Florence Alabama and The Trace May 2 - 12

Sadly, I am failing at trying to get caught up with blog posts for May.  So I will try to re-cap a few highlights on the remainder of our trip up the Natchez Trace and back to Indiana.  

We made a detour of a few days off of the Trace and over to the east to Florence, Alabama.  The city operates a nice campground at McFarland Park on the shores of the Tennessee River on land owned by the TVA. Evidently they close it down when there is a threat of flooding and it had just re-opened the day we arrived.  

It rained for a most of the time we were there but we enjoyed our stay in this area.  We especially liked our visit to the Rosenbaum House, a home designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright.  There are many things to do in the area and you can check out the city's website to read all about them here.

 A view from the campground one evening after the rain had moved out.

The Rosenbaum House.  A must see for anyone interested in FLW homes and buildings.

After four nights in Florence we moved  back to the Trace and our final stay on the Parkway at Meriwether Lewis Campground.  Of the three RV friendly campgrounds on the Trace, we felt this was the nicest.   The gravesite for Meriwether Lewis is near here and there are also some nice trails. 

There are a few pull though sites, but we chose this wooded, back in site which was quite adequate.  I know  tent campers have as much right to use the same campsites, but sometimes the nicest, long, level pull through sites would be inhabited by one lone tent camper when there is an abundance of beautiful tent sites available.  Sorry, personal rant.  

A nice little hike from the campground will take you to the Meriwether Lewis grave site.

Our travels on the Natchez Trace were complete and a few more miles up the parkway we ended up in Nashville, TN.  We were able to get two nights at the popular Seven Points COE Campground on the east edge of the city.  This was our first time at this campground and will definitely return.  Our past camping stays in the city were much more expensive and not near as pleasant.  We spent an afternoon downtown and checked out the Antique Archeology store and surrounding shoppes.  A very interesting building but the store was a little disappointing in that there were few of the items from the "American Pickers" show.  But they do have a nice selection of souvenir t-shirts, caps, etc. 

We then ventured downtown to Broadway and nice supper at the Acme Feed Store.  We did a little city style hike across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge to enjoy the sunset before headed back home.

A final view of J Percy Priest Lake from the Seven Points Campground and the sun sets on our first adventure on the road in the new  motor home.  We continued back to Indiana the next morning and a few days with family and friends before heading out on our summer travels.