Category Road Trip Adventures

We have zig-zagged across the country and, boy-oh-boy, do we have some gems to share! Browse campsites, off-road trails, scenic outlooks, oddities, museums, hiking trails, and more.

Blue Skies Over Texas

We rolled into Texas late at night and crashed outside of Dallas.

Back in Texas, we finally saw the sun and were treated to blue skies. Up until this point, we had traveled under constant cloud cover. At the beginning, I loved the moody atmosphere set by the clouds. But, after enough shots were abandoned due to the lack of any color at all, I was ready for some brilliant blue to set off my shots.

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New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum explores the history of medicine from leeches to voodoo and everything in between.

Medicine may be one of the most expressive examples of how society has progressed and improved over time. Doctors have done a lot of crazy and down right dangerous things in the attempt to heal people, whether their malady is real or perceived. When I asked a doctor friend "at what point in history was visiting a doctor more likely to help the patient than harm?" he didn't have to think hard. He immediately replied: with the invention of penicillin.

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New Orleans

To top off the night, we wandered into the famous and very dilapidated Preservation Hall for some classic New Orleans Jazz.

After days on the road, it's time for a little rest and relaxation. By that, I mean, it's time for a shower. So, tonight we are splurging on a hotel. But it's more than just a shower that we are after because this hotel is along the French Quarter of New Orleans. Tonight, we will wander down Bourbon Street, delight in delicacies, and swoon to the music of the Big Easy.

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The End of the Road

Driving through Natchez, along the Mississippi shoreline and the end (or beginning) of the Natchez Trace.

It has only been a few, cloudy days from Nashville to Natchez, but here we are. The Natchez Parkway ends just outside of Natchez, Mississippi but we continue through town for our first view of the Mississippi River. At the shore line, we meditate on tradition, history, and natural wonders along the Natchez Trace. We have traveled the entirety of the Natchez Trace Parkway.

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Emerald Mound

Many mounds dot the Natchez Trace, constructed by ancient stone age tribes. But none compare the the sheer size of the Emerald Mound.

The Mississippian Period Mound Builders perfected their art by 1250 AD when ancestors of the Natchez tribe began to sculpt a natural hill into the second largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the country. Named after a 19th century plantation that surrounded the ancient earthworks, Emerald Mound's history represents what might as well have been another world. The mound's base stretches 770 by 435 feet. While the main portion of the mound is 35 feet high, two secondary mounds on top of the main body elevates it another 30 feet. Here was the cultural center of this region. Chieftain and cultural leaders lived in structures on the mound. Ceremonial rights were conducted here up until 1730s. The descendants of these Mound Builders, the Natchez, continued to use the mound until the late 1730s. By then, the Natchez had moved their ceremonial center 12 miles north to the Grand Village of the Natchez.

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Mount Locust Inn

Mount Locust Inn is one of the few remaining stands along the Natchez Trace.

By modern terms, the Mount Locust Inn is a modest structure with four small rooms for guests and the resident family. But in the days of the "Kaintucks" traveling along the Natchez Trace, Mount Locust Inn offered some of the finest accommodations a traveler could hope for.

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Waylaid By Goats

Nothing is safe when a roving gang of goats blocks to road and wants the shirt of your back. Seriously, these guys will eat anything.

Today, we were waylaid by a gang of goats. After gaping at the limited remnants of Rocky Springs, we wandered to the Magnus Mound. Well we were headed in that way. We slowed to a stop while twenty unaccompanied goats blocked the road.

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