an abandoned river channel.   A ...

Monday, we drove the Parkway to where we stopped yesterday and continued our tour.   There were many trees blown over during last night's storm.   Some had come down across the road, but the National Park Service had them cleaned up before we started this morning.   We stopped and hiked a section of the Old Trace.   This is what the sign beside the trail said: THE OLD NATCHEZ TRACE This is the Natchez Trace, for many years it served man well, but as with many things when its usefulness passed, it was abandoned. Over the years, this time worn path has been a silent witness to honor and dishonor.   It bears the prints of countless men. Walk down the shaded trail – leave your prints in the dust, not for others to see, but for the road to remember. The trail was very muddy, so we left Tacky in the Jeep and took a short hike through the beautiful forest. All the rain has been great for the mushrooms.  We particularly liked this orange one. After our hike...

We left ODK Farms on Saturday morning and drove to Vidalia, LA where we are staying at the Riverview RV Park.   We stayed at this nice park when we visited the area in 2014.   We are going to tour the Natchez Trace Parkway which starts in Natchez, MS and ends near Nashville, TN. This is a very nice park beside the Mississippi River, and we can watch the river traffic from our site, like this very large barge.  The tug was pushing at least 18 barges – it was so long we couldn’t get it all in one picture. After dinner we took a walk on the Vidalia River Walk.  This nice wide cement path starts at our RV park and follows the river.  The area around the path is a park with grass, park benches and even a park bench swing.   We walked about a mile and a half to the Vidalia Convention Center. Sunday, Mother’s Day, we went to the Natchez National Historical Park and toured Melrose.   In 1841, John McMurran had amassed a fortune from his cotton plantations...