Wednesday, April 24, 2024

 The day started with a dead battery, this is the second time this trip that the car needed a jump start. There is some sort of electrical gremlin that has eluded the repair shop for some time now and whenever the car sits for more than two days the battery is drained. We stopped in Baxter, TN to buy a new battery and decided to use the new one for a spare. In the meantime we are taking the fuse out of the trailer wires and the key fob battery out of the spare key to solve the easiest possible issues.

We have been spending quite a lot of time on major highways and wanted a change of pace today. The visitor’s center in Tennessee had hundreds of brochures of things to do and one in particular looked interesting. The 3 Rivers Quilt Trail was started to encourage people to take back roads and to explore the state in a more relaxed manner. There are about 50 quilt designs painted on wooden signs hanging on buildings. We stopped to take photos of a few of the quilt blocks on a beautiful back road in McEwen. While we were parked beside the road Bill had his tools out to check a wheel bearing. A very nice young man, Enoch, stopped to see if we were okay. It turns out that his mother is the one who started the quilt trail and paints most of the signs. He told us about the grist mill that his grandfather started and how he used the power of the water to create electricity for the family houses in the valley. They still grind corn to keep the old traditions alive.

We stopped in Waverly to see a few more of the signs. The Chamber of Commerce was closed but the very kind librarian looked for a map for us. She could not find one on display, so she went to her car to find her map and photocopied one for us. There were classes on how to paint smaller versions and she had attended the class and created a military themed sign to honor her son who is in the military. A local woman gave us directions to a cafe where we had lunch. As we were leaving Waverly we saw several signs, unfortunately there was too much traffic to be able to stop for photos.

The trip to Natchez State Park was an easy drive into Henderson County. The park has several campsites, and we were directed to the Wrangler Camp which is set up for horse camping. There were only about 5 other camp sites being used the night we were there, and one site had two mules who looked like this was not their first camping trip. They were quiet and calm and seemed perfectly content. In the evening, we went for a drive to one of the other campsites near a lake, this was a 20-mile round trip drive. The park is quite large and is on the site of the western spur of the Natchez Trace. Before steamboats were available goods were floated down river to the markets in Natchez then the people would walk back. The highmen and robbers were so prevalent on the main route that the western route was often safer.

This was the first night that we set up the tent and it felt great to finally camp! The tent is very comfortable, and we were warm and dry. After sunset there was a bird calling so loudly that Bill could hear it without his hearing aid. The Merlin Bird Id app identified it as a Chuck-Will’s-Widow.