I Love Louisiana!

 I'm running out of ways to say how great our days have been and how beautiful everything is that we have seen. Today was fantastic. We're in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite states. It was in the low 80's today and yesterday. Lousiana reminds me of  Florida but more rural and swampier. The small towns are charming and have so much character. The people are great. They smile and wave like they know you and I love the Cajun accent. I love the Cajun music and food, too. We might come back here later this winter after we get our motorhome.

We had lunch at a really cool restaurant in Breaux Bridge called Cafe Des Amis. It is part restaurant, part art gallery and the food was terrific. From there we drove about 45 minutes to Avery Island. Most of today's pictures were taken there.

Avery Island is home to Tabasco. It is a salt marsh and the peppers are grown there and the factory is there. We could have toured the factory but we didn't as we were mainly there to visit the private wildlife sanctuary and gardens that were established there by Edward McIlhenny, the founder of Tabasco.

 McIlhenny was a naturalist and conservationist who pretty much saved the snowy egret from extinction. He imported and bred hundreds of plants on Avery Island and turned it into a bird sanctuary. Each year, thousands of herons and egrets migrate there in the spring and 20,000 herons are born there every year. As the lady in the visitor center said to me, "If I were a bird, I would want to live here."  Here are just some of the things we saw today...

This is the Bayou Petite Anse...

Some alligators we saw, sunning themselves...

These beautiful old oak trees were everywhere...

There is something blooming on Avery Island year round. In the spring it is azaleas and wildflowers but right now it is camellias. I wish I could add smell to this blog so you could smell the grove of camellia trees. I think this was my favorite part of the island...

Last, but not least, we saw lots of herons and egrets...

We extended our stay here another day and may end up staying Friday, too, in order to avoid the Black Friday traffic. We're only about 400 miles from where we plan to go in Texas so, hopefully, we'll be looking at new motorhomes by Monday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Final Day On The Natchez Trace

We finished driving the Natchez Trace today and are in Natchez Mississippi tonight. We had another great day. Lots of pictures tonight.

Another shot from the campground at Lake Tiak-O'Khata this morning...

The highlight of today came early this morning when we took a walk through the Cypress Swamp. Actually this has been a highlight of the trip, so far...

We left the Parkway for a short trip to the Mississippi Craft Center. They had lots of interesting crafts inside but I particularly liked the metal sculptures and bottle trees outside...

Back on the parkway we followed the shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir for about twenty miles...

Our last stop on the parkway was another hike along the old trace. This was a part of the trace called the Sunken Trace. You can't really tell from the picture how deep it is but it was about twenty feet deep...

We should be in Louisiana tomorrow. We have a short drive to a very nice RV park in the heart of Cajun country. We plan to spend a few days there before moving on towards Texas. Thanks again to everyone for stopping by. A special thanks to TiogaGeorge for stopping by and leaving a comment. TiogaGeorge is famous in the RV world and I was honored he paid me a visit. Thanks George!

Day Two On The Natchez Trace

We're in a wonderful park tonight on Lake Tiak-O'Khata in Louisville, Mississippi. It is only $20.00 a night for a full hook-up campsite with cable tv and we have the place pretty much to ourselves. This is the view behind our campsite...

Our day started in Tupelo with a trip to the house where Elvis was born. We had planned a quick stop to snap a picture of the house but it was so nice there, we ended up walking around for a while. It was in a very pretty, park-like setting where you could walk around the grounds and read plaques with interesting stories from his early life. This is the house...

...and a statue of Elvis as a boy...

Then, it was back on the Natchez Trace for another great drive. I really love this parkway. The scenery is beautiful and there are so many interesting stops and nice hikes. With the weather in the 70's today, we were probably outside walking and looking at things more than we were driving. We saw more Indian Mounds...

and took another short hike on the old trace...

This hike brought us to a group of 13 graves for unknown Confederate soldiers...

At one point on today's drive, we came upon a two or three mile section that looked like there may have been a fire but it was actually caused by a tornado that hit the area in April of 2011...

As we get further south, we are finding more foliage on the trees and though they are past peek color they are still very pretty...

