Jackson to Natchez, Still on Natchez Trace 9/30/12

Rain, lovely rain. The rain started early yesterday evening and we are now (7:45 Sunday, September 30) driving in a steady shower. I don't like driving or riding in the rain, but this is the first we have seen. Whoop!A hawk just swooped across the road in front of us. Anyway, back to the rain, it is kind of refreshing. And I have noticed something that surprised me. We have passed over a muddy dirt road and a muddy creek, and they were both RED. I don't recall red mud from when we lived in Arkansas so this was a  glimpse of North Carolina. It's not quite as red as the red clay at home, but still it's not the black I normally associate with low-lying areas.

So far this morning we have seen three deer, three hawks, a turtle and at least one crow. We passed an exit to Vicksburg. Larry nor I are big Civil War buffs, so it's not like we missed much. We did the Gettysburg tour in Pennsylvania in June 2011 so that's enough for this lifetime. 

There are a lot of big trees down along this stretch, just individual trees, not the huge swaths of dead trees we saw earlier from tornado damage. It is sort of curious. There will be one huge tree all by itself, uprooted on the side of the road. Weird, huh? I will ask a ranger when we get to Natchez State Park. 

Larry is driving like my mother used to walk. After she was in her mid-80's, Mother would go out in the road that ran in front of her house and walk from side to side, up and down the road between her house and mine. She didn't want to get too far from home, but she wanted to get in some distance. Larry is dodging the overhanging trees that seem really low due to the rain. Side to side, side to side, side to side.  Getting just a tad seasick.

Just scared a flock of probably 25 turkeys out of the road. Larry had to slow down and blow the horn a bunch. Finally they took flight. Now a little deer off to the side. We have only seen about four cars, total, this morning. That's another reason I like this parkway. Compared to the Blue Ridge, it is desolate. But can you imagine the eighteen-wheelers in this rain on the interstate?  I'll take dodging turkeys and low-hanging limbs any day. Two more flocks of turkeys and two big muddy creeks/rivers/bayous. Nice morning.

Everybody bored, yet? I can start naming wildflowers and trees?