The Natchez Trace . . . . I've driven on it many times, especially certain segments of it.
It follows, more-or-less closely, the path that people followed on the way home after riding down the Mississippi River on log rafts to Natchez, Mississippi (they sold the rafts there, for the logs that they were made from. Maybe people used the route after transporting some other stuff to Natchez that way, too, I dunno.)
The Trace is paved today, but very lightly traveled in most places. Part of the reason is a 50 mph or less speed limit the entire way (strictly enforced, although a local resident who travels it frequently told me that if you have your headlights on, park rangers won't stop you if you're doing 55 mph. ha). Nowadays, too, the road does not really go to and from places that people generally want to go to and from.
There are no billboards, no commercial advertising at all, along the Trace. And no commercial vehicles are allowed. It
is, after all, a
National Park, albeit a
444-mile long one!
There are all kinds of cool historical sites and natural attractions along the route. I'm sure that our author will tell us about some that she saw.
One thing that I've got to find out. The Trace is a narrow, two-lane road, with practically no shoulders in most places. It is not, and never was, designed to be a trail like the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail. I rarely have seen anyone hiking on the Trace. I wonder how well hiking it worked out for the author.
I hope that you didn't mind me sharing some of my personal knowledge about this special road. Maybe it will lead you to buy the Whispersync deal . . . .
Be sure to read the "comments" below to see some of the many awards and honors that this book has received.
Title: Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.
Genre: Non-Fiction (Travel/Adventure).
Author(s): Andra Watlkins.
Price: $2.98 ($0.99 ebook (marked down) + $1.99 Whispersync audio).
Regular Price of Audio, by Itself, at Audible: $17.95 (1 credit).
Ebook Rating/Number of Reviews: 4.3 stars/203 reviews (Amazon).
Audio Rating/Number of Ratings: 4.8/8 ratings.
Pages/Audio Length: 252/6 hours and 42 minutes.
Narrator(s): The author (Andra Watkins).
Audible URL: http://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoi...ok/B0182VNGOU/
Amazon URL (you can get the whole Whispersync deal here): https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-M.../dp/B00S7761E2.
Comments: The book is a New York Times Best Selling Memoir; it is nominated for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Sarton Memoir Award and the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Autobiographies and Memoirs.
Book Description (Amazon):
Can an epic adventure succeed without a hero? Andra Watkins needed a wingman to help her become one of the only living persons to walk the historic 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did. She planned to walk fifteen miles a day. For thirty-four days. After striking-out with everyone in her life, she was left with her disinterested eighty-year-old father. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. Sharing a bathroom with a man whose gut obliterated his aim. As Watkins trudged America's forgotten highway, she lost herself in despair and pain. Nothing happened according to plan, and her tenuous connection to her father started to unravel. Through arguments and laughter, tears and fried chicken, they fought to rebuild their relationship before it was too late. In Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace, Watkins invites readers to join her dysfunctional family adventure in a humorous and heartbreaking memoir that asks if one can really turn 'I wish I had' into 'I'm glad I did.'