Archive for May, 2006
May 3, 2006 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
First of all, I am under orders to acknowledge something that I did not mention in yesterday’s blog: Eleanor towed the trailer! You may not realize that of the 20,000 miles we have driven since last September, 100% of the towing has been done by me. Eleanor has until now refused to even try, but a few lectures from fellow Airstreamers about the need for backup, and a stretch of quiet roadway (Natchez Trace Parkway) finally got her into the driver’s seat. It was even her idea!
So she towed over 50 miles yesterday, and made several tight turns with a 30-foot trailer behind her, and nothing awful happened. The trailer is intact and not even scratched. We’re all hoping she’ll feel brave enough to try again soon.
It was not quite as exciting today wandering through Louisiana as we had hoped. Rt 84 west from Natchez is an historic route but not comparable to the Natchez Trace or old Route 66. I think things hit a low when, to entertain themselves, Emma and Eleanor began dressing up stuffed animals for an in-car beauty contest. After a few hours of not much, we hit boring (but fast) I-49 and zipped up to Shreveport for some groceries.
It has been in the upper 80s, and a little more humid, so the inevitable began to happen: thunderstorms. We were lucky and avoided the worst of them, but everywhere in northern Louisiana and Texas along I-20 we could see them building.
At exit 635 off I-20, you’ll find this place: Jim’s Bar-B-Q and Catfish. We parked the Airstream in the lane next to their drive-thru and ordered a 10-piece Cajun-fried catfish dinner. It fed two of us with a piece left over. (Emma prefers chicken, poor thing. She doesn’t know the pleasure of Cajun-fried catfish.) It came with hush puppies, pickled green tomatoes (delicious), and cole slaw. All for $11.99. I love a bargain.
Right now, Eleanor and Emma are at the table identifying a large black butterfly we spotted yesterday on the Natchez Trace. According to Emma’s identification book, it is a Pipevine Swallowtail. Later this evening, she’ll be practicing the game of Uno, because we plan to meet a friend who is obsessed with it. Emma plans to give him a good challenge.
Tonight’s stop is Caddo Lake State Park. Nice place, especially if you’ve got a boat. Water and electric for $12 ““ another bargain! But there’s no Sprint coverage and my Verizon phone is on “extended network”, which means both my primary and backup Internet connections are unavailable. (I’m posting this from a rest area on I-20 at noon Thursday and back-dating it.) So, we’ll only spend one night here and then head further west. We have plans for the weekend and friends to meet on Friday near the Dallas/Ft Worth area.
May 2, 2006 at 8:47 pm · Filed under Places to go
Forget what you thought of Mississippi. It’s got some really interesting spots in it, and we found two of them today. First stop was the very large, high-tech, and impressive new Nissan assembly plant in Canton. Only opened to tours last month, this place is absolutely monstrous — and well worth the visit.
We parked right in front. (The nice thing about visiting auto plants with the trailer is that they always have plenty of parking!) I tried to take a photo of the trailer and the factory, but this place is so huge you need an airplane to see it all at once. You can see the north end of the factory building in the picture above …
… and the south end of the building off in the horizon in the second picture. Believe it or not, that is all one giant building.
Of course the Tour trailer got a bit of attention too. While I was on the factory tour, somebody from the plant came out with a notebook and wrote down our URL. (Whoever you are, welcome!)
As with other auto tours, there’s no photography allowed inside, so you’re going to have to take my word for it that this is one awesome tour for anyone who likes to see stuff built, or who likes cars. Hundreds of industrial robots, sparks flying, giant metal presses five stories tall, and eventually 2,500 individual parts assembled into an American-made Nissan Armada or Titan. I got a nice feeling about our Armada, having seen how carefully it was built, and I got a good look at the innards (chassis, engine, transmission), too. I only wish I could have been there when ours was built!
The price is right: $free. But the tour is booked solid into September, so if you want to check it out, reserve early. And stop in on downtown Canton, just a couple of miles north of the plant on Rt 51. They’ve got an interesting downtown square with great historic architecture.
After a three-mile tram ride through the factory and two videos, I rejoined Eleanor and Emma back in the trailer where they were doing some homeschooling. I caught up on some work, and then we picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway just south of Canton and spent the afternoon slowly meandering down this very scenic road through 200 years of American history.
The Trace is limited to non-commercial vehicles, and the speed limit is generally 50 MPH, and it doesn’t really go anywhere in particular. So for the most part it is quiet and uncrowded, with gentle bends and plenty of historic pull-outs. We stopped about six times, taking one hike, and learning quite a bit about the history of this ancient trail from the interpretive signs. In about four hours we covered only 90 miles but it was some of the most pleasant driving we’ve done since we were on Route 1 in California. Even Emma liked it.
Our stop tonight is the Natchez Trace State Park, along the southernmost ten miles of the parkway. There’s a lot more north of our entry point at Canton, but we won’t get to drive it on this trip. We are going to exit at Natchez tomorrow morning. We have some extra time to explore as we head west this week, so our plan is to head into Louisiana and just let things find us.
May 1, 2006 at 7:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Another long drive … but it is going to be worth it. Our overnight stop today is Roosevelt State Park — a very pretty spot with campsites situated around a pond. I can’t believe it’s considered off season here, because the weather couldn’t be better. Mid-70s, dry, green, quiet … and yet the camp store and other amenities of the park are shut down until the season starts.
Are they waiting for Mississippi humidity and 90+ degree temperatures to strike? I don’t get it, but on the other hand it’s fine with us since the park is deserted and peaceful. We have a neighbor, also in an Airstream, but we haven’t seen them yet. Otherwise, we are alone with the turtles in the pond.
As pleasant as it is here, this is just a stop along the way for us. Tomorrow we will drive up to the Nissan plant in Canton to take the factory tour. They build our tow vehicle, the Armada, along with the similar Infiniti Q56, so it’s a homecoming of sorts. I was lucky to get a tour spot since they are booked up through the summer. Fortunately there was a cancellation.
The factory rules say no kids under 10, no cameras, no cell phones, and there’s a dress code too (for safety reasons). So Eleanor and Emma and my camera will stay back in the trailer as they did in Bowling Green when I toured the Corvette plant.
We’re playing around with the idea of driving part of the Natchez Trace over the next couple of days, too. We don’t need to be in Texas until Friday, so there’s a bit of spare time to take the scenic route. We’ll decide tomorrow.
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