However, Ruth had seen a media display at the visitors center in Kosciusko that advertised the town of Clinton, which is sort of a suburb of Jackson.
Clinton, Mississippi.
Right off the Trace at the Clinton exit is the visitors center. Worth a stop in itself. Beautiful building with lots of interesting stuff to see, and you can use the spotless modern washrooms and grab a free cup of coffee.
Clinton, Mississippi Visitors Center. GPS 32.358251, -90.321450
Inside the visitors center.
Some quilting displays.
And an interesting statue commemorating some local Korean War heroes.
Worth reading the story.
The ladies in the visitors center gave us some tips on where to park near the old downtown area, but it would be tough for anything much larger than Sherman. We ended up in the First Baptist Church parking lot, but it might have been easier simply going to the Kroger grocery store lot.
Clinton is the home of Mississippi College, founded in 1826. They have really pretty grounds, so we went for a walk on the campus...
Notice the blue sky? Another beautiful day!
Lots of big old southern homes.
In the Christmas spirit!
Ruth, and a big mural.
We went into an old knick knack store called "When Pigs Fly". Kind of a junk store, with a little bit of everything. They're closing out, and everything in the store was 46% off. They take one more percent off every day. so today, everything will be 47% off!
Interesting to talk to the owner Fran. Her husband passed away a couple of months ago, and the store was really his pride and joy.
We bought a 4 DVD set of 20 war movies... for a total of $1.20!
Inside the When Pigs Fly store.
The gallery of watercolor artist Wyatt Waters.
Too bad he wasn't in, we had heard he's a very colorful character!
Everybody is very friendly. I think the old downtown Clinton area is pretty easy to overlook as you're driving along the Trace, but it's well worth a stop!
We carried on another 35 miles or so to Rocky Springs Campground. We had stayed here on April of 2009 when it was totally full and we were lucky enough to get the very last spot. Interestingly, we both remembered that at the time, it was the best spot in the park!
The three free campgrounds along the Trace have no hookups, so you get a lot of people using generators. And we can't stand the annoying drone of a generator in a peaceful campground. The site we got was far away from anyone else, and nobody could come in and park close to us.
This time, although there were only four or five other rigs there, we chose the same site!
In April 2009!
Yesterday!
Once again, the generators were running. One guy had an old construction generator attached to the back of his old fifth wheel. It was so loud, I don't know how he could hear himself think inside his rig. It ran for about three hours, but fortunately it was far enough away that it didn't bother us. We noticed that nobody parked in the five or six sites near to him.
We went for walk up to the old Rocky Springs church.
The old Rocky Springs Church, built in 1837.
This would be a spooky graveyard at night!
This tree has funny roots where the erosion has washed away the soil.
The town of Rocky Springs.
Rocky Springs doesn't exist anymore, all of the buildings are gone, and all that remains is the church, the graveyard, and a couple of old rusty safes from the post office.
Me, on a section of the old original trace.
Only one problem with Rocky Springs Campground. No Verizon internet signal. Otherwise, we would have stayed for more than one night.
But, there are lots of other things to see. Today, we're going to end up at Natchez, the furthest southern point along the 444 mile long Natchez Trace Parkway.
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Nice price drop on the Stanley 170 piece tool set. Should be everything you need to keep in your RV in one easy kit.
And in Canada...
An interesting town, and a nice overnight spot. Cool to select the same camping spot so many years later. The statue is a great tribute to a couple of friends...
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed the "downtown" Clinton, it isn't very big but it is interesting. Yes, a great tribute to a couple of boyhood friends.
DeleteGlad you are enjoying the trace. We did it about 15 years ago and it looks like little has changed...Rocky Springs was one of our favorite places to walk on the actual trace. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteWe did enjoy the Trace and happy that we spent more time this time around. We enjoyed seeing some of the pretty little towns just off of the Trace, lots of history in them and very friendly people.
DeleteThe sunken Trace in Rocky Springs campground is a wonder section. Sure makes you think about all the other before you that had walked that same trail.
Cool campground! Clinton looks like a very interesting town for sure and we love those little Knick knack shops too bad she is closing looks like some interesting stuff. Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteIt is a nice campground, and we still think we had the perfect site out of the whole campground. :-)
DeleteIf you love those little knick knack shops than you would love Clinton because it actually has two of them, although this one will be closing shortly.
I've always found folks in the south so friendly.
ReplyDeleteIt must be that "southern hospitality" that everyone speaks of! :-)
DeleteThe Fallen Comrade statue story - so interesting! Clinton looks like our kind of town. We always liked the murals painted on old buildings - neat!
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting and so sad too. The ladies in the Visitor's Center said that the artist who made the statue comes in to their office almost every day for a coffee and a chat, unfortunately he wasn't there when we were. He is 92 years old now. It would have been interesting talking with him.
DeleteWe lived in Mena, Arkansas for about a year and some of our best memories are from our time there, living "down south". Beautiful country and I have enjoyed your adventure along the "Trace". Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't spent nearly enough time in some of these states but after doing the Trace and meeting such friendly people we can see ourselves coming back to the "south" and exploring more of the area. That would include Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
DeleteSo glad that you enjoyed our posts from traveling along the Trace.