2005/04 Deep South trip - Leaving Columbia |
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April 2005
Dear All,
At the end of part two of this story, we had just returned from our trip to Hamilton for Ron and Junie’s golden wedding celebration. We had a great time visiting the family and the plane trip back had been easy going. We had also just picked up our camper from Provan Industries. They had finished the repair work on time, and it looked like they’d made a good effort to fix the problems we reported. So everything seemed to be coming together for our return trip to Minnesota. Unfortunately, Sandie came down with a really bad migraine that evening and night, so we didn’t start out too well.
Wednesday March 30th
We were expecting to take about two and a half weeks to get home. A winding route would take us north to the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, through the mountains to Kentucky’s Cumberland Gap, and then south down the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville across Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi to Natchez.
We hoped to get to the Kisatchie Forest in Louisiana when the wild azaleas were blooming, and then make our way back home through Arkansas and Missouri without retracing our outward steps. That was the original plan, taking advantage of forest and state campgrounds, but Sandie had perked up at mentions of North Carolina and Arkansas, both famous for their rocks, and had added trips to a few sapphire, emerald, and crystal mines to the route.