Natchez Trace

Last Friday, I was driving the Coulees of the Columbia Basin, this Friday I'm exploring central Tennessee . American Airlines delivered us to Nashville late this morning - after an unplanned overnight in Dallas - and I managed to get D to Opryland half an hour before Round One started. I checked in, then hit the road. I drove south an hour or so on the Interstate and then cut over past the Saturn factory to pick up the Natchez Trace Parkway for the drive back to Nashville.

The Parkway is one of those wonderful winding two lane, protected corridor highways that makes you realize that roads can be beautiful. Sure the setting helps, but it's mainly about landscape planning and highway design. This one runs 400+ miles from Natchez to Nashville - following the route of the original overland route from the lower Mississippi into the interior on the back side of the Appalachians. Remnants of the original road can still be seen, abandoned when steamboats began running up the Ohio and the Cumberland rivers.

There were few people on the road this perfect spring afternoon. I checked out waterfalls and the great double arch bridge near the north end. And then waited an hour for a table at the Loveless Cafe, where I had ham and biscuits and a Nashville beer.