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I picked up my bike at the shop this morning. The repair guy had been impressed by how well it was running, given the number of miles on it.
My first stop was at a cafe conveniently situated at the beginning of the road I'll be riding for the next couple days, the Natchez Trace (AMA #11).
Before the age of the Steamboat on the Mississippi, it was common for goods to be floated downriver on flatboats that were dismantled and sold for lumber at their destination (since it would be too much work to get them back upriver). The crew would then walked back to their starting point. The Natchez Trace was one of the routes they walked.
There's a parkway now that sticks pretty close to the route of the old Trace, with some turnouts where you can walk or drive along the old path. It's a peaceful road, at least right now. There's no commercial traffic ("Recreational Hauling Only") at all, and very light traffic in general.
I rode the parkway until sunset (which is annoyingly early, these days). I made some stops for short waterfall hikes and a visit to Meriwether Lewis's grave (he was the leader of the Lewis & Clark expedition and died under mysterious circumstances along the Trace.
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