Natchez Trace Parkway

We left Pickwick Landing State Park to continue eastward to the Thousand Trails Natchez Trace RV Park.  We had read the reviews on RV Park Reviews about the low overpass and lo and behold it was right before the park.  11 feet and our rig is 13'2".  You can go off the road to the left and have more leeway to go under.  However, we decided to go the other way the park suggested coming in from the other side.  It saved a lot of stress for us.

We spent two days going north and south on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

We saw waterways,

walkways,

bridges over streams,

waterfalls,

tobacco plants,

 a barn from an old tobacco farm,

the old roadway from the old Natchez Trace,

another waterfall,

scenic overlooks,

and historical homes.

The speed on the parkway is 50 mph and it wasn't crowded, so we had a nice leisurely drive.

We stopped at the state line before going into Alabama.  

We had stopped at one of the visitor's center and were told about a rock wall just off the highway.  Tom Hendrix has been working for 30 years to build a rock wall to honor his great, great grandmother who had been sent from Tennessee to a reservation in Oklahoma following the Trail of Tears.  The wall is massive.

It has now become a stop for thousands of people following the parkway.  People from all over the world have brought rocks and stones to add.  It was pretty impressive.

Our last stop was a nature trail with these beautiful blooming flowers.

The orange flower if jewelweed and relieves poison ivy when the sap from the juice is rubbed on the rash.

These gorgeous blue butterflies were everywhere.

We only explored about 70 miles of 479 miles parkway loving every minute of it.

Shiloh National Military Park

We left West Memphis Tuesday after Labor Day and headed to the little town of Counce, Tennessee staying at Pickwick Landing State Park.

We had a nice shady site, but with trees comes no satellite tv.  We had lots to do here and had shows recorded, so we were o.k. for at least a few days. :)

Fulltimers love the time after Labor Day. The kids have gone back to school and the campground crowds have eased.  We were the only ones in our circle the three days we were here.

The park was located on the Tennessee River and the first day we were there, we crossed over the bridge and saw this World War II ship coming down the river.  It's not something you see every day. When we got back, I googled it and found out it was LST 325.  LST stands for Landing Ship Tank. Over 1,000 of these ships were built for landing tanks, troops, vehicles and supplies.  This ship has been restored and was going on a Tennessee River Cruise from Evansville, Indiana and was on its way to Decatur, Alabama.  You just never know what you might see!

The main reason we stayed at Pickwick Landing State Park was its proximity to the Shiloh National Military Park.  We arrived at the Visitor's Center just before 10.   We knew there was a movie on the hour we wanted to see.  It was one of the best movies I have seen telling the story of the battle taking place April 6-7, 1862.  The Confederate army led by General Albert Sydney Johnston surprised the Union army camped on the bluff.  General Ulysses S. Grant commanded the Union troops along with William T. Sherman and Lew Wallace (who later wrote Ben Hur).

After the movie, we began the driving tour through the battlefield.

There are always beautiful monuments in the Civil War battlefields placed there by the states to commemorate their soldiers.  If you look closely, you can see a woman pushing on the bottom.  This was a full size bronze statue that gives you an idea of how big this monument is.

This is a monument to the Confederate forces with each statue representing a part of the battle.

Cannons lined this field down as far as you could see.  At this point, the Confederates fired there cannons on "The Hornet's Nest".

 Union soldiers defending this small road said the bullets were zipping around like hornets.

This is a reproduction of the Shiloh Church from which the battle received its name.

On the afternoon of the first day, General Johnston was killed dealing a blow to the Confederate Army.  The Union troops held their ground causing the battle to be continued the next day.  General Grant received fresh troops and was able to defeat the Confederacy.

This is the Bloody Pond.  During the battle, soldiers from both sides would go to the pond.  It is said it turned red during the battle from the soldiers' blood.

 Inside the battlefield are the remnants of ancient Indian mounds.

Many of the mounds were plowed under by farmers, but since this land was set aside as a monument, the mounds were preserved.

The battle of Shiloh had heavy losses, 24,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.  It became apparent to the North and South, this would not be a quick war.

Our next stop was Corinth, Mississippi to visit the Intepretive Center.  The town of Corinth had two intersecting railroad tracks that went north and south and east and west.  The North wanted to capture the railroad to cut off the South from the west.  After Shiloh, the Confederate troops retreated to Corinth.  Trains went in and out of the town and the Union generals thought Confederate reinforcements were coming into town.  In reality, Southern forces were being evacuated from the area using the train.

This fountain was at the Interpretive Center depicting the timeline of the Civil War.  Each stone in the middle represents a battle.

The Union troops eventually took over the town.  The railroad tracks still exist as they did at that time.  The cross ties became the symbol of the battle.

It was a great day of history!

Down On The Mississippi- Memphis, TN

We landed in Memphis the week before Labor Day staying at one of our most favorite rv parks, Tom Sawyer RV Park which is actually in West Memphis, Arkansas, but is a short trip over the river to Memphis.  We had a great site overlooking the Mississippi River.

It is so much fun to just sit and watch the barge traffic going back and forth.  It is amazing how many barges can be put together for one tug boat to push down the river. This is the view from our back window.

We did lots of sightseeing while we were there.  We headed downtown to tour the Cotton Museum.

While cotton was king, Memphis was one of the centers dealing in cotton.  The museum is located in original Cotton Exchange Building.  I thought the exchange room was really interesting, reminded me of the New York Stock Exchange.

High above on the wall were chalkboards where prices were written for brokers to see the going rate.  The man at the wall is actually a life-size mannequin showing how people actually climbed the ladders to write the prices on the board.

We also went to Beale Street.

Beale Street reminded me of Bourbon Street on a smaller scale.

While down on Beale Street, we were close to the Gibson Guitar Factory.  We bought tickets for their first tour of the day and thoroughly enjoyed going through the factory.  Pictures were not allowed on the tour, so the only one I have is the waiting room.

When you walk into the factory, the first thing I noticed was the strong smell of sawdust.  The humidity is kept high so the sawdust does not stay in the air, but is dropped to the ground.  We went to a variety of stations examining and learning about how the Gibson guitar is made.

Another thing that I thought was interesting is that Gibson does not have "second" guitars.  If a mistake is made, the guitar is destroyed and a new one is begun.

Across the street from the Gibson Guitar Store is the Rock n Soul Museum.  We really enjoyed spending several hours here.  It was really interesting learning more about the music from Memphis.

There was one room dedicated to Sun Records.

An interesting tidbit that I did not know was that in the fifties there was a radio station, WHER, made up entirely of female broadcasters.

We walked over to The Peabody Hotel because I wanted to see the Peabody Ducks.  Each day the ducks are brought down to the lobby for their swim and then taken back to their quarters in the afternoon.  The ducks come out of the elevator and walk down the red carpet, climb some stairs and jump into the fountain.

We missed their arrival, but got to see them swimming in the fountain.

The Civil Rights Museum was another place we visited.  The Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated has been turned into a museum that traces the history of the Civil Rights Movement.

We have been to Memphis before and enjoyed seeing new places, but our favorite part this week was meeting old friends.  We met Larry and Pat at the Escapees Bootcamp in 2011.  We had both just started full timing and immediately hit it off.  We saw them again in Bandera, Texas, but our paths had not crossed until now.  Thanks to Facebook, we found out we would be at Tom Sawyer at the same time.  It was wonderful spending time and catching up with friends!