De Soto County

OK, so the title is a little misleading as we were only in AL for about 2 hours but it was too tempting to refuse.

From the craziness of Nashville we've been cruising down the very tranquil Natchez Trace Parkway, which follows the route of old trails from back in the pioneers days. I have to admit that although it's very pleasant it's not overly impressive scenery or historical points of interest, but it is nice to unwind a bit after all the partying.

Undoubtedly one of the highlights was Loveless Café. I thought it might be a bit touristy and was prepared to give it a miss, but in the end we thought we'd stop off for a quick bite. We emerged having gorged ourselves on homemade ham, bacon and the most incredible 'biscuits' (aka scones) with homemade 'jelly' (jam). They were fresh from the oven and reminded my of my mum's amazing home cooking.

We stayed in David Crockett State Park last night, which had a good little museum explaining about back-in-the-day politics. From what I understand the way to win an election was to make up lies about your opponent, hold debates without inviting them, and the winning move is to buy everyone whiskey!

The other incredible thing about that place was the Trail of Tears ran through it. This was when the native Indians were forced off their ancestorial lands and had to walk to Oklahoma where they were resettled. It took 89 days and thousands died en-route. Davy Crockett fought strongly against this - effectively ruining his political career, but the all powerful (and future president) Andrew Jackson forced the bill through.

After skirting with Alabama we headed into Mississippi, and tonight we're on the outskirts of Elvis's hometown.Read more