Meriwether Lewis, half of Lewis and Clark and their exploration of the northwest died near our camping spot but not recently. We started out today by stopping in at his grave site and monument just a few miles up the Trace. There seems to be a dispute about how Captain Lewis died. Some say it was suicide because he was remembered as mopey, depressed guy who thought finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific wasn’t enough, and also because he wasn’t married to some rich woman. Other folks seem to think that Lewis’s death was a murder because suicides rarely shoot themselves TWICE and cut their throats, as well. Anybody slicing his own neck, putting one into his head and then one into the abdomen would seem a very determined suicide victim to me.
There is a nice park around Lewis’s monument which is a big broken granite column. Allegedly, a broken column represents a life cut short. The park also has a campground and there is a short road down to the Little Swan River. The river area and the road there are very nice; this is a gorgeous part of Tennessee.
Our explorations then took us a bit east of the Trace to Summertown. The road was bordered by some stunning upland hardwood forests, emerald pastures, tidy farm buildings and a couple of Dogpatch-like estates with multiple stripped single-wide mobile homes, wrecked cars, partially overgrown broken agricultural equipment and numerous dead lawn tractors. The hillbilly tenants grinning from some of the porches appeared dentally challenged and whiter than skim milk.
In Summertown we found Schafer’s Meats and stopped in for very tasty brisket and pulled pork dishes and some meat from the counter. They sell very tubby sausages so I grabbed some. The meat in the case made me salivate unnaturally.
See pix. Click here

After quite a bit of time in Mississippi, a bit in Alabama and considerable time in Tennessee, today we finished the entire length of the Natchez Trace. We started in Natchez over on the Mississippi River on March 31 and finished up at the northern terminus to this historic road a little south of Nashville today. We were diverted a few times to places like Vicksburg but mostly enjoyed the scenery all along the way. It is a bit flat for our liking in MS and AL but the part here in central Tennessee is gorgeous and a bit less planar. Up toward the north end are the towns of Franklin and Leipers Fork, both with early 20th century storefront masonry buildings lining the main drag. Franklin is sort of like a upscale version of Old Town America except the folks living there appear to be quite affluent with black BMWs, Denalis and bitterly ugly Porsche Cayennes filling up the almost claustrophobic downtown streets. Quite a few of the buildings seem to have been recently built but with the same architectural style that keep them cozy on downtown avenues. Leipers Fork is right next to Franklin and offers a little less high fashion and a whole lot more reality in their old buildings. Some are such authentic old structures they have fallen down and now look like large piles of scrap lumber. The country surrounding these two towns is gorgeous.
Near the towns and all along the last 50 miles of Trace there is magnificent scenery; clear water creeks, turquoise rivers, colorful roadside flowers, a variety of stunning varieties of flowering trees and we also spotted some ground hogs and wild turkeys. The turkeys here have much lighter-colored feathers than those in the west. It must be good camouflage because they are hard to spot, even when they are near the road.
At some of the turnouts from the Trace we also found that jerks here use very similar graffiti to the jerks in the west. Some of it is quite familiar and written in English. Jerks must be irritating regardless of locale.
See the pix. Click here

I was still suffering from an ancient person’s malady, namely geezer’s mystery limp or spazzo oldo, when we got up this morning. Fortunately, Peggy gave me a little encouragement and we decided to go on a short excursion on some of the roads around our current camping spot here at Natchez Trace TT.
Our morning was spent checking out the birds, who we have baited to our feeder right outside the trailer. In addition to rose-breasted grosbeaks who are pretty new additions to our list, we got to add American goldfinches and summer tanagers today. The goldfinches are a striking assortment of yellow and black and the summer tanagers look like cardinals; just as red but not nearly as rotund and with much pointier beaks.
Once we got going, we ended up driving up some nearby creeks or small rivers. This part of Tennessee is quite beautiful, especially the locations where water has made massive cuts through the sedimentary rock formations. The plants seem very happy. There seem to be more animals here than we saw in western TN.
See pix. Click here

Yesterday I awakened and my disgusting body was in revolt, attacking my knee. I don’t remember doing anything strenuous in the days leading up to yesterday (or almost any days before that) but my pesky mid-leg joint has laid me low. I am sure it irritates my beloved spouse while I convalesce without doing any sightseeing.
I will limp around the outside of the trailer because I need to dump the waste tanks today but it will take me a while to spaz my way to the discharge point on the driver’s side of the trailer. I am sure my sweetie will allow me to lean on her as I address this vital task.
I hate being physically prevented from doing what we want. I hope my gamey knee heals up pretty quick because I have already lost patience with geezerism.
Got some visitor pix. Clickhere