Today was 8/31, our 16th wedding anniversary. No need for applause, just send money. We both woke up at 5:30 and were ready to hit the road but we took our time getting up, had our morning coffee and took the Boys for a short walk. It was quiet in the campground and no one was up. We went in search of someone so we could pay for our site – no self registration kiosk here. The two nice ladies at the visitor center let me in, even though they weren’t open. I told them I needed to pay for our campsite and the kind woman said “are you from Tennessee?” and I replied “No, Maaaaam, I’m from Maryland”. I’ve been “down south” for less than 24 hours and BAM, I’ve got the southern drawl creeping out. It’s amazing.
The drive was pretty standard except of course when "Toonces" decided he wanted to drive. 
It was somewhat unsettling as he has very little driving experience and we were at full speed on a multi-lane road. Fortunately for the safety of us all, he quickly grew bored and decided that being in the passenger "Lane" was just fine by him. ;P
We got on the road at 7 and headed towards Nashville. Our destination was Tishomingo State Park in Tishomingo, Mississippi. We decided to nix the full drive from the top of the Natchez Trace Parkway at mp 444 outside of Nashville and jumped on at mp 370. We arrived at the park around 2 pm and got set up pretty quickly.
The site kind of sucked. It was paved, but it was very narrow and just dropped off on all three sides. We seriously considered finding someplace else, but we had already paid for it (reservations are generally a necessity when traveling on a holiday weekend) so we sucked it up and just made the most of it.
We unloaded the bikes and decided to ride down to Trace State Park just south of Tupelo.
We soon realized that the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Blue Ridge Parkway cannot be compared. I’m not sure what I anticipated, well, actually, I anticipated a BRP in Mississippi and Alabama and instead got a flat, only slightly curvy road with absolutely NOTHING to look at or stop to see. Oh how I take the BRP for granted. Who knew that our little East coast parkway could be so stinking awesome? Now granted, the awesome factor generally increases exponentially with every 10 mph over the posted speed limit, but even caging it can be somewhat enjoyable. Not so much here. In fact, not so much at ALL. Wow. The tallest peak on the Parkway is 800 feet. Seriously? 800 feet?
We chatted with Joshua, the park ranger at Trace SP for a bit and got info on the ORV trails in the park. I'm going to like it here. :)
We were hungry and needing dinner – it was our anniversary after all – so we headed into Tupelo to find some grub. Grub we found and it was surprisingly good. I say this because, as we walked across the parking lot, I noticed a drive thru. A drive thru? Uhh….no. For those of you who don’t know, I am vehemently opposed to eating fast food. The closest I get to anything with a drive thru is Starbucks. I was scared. Very scared. We walked in and walked up to the counter. I asked the clerk if it was a sit down restaurant or a fast food joint and she smiled and replied in her Southern drawl “it’s a combination fast food and family owned restaurant”. Buh? I don’t even know what that means. I looked at the menu – much like that of any small family owned restaurant and glanced over at the well stocked salad bar and ordered a burger and a salad. The burgers come plain – you take them to the salad bar and dress them yourselves (think Fuddrucker’s). They do, however, come in foil wrap (think fast food). 
I must admit, this was one of the best salad bars I’ve ever had. Everything was crisp and fresh and there was an impressive variety of items. Nom, nom, nom. So, our wedding anniversary dinner was at a “combinaaation faast food, and faamily owned restauraaaant”. I swear if I’m here much longer they won’t know I’m from the North.
It was getting dark, so we quickly geared up as best we could with full bellies.
We rode back to the trailer side by side (well, me illegally riding left of center so as to shine more light on the road) and chatted about our day and our plans for the rest of the week. It was a good day – we hit Alabama and Mississippi and thus have now been to every state in the lower 48. Wooo hoooo! Bill lived in Hawaii for 3 years, so he’s one up on me. He’ll probably hit the 50 mark before I will as I’d prefer to visit Alaska next. We’ll have to save for that one. Maybe that can be for our 20th anniversary. Meh, maybe 17th. Like I've said before, that’s what credit cards are for. J
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