Day 7 – Nashville, TN to Tupelo, MS

Day 7 – Nashville, TN to Tupelo, MS

Thursday, August 18

Day 1 of the Natchez Trace Parkway

We got a good start today from Nashville and took some local roads to the start of the Trace which is in Belle Meade, which looks like a higher income area of Nashville, judging from all the horse farms / estates.

Cuthbert on the "Trace"

After a few obligatory photos of the “start” sign on the entrance of the parkway we are off, on an adventure of 444 miles, and back in time to the middle-late 1800's, when walking for Natchez to Nashville took 3 months, more on the history later via some links.

Our journey will be by motorcycle and I will cover the 444 miles in two full days, each being about 220 or so. As I have pushed South, the day time temperature has been raising, today it hit 38c and the heat index was 41c, so it is very HOT and not very Humid.

Link:  http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

What makes up for the heat/humidity discomfort is the ride on the Natchez Trace Parkway (NTP), this his to be the best motorcycle road I have been on in all my 6 years of riding. Just imagine having a private road of 444 miles, no trucks, maybe 50 cars pass you, and maybe you see 12 other bikes ALL day, curves are smooth there are NO cross roads, every major road crossing is on a bridge and the scenery out of this world. There are historic buildings, Indian mounds and of course sections of the Trace its self, I would say a point of interest about every 6 to 10km.

You get off the NTP only to find a restaurant or fuel, otherwise there are picnic areas and rest rooms all along the Trace.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures today so my arrival in Tupelo was a bit later than expected, but none the less it was before 6pm. Tupelo is a strange place NO economic problems in this city of 35,000, why you ask, one word “furniture”. There at least 8 major furniture plants in and around the area, so everyone has a job and is out there spending, big brand new mall, with 50+ stores, a Super Walmart, Best Buy, etc..