Day 15 – April 18

After an earlyish breakfast, 8:00, we headed out for the Natchez Trace Parkway where we wanted to visit the Loveless Cafe. Again I am using the royal we here because frankly I steer clear of anything that promotes itself as ‘loveless’ but we have been told that Martha Stewart thought they have the ‘best tea biscuits in America’. So who in their right mind wouldn’t go out of their way for that. If you are interested that line starts to form right behind me. As it turns out we rolled into The Loveless Cafe in about 30 minutes due to Jane’s flawless navigating.

This created a bit of a gastronomic challenge for me. Possibly there is some Scottish blood in my background but when I stay at a hotel that has breakfast ‘included’ I consider it my personal mission to break even on the package transaction and my digestive system had not begun to put a dent in the carbo load I had stocked up on for the arduous drive I was anticipating. That having been said, in the spirit of international relations and in deference to Martha Stewart, I had a few of the biscuits and a slice of their ‘World Famous’ ham. To sum things up quickly, which as you have no doubt gathered, clearly Martha Stewart has never had Diane’s tea biscuits and I am becoming very suspicious of anything touted as ‘World Famous’. I return to my comment about the ‘Lake’ in the Lake Land RV Park, maybe in some world – just not mine.

One thing that I did find interesting at this quaint little cafe (which by the way serves almost 500,000 people a year and makes 7,000 of the aforementioned biscuits a day) was their signage. Firstly as I entered, I was struck by the sign on the window next to the front door. Right next to the American Express, VISA, MasterCard signs was a picture of a hand gun with a red diagonal through it. Clearly hand guns were not a recognized method of payment, that was useful information to have before entering. The second interesting sign was in the men’s washroom. It announced that bags for the toss game were available at the host stand in the restaurant. As useful as that information may be it occurred to me is this something that the average person wants to stop to read when they are making a dash for the porcelain throne?

 

 

Heading back on the road I was feeling more like an anaconda after its monthly feed than a road warrior and as I settled in the BRT I noticed that the steering wheel seemed a little closer than I had remembered.

Our next stop was the historic town of Franklin, named after – drum roll please- good old Ben Franklin. A beautiful, almost Disney Land perfect little town spotted with perfectly maintained historic buildings. A very walkable town with a central roundabout at the civic square – ignoring the obvious geometric contradiction of having a round about in a town square, 4 hour free parking was available all along the round about with spaces generous enough for the BRT. In the world of RVing it occurs more and more to me that happiness is a big parking space. One thing that struck me in Franklin, other than the obvious wealth, were the white cars. It’s like there is a civic by-law or some tax break for owning a white car.

We dropped into the visitors centre to get a map and I listened as one of the interpreters outlined a driving tour to a couple who were visiting Franklin for the first time. Franklin was the site of a significant battle in the Civil War and as the interpreter described the various battle locations to them I was taken aback when she noted “that terrible day when the Union troops slipped behind the Confederate lines” . I wanted to say lady, it’s history, get over it – you got your ass whipped – the slaves are gone for good. I wondered if she would have used the same description if the couple had been Afro American. Don’t get me wrong, everyone we have met has been incredibly friendly and helpful to a fault, but just when you start to think that the only difference between people is an accent a bit of culture like that jumps up to remind me that we are in a different place here. Neither better nor worse, but definitely different.

We had just about used up our 4 hours of allocated free parking when we stopped for an early supper. Martha’s biscuits were distant digested memories. After a quick stop on the way back to the Parkway to restock the larder with food and beverages we were back on the road. The time of day and warnings of approaching extreme weather conditions lead us to be on the lookout for accommodations.

Our map showed a campsite called Meriwether Lewis Park which was only about 90 minutes drive so we kept a look out for signs. The Natchez Parkway is quite different than the Blue Ridge, it is a heavily treed area and lacks the mountainous vistas of the Blue Ridge. However the road is very well maintained and combined with the lack of traffic and a 55 mph speed limit we could move right along. The first sign I saw for Meriwether Lewis said ‘Meriwether Lewis site and burial ground’ , as I hadn’t planned on that extended a stay I hoped that some shorter term accommodations would also be available.

Our information indicated that this campground operated on a first come basis, meaning no reservations. What we found out however was that this was a free site with no services other than a washroom, which was fine for an overnight stay. There were several sites available and we chose two sites within close walking distance of the washrooms. Family # 1 experienced some 12v power issues i.e. no auxiliary power and they reverted to candle power for the evening. Ike and I examined the problem but our combined electrical expertise qualifies us to do little more than turn on a light switch so after some perfunctory checking of fuses and voltages we came to the conclusion that there definitely was an electrical problem and congratulated our selves with a beer. As this has been the first site we stopped at without land power there is no saying how long the problem has been going on but the LRT’s auxiliary battery is as flat as I have ever seen a battery.

The promises of high winds, maybe even tornadoes and rain were soon fulfilled and I anxiously examined the numerous trees surrounding our site before we turned in for the night. As big as the BRT may seem on the road it would offer no resistance if one of them were to uproot in a storm. Thoughts of the Meriwether burial ground close by added little comfort. The night passed somewhat uneventfully, marked by flashes of lightening and claps of thunder accompanied by periods of heavy rain. The weather forecast also predicted dramatic temperature drops.

Day 16 – April 19

The predicted temperatures were fully realized over night as we awoke to at least 30 degrees F colder air than the day before, somewhere in the range of 55 F with an associated drop in humidity. This is a marked change from the 85 degrees and high humidity of yesterday. Slightly warmer weather is predicted in the area later in the week . One of our primary needs is to get to a laundry facility soon as clean clothes options are rapidly decreasing.

We stopped several times along the parkway to take short hikes, as it was an overcast day it made for some great opportunities to photograph some of the plant life, many of which are now in full blossom. Later in the afternoon we passed from Tennessee into Alabama.

 

Upon the recommendation of our waitress in Franklin we stopped in at Muscle Shoal and found that other than its unique name it had little of interest. On our way there we saw a private RV site with a laundry and wi-fi in Tuscumbia so we stopped there for the night. For $25/night and free laundry facilities it was a great deal. For supper, Jane and Ike barbecued a chicken and Diane roasted potatoes and string beans.

After supper we had a FaceTime conversation with Family # 2, Carla and Sean, who are now officially ‘on the road’ in the MRT. It was great to hear from them and to see Sean who has been out of the country on business for a while. As they were spending the night at the house of Family # 1, it also provided an opportunity for them to get some unanticipated required items brought along, like a meat thermometer.

Family # 2 have now begun to post to the blog and I did take some heat for the verbosity of my entries. The point is well taken and as I respect their opinion very highly in such matters I took the time today to add an additional 500 words to my posting 🙂 If you want a tweet you are reading the wrong blogger.