Stage 2, continuted: The Natchez Trace

Route 15 served us well, taking us all the way into Natchez, MS.  

The Natchez Trace is a historical path that extends roughly 440 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. It was created and used for centuries by Native Americans, and was later used by early European and American explorers, traders and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 

Today, the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway follows the approximate path of the Trace and historic sites are all over.  You can even view parts of the original trail in some places.

I has a happy!

 The road itself is beautiful and relaxing.

No ugly billboards, no advertisements, no commercial traffic, almost no traffic... and mile after mile of smooth asphalt and gentle curves

We got to the Trace fairly late in the afternoon, and before long it was time to find a place to camp for the night.  So we exited the Trace around Port Gibson, and found our way to Grand Gulf Military State Park.

My "hotel" for the night

As we set up to cook dinner for the evening, it became apparent that I had indeed forgotten something.

Something kind of important, even.  While we'd always planned on use Brendan's stove for cooking, I'd forgotten to bring a utensil of any kind.  Now when we checked into the Park, the Ranger said that if we needed anything at all we should come by and see him.  So I jumped back on the ST13 and headed down the hill to the Ranger's RV.  I figured this would be relatively quick.

The Ranger seemed very puzzled by my request.

"A spoon?"

"Yes sir, just a plastic spoon, or a fork, really either would do"

"Hmmmm.  A spoon!?"

I could tell this wasn't going anywhere, and it was all I could do not to laugh while the heavily Southern accented Ranger took the next five minutes explaining how to get back to Port Gibson.

"Once you get into town there, there's a Dollar General on the left, they got all sorts of stuff there!"

Well, that's grand, but it's getting late, and I've already taken most of my gear off, and I'm tired.  I'll figure something out.

"Thank you sir, you have a good night"

Back up at the campsite, I took inventory of what I had at hand.  Looking at my Leatherman and an empty Gatorade bottle, an idea started to form....

Hey, it sort of looks like a spoon, ok?

It works!

With dinner in our bellies, it was time for a shower and some sleep.