State Park Extravaganza

I think Reelfoot Lake State Park, located in Tiptonville Tennessee, is my most favorite place to stay this trip. I had the best site in the whole park, overlooking the lake, nobody near me. It was peaceful, it was beautiful.

The rangers at Reelfoot had a huge bag of unprocessed pecan nuts in the office. They used this bag to feed the squirrels. I have never heard of anybody who thought squirrels were something to keep around. These squirrels were all yellow-bellied – no, they were – they all had golden colored bellies. They were extremely tame – I was worried that Miko would get one because they would come almost up to you.

I ran into some people, Pat and Bob, a couple of sites away from me. They had Tennessee license plates, but turns out that they were originally from Minnesota. I'm beginning to wonder if Minnesotans put out some sort of pheromone that causes them to be drawn to other Minnesotans. All I know is that I'm running into these Minnesotans everyplace. Pat and I decided to go hiking together. I had picked out a couple of trails I wanted to explore and she was game, so off we went. Well, let's just say that between the two of us, chattering away, we could not find the trail heads that we were looking for. So, we settled for a lesser trail and wandered down that one.

 

I made a run into town – needed to find some groceries and some wine. The only liquor store on town, East End Liquors, has the distinction of being the oldest and smallest liquor store in Tennessee according to Bobby Joe, the proprietor. It was about the size of my front room in the RV. I probably sat and chatted with Bobby Joe for about an hour about Lake County where Tiptonville is located (smallest and poorest county in Tennessee – ninth poorest county in the US) and he told me some of the old stories of the place. He sent me down the road to see the widest spot in the Mississippi before Missouri dumped sand to change the flow of the river to get back at Tennessee. Is this true? Who knows.

 

Bobby Joe and East End Liquors

After a few pleasant days in Reelfoot, I left Tennessee and headed a couple of hours up the road to Trail of Tears State Park, right outside of Cape Girardeau Missouri. During a particular tragic period of American history, when the Five Nations were forcibly removed from their homes and marched from the east to reservations in Oklahoma, this particular spot was one of three places where they crossed the Mississippi.

 

I was in the Mississippi Campground, probably named for the fact that it was almost right on top of the Mississippi River.  I say almost because right in-between the  Mississippi and the campground was a heavily used railroad track.  Some very long, loud, whistle-blowing, RV shaking trains would come by.  There were only one or two that came by after midnight which was fortunate.  My site itself was only electric hookups - all the full hookups were already taken but my site was huge and I thought the best of the bunch.

 

I think I was at this state park at the most perfect time for leaves.  It was gorgeous.  Miko and I did several hikes to overlooks and around lakes. 

 

The Mighty Mississippi

 

 



The right side of the trail

The left side of the trail

And straight ahead

Weather coming in over the Mississippi

One more color picture

During our second hike of the day, something strange happened. Usually Miko is out in front of me, leading the way. Toward the end of our two mile hike, all of a sudden she started lagging behind. Then she went over to the side of the trail and lay down. I coaxed her on a few more feet and then she lay down and curled up in a little ball and wouldn't move. The only thing I could do is pick all thirty-five pounds of her up and carry her the rest of the way which wasn't all that far, maybe the length of a football field, but it was up hill. Then when I finally got to the parking lot, huffin' and puffin', I set her down and she was all tail wagging, jumping up and down. I think I got played.

Moving on northwards, we moved from southern Missouri to northern Missouri to Wakonda State Park. There are two campgrounds, one with just electric and one with full hookups. The full hookup sites were amazing. They backed up to a lake and there were two pads, one for the RV and one for your car. I stayed here two days, did some organizing, some cleaning, some dancing outside cause there was nobody around.

My site was wider than the lot my house sits on in St. Paul

We tried to do a little hiking here but the trails were a little uninspiring. Flat, open, farm field on one side, brush and tiny lake on the other. We did see some wildlife though – one snake, turtles and tons of grasshoppers which Miko takes great joy in catching and eating

Well, at least it was a nice day

Continuing north, next stop is the George Wyth State Park in Waterloo Iowa. It was a hard drive – rained the whole way. Can you imagine my excitement though, when, as I drove through Waterloo on the freeway I saw signs for the John Deere Museum? But, wait - it gets even better – I then saw a sign for The Grout Museum. Wowzer – a whole museum dedicated to grout. I was a little disappointed to find out that it was just a museum complex named after a guy named Grout. Bummer. I think I will have to pass on both of these museums because I have a pretty hard core time commitment with Minnesota. Maybe next time Waterloo.

