10 April ‘09 Friday
I’ve mentioned it before, but our campground is located just off of the Natchez Trace Parkway and we’ve been able to travel it quite a lot in the last week (at least about 50 miles out and back of the 444 total). It’s just like driving through a city park, but it only goes in two directions…north and south. Driving on the beautiful 2 lane road of wide grass areas, deciduous trees just coming into leaf and bloom, and the local wild life, especially the Tennessee turkeys trolling the grass for food makes for another great journey. All along the “Trace” they have markers and monuments to turn off to for information about those that traveled before us. One of these is the monument and grave site of Meriwether Lewis.
I’ve mentioned it before, but our campground is located just off of the Natchez Trace Parkway and we’ve been able to travel it quite a lot in the last week (at least about 50 miles out and back of the 444 total). It’s just like driving through a city park, but it only goes in two directions…north and south. Driving on the beautiful 2 lane road of wide grass areas, deciduous trees just coming into leaf and bloom, and the local wild life, especially the Tennessee turkeys trolling the grass for food makes for another great journey. All along the “Trace” they have markers and monuments to turn off to for information about those that traveled before us. One of these is the monument and grave site of Meriwether Lewis.
President Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis to the Governorship of the Upper Louisiana Territory in 1808 but that seems to have been a problem. After being at odds with General James Wilkinson, the top ranking officer in the U.S. Army, and his own Lt. Governor, Frederick Bates, Meriwether decided to travel back to Washington to explain his actions to President Jefferson. In staying overnight at a camp on the Natchez Trace, a shot rang out in the early morning…on October 11, 1809 Meriwether Lewis was dead. Was he murdered or did he shoot himself, this is a question that is still being asked today (even when it is well known that Meriwether was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head)… On one of our trips up the Trace, we were notified over radio that we were just about to have a large thunderstorm converge on us, and it will be bring with it ¾ to 1 inch hail. Also we were receiving a tornado “warning” for our area so we decided to look for cover… A little further up the Trace we found an outlet which lead us to an over-pass to duck under…safe again (with 5 other cars).
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