Tomorrow will probably be our last day on the trace and the pictures should start looking very different than the ones from today and Friday. As you get deeper into Mississippi, the parkway runs through some swamplands and cypress groves. I'm looking forward to that. After we leave the trace in Natchez, Mississippi, we will be entering Cajun country. That's one part of the country we haven't visited yet so that should be lots of fun.

Well, that's all for tonight. Thanks again for stopping by!

The Natchez Trace: Nashville to Tupelo

We had a nice time in Nashville but I didn't take many pictures. It's definitely a fun city that we plan to visit again some day. We were there primarily to pick up the Natchez Trace which is just south of Nashville. It is also very conveniently located near the Loveless Cafe. They are known for their wonderful southern cooking and we had dinner there last night and breakfast there this morning. I highly recommend a trip to the Loveless Cafe if you are ever in Nashville.

I wish every road in the country was like the Natchez Trace. It was a beautiful drive with lovely scenery, very little traffic and a lot of interesting stops along the way. Most of today's pictures are from the trace.

This is the view from one of the overlooks...

...and another view, a little further down the road......

...the double-arch bridge...

...an old tobacco barn...

...and a shot of the parkway through the windshield...

There are several places along the parkway where you can see the old trace. Here is a shot from one of the places where we were able to walk the original Natchez Trace...

We stopped at this memorial site to Merriweather Lewis. He died about 200 yards from this spot and his ashes are buried in the monument. It is believed that he committed suicide there but many people think he was murdered...

There were several Indian burial mounds along the trace. This one was used to bury sacred artifacts...

We plan to take the parkway the whole 444 miles down to Natchez. It was getting dark as we arrived in Tupelo so we may stick around another day to explore the area. Up until today, we were traveling in places where we had been before so we're excited to be in new territory. We added two new states to our "states visited" map today: Alabama and Mississippi.

Thanks again for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

A Perfect Day In The Smoky Mountains

After getting quite a bit of rain yesterday, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. We decided to spend another day here and set out to explore Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. When we were here a few years ago, we spent most of our time in the park and didn't get to see much of these two towns. It didn't take long to realize that they were kind of tacky and touristy so we headed back into the park. That was a great decision.

 
We found a nature trail loop near Gatlinburg that we weren't able to do last time in the van. It was narrow and windy and perfect for the Jeep today. Most of the pictures tonight are from that loop: the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail.

I took about twenty photos of the Roaring Forks River today. It was running along beside the entire trail and was just beautiful...

 There were a number of old cabins and homesteads along this loop, similar to the ones in Cade's Cove. This was my favorite...

 

 Saw this mountain man coming down from the hills and snapped his picture. He didn't mind...

 We spent hours exploring this trail and it was a wonderful day. We met a nice couple from Mississippi who said we were going to love the Natchez Trace so I am even more excited to get there. We head to Nashville tomorrow and will pick up the trace there.

Back in town, I took this picture just in case you thought I was being too harsh when I said Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were kind of tacky...

We stopped by the old Sevierville Courthouse and saw the Dolly Parton statue. She has done a lot for this area. For example, she set up a program for every child in Sevierville County to receive a free, age-appropriate book each month until they enter kindergarten. I like Dolly...

 

This area goes all out for Christmas and we saw light displays everywhere. I snapped this picture as we left a restaurant tonight. It is just one of about a hundred light displays we saw lining the highway as we drove back to our campsite...

 I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Next stop...Nashville.

Hello and Welcome!

Hi everybody. Welcome to my new blog. I plan to use this mainly to post pictures of my travels with Larry as we start on this new adventure. We're in Sevierville, Tennessee right now. The Smoky Mountains are beautiful this time of year. We are past the time for peak color but the trees still have some color to them and the crowds are dying down.

This is the Little Pigeon River which runs behind our campsite...

Here's another shot in the other direction...

 This is a close-up of the little waterfall behind our site. We can hear this at night while we're sleeping. I love that sound. All of these pictures might be a little blurry. I bought a new camera yesterday and I'm trying to get use to it.

Well, that's all for now. We may go into Pigeon Forge a little later but this campsite is so nice, we might just stick around this afternoon and enjoy it. Thanks again for stopping by!