We stayed at the beautiful Cherry Hill Park campground, near Washington, D.C. This place must be really hopping in the summer with 2 pools, hot tub, a splash pad, putt-putt golf, on-site cafe and a bus depot with transportation to the train station. You can rent cabins here too. I took a walk around the place and here are some of the pictures. Even though we could have taken the bus from the campground depot to the train station we…
We left on a beautiful, crisp morning to explore Shenandoah National Park along the Skyline Drive that runs 105 miles from north to south with 75 overlooks. The maximum speed is 35 mph so it is a nice, leisurely drive. We started at the northern entrance near Front Royal, Virginia. After getting our Park map we proceeded to head south. The Drive was beautiful but the Fall foliage was not quite as brilliant as we had expected, which was similar…
We stayed in the beautiful Endless Caverns RV Resort in New Market, Virginia near the Shenandoah National Park. We had checked out this campground on a prior drive through the area on our way home from Nashville in the car and we were glad that we decided to return there to camp. The entry way is a beautiful tree-lined road and the campground was well-kept. It would be a fun place in the summer with a pool and fishing pond….
We stopped for a two-day layover in Boone, NC to visit our cousins, Carol and Wayne King. Carol is the daughter of Laura’s father’s brother. Got it? They visited us a few years ago in Westport when they were working with Samaritan’s Purse in NJ, helping hurricane Sandy victims. It was nice to see them again and catch up. When we arrived at the Honey Bear Campground in Boone our car was dead as a doornail. There was no one…
For this visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park we entered from the Oconaluftee Visitors Center on the North Carolina side of the Park and headed North on Newfound Gap Road. We made several stops along the way to our final destination at Clingmans Dome in the center of the Park. There was a nice hike (1/2 mile but very steep) to climb to the base of the tower at Clingmans Dome. Unfortunately the Dome was closed for repairs…
We drove around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to get to our next campground in Cherokee, NC. There is a road that cuts through the middle of the Park but it’s very twisty and turny and not very big-rig friendly. Going around was a much better idea. As we approached Cherokee the landscape was much more beautiful and less commercialized than the northern entrance to the Park near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. The cute, laid back town of Cherokee…
Our initial visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was from the Sugarlands Visitor Center on the northern (Tennessee) side of the Park. We stopped in the visitors center to get maps and information on the Cades Cove Driving Tour. The 11-mile one-way loop drive begins about 25 miles west of the visitors center. It was a beautiful sunny day and we stopped along the way for a picnic on the river. The chairs and table we got from…
What to you think of when you imagine Pigeon Forge? I was thinking of a cute country town where Dolly Parton grew up. Well it may have been that at one time, but not anymore. What a shocking sight it was to drive into Pigeon Forge and find one of the most commercialized places I have ever seen! In additional to the sights below there were a dozen elevated go-cart race tracks, putt-putt golf courses and arcades, not to mention…
This Park was quite an adventure, beginning with the drive to the entrance. We were following the GPS directions from our campground when suddenly we saw a sign saying Road Ends in Water. What does that mean? We found out when we came to this cute little car ferry. You drive on and it’s about a two minute ride across the Green River. Very cute. We had made reservations at Mammoth Cave for the Historic Tour, a two hour tour…
What a great time we had in the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky area! The National Park was a blast and you can read about it under the National Parks tab. We stayed at Nolin Lake State Park and had a nice spot on the lake, though thick foliage blocked most of the view. We were really out in the country about 25 minutes from the nearest grocery store, Cee Bee (yes that is really the name), and an hour from any…