Natchez Trace and Louisiana

That was the view from my tent this morning at sunrise at Tishomingo State Park in Mississippi, on the Natchez Trace Parkway. The Natchez Trace is not as beautiful as the Blue Ridge but very peaceful. The road is pretty much straight all the way except for the first 50 miles near Nashville and I was happy to see the end of it after some 450 miles. The Natchez Trace was the walking path connecting Nashville to the Gulf of Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries and the Parkway goes alongside. The arrival in Natchez of the first steamboat going down the Mississippi from Tennessee in 1812 was the death knell for the Trace which is now almost totally overgrown by the forest.
A Park Ranger brought me back late Saturday at the Tishomingo camp site my camera that I had left at the restaurant two miles away. He was told by some nice lady riding a Harley Davidson that I was staying at the camp and he did not hesitate to bring it back. Park Rangers are my guardian angels...
A lot of trees down at the end of the Natchez Trace, but the road was cleared up all the way to the end. I had to wait in line to get gas once in Natchez but strangely enough that was the cheapest price per gallon since the beginning of the trip !!! Two gas stations were out of gas but people were very helpful telling me where to find some. It's very warm (about 100-105 Fahrenheit, 33 to 36 centigrade) but people seem rather unfazed by the disruption brought in by Katrina. Tonight at Natchitoches, a very pretty town not far from the Texas border, I was watching on television the reports from New Orleans but it seemed so far away (only two hundred miles, though). The Bed and Breakfast(e)s are still full of people that left New Orleans last week but I was lucky enough to find a room in a hotel downtown. Natchitoches is home to a lot of old houses Louisiana style. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow when I'll be in Waco (Texas) to meet Steve, my riding buddy for the rest of the trip. As of today, I've covered about 1500 miles (2400 km) and everything is going on perfectly.