We’ve just come off the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 500 mile road that follows the old footpath that runs from Nashville Tennessee all the way down to Natchez, just up from the mouth of the Mississippi. It was initially a track for the Choktow Indian and then became the byway for the traders who’d ride the Mississippi down with their goods and then walk home. Of course they’d do it in groups in order to protect themselves from marauding bandits and hostile Indians.
These parkways are something else. We’ve now done three of them, totalling 1800km. The traffic is low and there are no 18-wheelers to mow us down. But they do have mowed lawns each side of the road which makes for their park-like condition and then beyond the urban trim – nothing but woodlands. There is no sign of any modern conveniences, no shops, no houses, no nothing. But there is plenty of wildlife – deer are really common, armadillo too, beavers, and snakes. The roadkill menu is vast – we’ll not go hungry here.
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