2016 Travel Review

Happy Holidays! 2016 has been an exciting year for us. We continued our nomadic adventure. We bought a new truck dubbed Dodgy II: The Truckening (our van was Dodgy I). We built the truck bed into our own cozy living quarters with…
Happy Holidays! 2016 has been an exciting year for us. We continued our nomadic adventure. We bought a new truck dubbed Dodgy II: The Truckening (our van was Dodgy I). We built the truck bed into our own cozy living quarters with…
Last night, we slept near a grave. The clouds lay thick over the night sky. Even the moon could not penetrate the blanket of mist. Leafless trees stretched skeletal limbs dimly etched against the night. A bitterly cold wind searched for any gap in our truck camper and the campground bathrooms were heated! We were camping at the Meriwether Lewis Monument.
We are suckers for overlooks. So, when we saw an overlook for the Duck Valley at milepost 404 of the Natchez Trace, we stopped to enjoy the moody, overcast vista. To me, it was like some scene from Wuthering Heights. I could imagine Heathcliff moodily stalking across the valley. We stalked across the hills, too. Well, at least we hiked along a ridge and into a small gorge to enjoy Jackson Falls.
At the 438 mile post of the Natchez Trace, in Williamson County, Tennessee, is the Double Arch Bridge. This elegant work of engineering also known as the "Natchez Trace Parkway Arches" spans 1,572 feet and 145 feed over the valley floor. It was opened on March 22, 1994, and cost $11.3 million to build.
Perched at the terminus of the Natchez Trace is the purveyor of BBQ and moonshine cocktails: the Loveless Cafe.
The Natchez Trace connects Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. The 444 mile route roughly traces the historic dirt path that "Kaintucks" annually traveled.* These were farmers from the Ohio River valley who had loaded rafts with their produce and traveled with it down the Mississippi to sell in Natchez or New Orleans. There, they would also sell the lumber that made up the raft and then return, on foot or by horse, to their home via the Natchez Trace.
Crescent rolls are intentionally designed to be easy to make. Fortunately, their design also makes it easy to add items to the dough before rolling it up and baking the roll. Stack a slice of chicken, cheese, and a basil leaf on the triangle of dough. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Roll it all into a crescent roll. Do this with all the crescent dough and then bake in the dutch oven until the pastry is golden brown. Enjoy!
There didn't seem to be much of a gap between summer and winter. The warm summer heat seemed to linger throughout most of fall. And then, duty called and I had to make an abrupt trip up to Minnesota.
I had already seen some pie iron recipes for stuffed french toast. One in particular involved blueberries and cream cheese. I thought about it: there is another dairy product that I love to mix with blueberries for a healthy breakfast. In particular, I like to mix blueberries, sliced almonds, and coconut shavings in greek yogurt. Then, I could take this concoction that I already love and stuff it in french toast with the best type of bread: challah. It was messy and delicious.
It’s been almost two years since I quit my job and we moved out of our apartment to live on the road in an ’86 Dodge Ram commuter van. Since then, we have transitioned into a truck and visited over…