In the countdown!!

Well, it's now Thursday, April 29. We were aiming for departure on Saturday, May 1, but we ain't gonna make it! (Were you surprised?) Still, we're doing well given the fact that, in the last 3 weeks, we sold one of our RV lots to our good friends, Mark & Dortha Hall. Only a slight and very pleasant diversion! This allowed us to pay off the loan on our other lot, which incidentally is rented for 4 months of this coming season. Whew! So, a happy situation all around!

We've secured our remaining RV lot and its "coach house" against the summer's heat and humidity, our main concerns down here in south Texas. We live one and 1/2 miles from the Rio Grande River in the southernmost tip of Texas. We've tidied the front and back yards. Our patio is now clean, the patio furniture is about to go into the garage to join the BBQ grill. Our dog, Dixie, has had her final routine checkup and received her "Health Certificate", verifying her vaccinations are all current. (We need this to cross through Canada going to and coming from Alaska.) The motorhome is clean and ready for us to stow our gear. Now, we need to pack our stuff over to it. Once that's done, we'll clean our house and close it up for the summer. We're blessed to have a property manager who checks our property regularly while we're gone. (Thank you, Linda H.!)

I'm going to be adding some belated posts about last summer's trip up the Natchez Trace Parkway. I'd started this blog last summer but I fizzled out because the trip itself became more intriguing than writing about it! This spring, enter my friends Steve & Linda Westmoreland, who've both urged me to mend my errant ways and faithfully post about our trip to Alaska this summer. OK, you two, here it goes!!

Stay tuned! We're hoping to leave by Sunday or Monday, at the very latest. I'll try to add a little something each day or so.

The Natchez Trace Parkway – French Camp, MM 180.7

What a fascinating site this is! Please include it, should you drive the Natchez Trace Parkway! (We’d received several recommendations from other travelers.) Photos are included of the gift shop, the cafe, and historical buildings on the grounds.

The gift shop:

A quote from “Guide to the Natchez Trace” (F. Lynn Bachleda):

“Louis LeFleur established a stand here in 1812 [note: “stands” were inns for travelers on the Trace.]. French Camp Academy, a school catering to the needs of young people who come from broken homes, traces its origins to the school founded here in 1822. Officially chartered in 1885 and once a project of the Presbyterian church, the school since 1950 has been interdenominational, free of ecclesiastical control. today it supports about 200 boarders and 85 students from the surrounding area. All students are encouraged to pay tuition, room and board, but no student is turned away if they cannot do so. French Camp Academy’s Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium, not open to Trace travelers, is the largest in the state, with 20 telescopes and other equipment. Sorghum made here in the fall sells quickly to the public.

French Camp has bed-and-breakfast lodging and is a wonderful place to stop for lunch.”

Here’s the menu:

The cafe is attached by covered walkway to the back of the gift shop building (the latter is to the left in this photo). You can see the porch, so pleasant for dining outside.

A further quote from the same source above: “The Council House Cafe, a ministry of French Camp Academy, is a wonderful place to stop for healthy portions of sandwiches, soups, and broccoli salad. All sandwiches are made with fresh homemade bread, and there’s fresh Mississippi mud cake and bread pudding for dessert. You can eat inside a log cabin or sit on the porch.”

We can attest to the delicious lunches! Our sandwiches were really good; the homemade bread was exceptional (fresh loaves are available for purchase in another building). The broccoli salad is wonderful! We didn’t dare tackle a dessert but, judging from everything else, one couldn’t help but be spectacular! Students from the Academy are the servers and help prepare the food.

After lunch, we toured the grounds and have provided photos of the historical buildings. This was very enjoyable and the buildings are well-maintained.

The John Dare House:

Please note the semi-enclosed “dog trot” running through the center of the ground floor. It’s a feature typical of historical homes in the Southeast. This walk-through allows for good air circulation in warm weather, a sheltered place to sit in hot or wet weather, and is named because the family dogs can just “trot” through. This example is interesting because it can be opened up in warm weather or closed off in cold temperatures. On either side of the “dog trot”, there are doorways into the main house, as well as doorways onto the front porch.

 

Here are 2 closer looks into the “dog trot” portion, one from each direction:

 

There is an intriguing display of outbuildings typical of the era of French Camp’s heyday. Click on the link below to view several more pictures:

View Full Album

We really enjoyed French Camp. It proved to be our day’s perfect rest stop and a great learning experience.