Monday morning it rained briefly about the time John was hooking up but fortunately he didn’t get soaked, just slightly damp. We had rain off and on for about the first hour of travel then the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We were mainly on back roads, no interstates, going to Vidalia LA so it was a nice peaceful, pretty drive.
We arrived at River View RV Resort shortly after 2 p.m. so had a nice relaxing afternoon.
Our Site at River View RV Resort
This is a really nice park right on the bank of the Mississippi River looking across to Natchez, MS and you can see the tugs pushing the barges up and down the Mississippi River, they go a lot faster heading down towards the Gulf as they are going with the current but they are a lot slower heading up river against the current. This is a Passport America Park so it was $20.05 for the night with a nice paved pad.
After we got set up we walked for quite a ways along the walkway on the top of the levee hoping to see some river traffic but all was quiet at that time. We found a swinging bench under a shade so sat for a while but still no river traffic so gave up and walked home. On the way back we did see a red fox along the path in front of us but he was too fast for me to get a picture.
This is a picture of the riverboat casino at Natchez - for any Greg Isles fans you will have read about the casino in his books. Unfortunately this was as close as we got so not the greatest picture.
We came back and sat outside and all of a sudden I could see the top of a tug so we grabbed our cameras and made a dash for the levee but it was traveling downstream and moving pretty quick so I had a hard time getting a picture.
Going Down River
Later we heard this one going up river and again dashed over to take a picture but it was getting dark so again not a great picture. We were surprised at how little river traffic there was as the last time we were at River View (6 years ago) there was constant traffic – guess a sign of the times.
Going Up River
This morning it rained briefly just before John went out to get things put away but it only lasted a couple of minutes then cleared off and turned into another gorgeous day, warm day.
We picked up the Natchez Trace about 40 miles east of Natchez and had a nice drive to Tupelo. The Trace was in pretty tough shape just west of Jackson and for a bit after Jackson then it got better and was a good drive the rest of the way to Tupelo.
The leaves have just come out on the trees, the Dogwood is in bloom, there are lots of patches of red clover along the side of the road and the flowering shrubs are beautiful making everything very pretty and springy – my favourite time of year.
Flowering Shrubs
Right after Jackson we drove for 8 miles along the Ross Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000 acres reservoir created from the Pearl River. There were a lot of fishing boats on the reservoir as well as a few fisherman casting from the shore, we wondered what they were catching!
Ross Barnett Reservoir
We stopped at an Information Centre to pick up a brochure of the Trace and a map of Mississippi and there were two elderly dollies manning the centre, the one was real chatty and said she was 91 years old, imagine! The other one was probably about the same age but she was very hard to understand when she talked, they sure wanted to visit so it was kind of hard to get away from them but they were a really cute pair; John figured we were probably their only customers for the day!! We read later that the Information Centre is run by the local Chamber of Commerce and staffed by volunteers.
Part of the Original Natchez Trace
We arrived at Campground at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo about 4 and have a nice long pull through site with good wi-fi. This is a strange park, the sites are on all different levels but at least we have cable TV and wi-fi. At $29/night it is kind of pricey but on the other hand there aren’t a lot of parks in the area so you take what you can get. There is another park that is Passport America but they don’t honour the PA from March to May and they have no wi-fi so we picked this one as they are both about the same price. We sat outside and enjoyed the late afternoon sun for a while before coming in for dinner. John is now watching TV while I am getting caught up with this.
Tonight's Site at Campground at Barnes Crossing
And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.
1 comment:
Mom,
Your flowering shrubs and riverboat casino pictures are switched.
Love Kel
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