I'm planning on driving up to Treasure Island Casino tomorrow – empty my tanks, drain everything and get ready to winterize. I have an appointment with my RV maintenance people in mid November to fix everything that went wrong on this trip. It will probably be my last time going in to them with a long list – my two year warranty is up in February. I think I will look into getting an extended warranty because it seems there is always something going wrong.  I've been very fortunate that everything that has gone wrong has not been life-threatening or show-stopping.  I've been able to keep on truckin'

 

List:

My window coverings (shade holders) have fallen off the wall for both the back window and the dinette window. The back window has been fixed (or so they said) twice before. They use these tiny little screws which don't hold anything

Outside back panel where I inadvertently scraped up against a U-Haul truck.

Wheel well splash guard which I inadvertently pulled off when an electrical post jumped in the way

A wooden trim board above the dinette has come undone

My driver's side front leveling jack boings when going up or down

A door jamb is loose – screw won't hold it down anymore

Rubber trim around the front door is loose and flapping – needs to be replaced

The water is still siphoning out of my fresh water tank

Under the mattress for the bed is a very thin piece of plywood which supports the mattress. After much study, I have found that when a body lies in the bed, there is nothing supporting the center of this plywood and it sags about three-four inches. This means that it is a constant battle to try to stay on a particular side of the bed.

 

Rock n Roll, Blues, Country and Back to Roots

Jackson RV Park:  Pros - great WIFI. Cons -  I've never been wedged in as tight as I was in this park.  Holy Cow.  Let's just say that the ambiance might be a little bit lacking in this park.  Lovely people though - maybe cause we were so up close, I got to hang with folks on both sides of me.

As I was leaving the RV Park I saw this "old school" tour bus - W.S. Holland (self proclaimed Father of the Drums) donated those drumsticks I was wailing with yesterday at the Rockabilly Museum

I was planning on heading north from Jackson, but I heard that just down the road a half hour or so west in Brownsville was the Western Tennessee Delta Heritage Museum .  How could I pass that by especially since there was supposed to be a Tina Turner exhibit. 

The museum was actually three museums in one.  It had a Cotton Museum which was interesting.  As I'm traveling in western Tennessee I am seeing a lot of cotton fields that are ready to be harvested.  A whole field of white and it ain't snow.  The Cotton Museum had a lot of old tools used to plant, harvest and use cotton.  You got to touch the cotton in all of it's different stages.

I whipped through the Hatchie River Museum - several aquariums with ugly fish.  I know it isn't their fault that they are ugly, but I don't have to spend time looking at them.

The Music Museum - a series of displays for the musicians of the area - Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Tina Turner, Elvis etc. 

Out back of the Delta Museum they had moved two buildings that I could go through. 

Left - Sleepy John Estes cabin.  Right - Flagg Grove School, where Tina Turner went to school first through eighth grade

All you blues fans know who Sleepy John is

This is the cabin he lived in until he died

Inside of the school house was the Tina Turner exhibit.  There wasn't much biographical information but there were a lot of her clothes both stage and gowns she wore to events like the Grammys.  Bob Mackie, Versace etc.  Quite a bit of difference between Sleepy John and Tina.  They also had displayed a lot of her gold records.  In the back the school house was set up from the era when Tina went to school.

Bob Mackie gown

I am now going to spend a couple of days at Reelfoot Lake State Park.  It is about as far up in northwestern Tennessee as you can get.  There was a severe earthquake in 1811 which caused the Mississippi River to back up and create this lake.  More than 15,000 acres of forest sank beneath the level of the river.  This is my view from my front window.  Quite a bit of difference between yesterday and today. 

Those are cypress trees

Rockabilly Rocks

I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.
Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber

They say in Tennessee that no matter where you are, you never have to drive more than an hour and you are at a state park. Driving west on US40, I would say that this is true. Sometimes an exit would pop up and there would be signs to not one, not two, but three state parks all off of that one exit. I think I read someplace that Tennessee state parks are considered among the top five state park systems in the nation.

I spent the night at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, just outside of Nashville. Paid a whole $17 for full hookups. I'm loving Tennessee state parks. Miko and I hiked a few of the trails – nothing really exciting, just sort of a lovely afternoon in the woods.

I always thought Cedars were either those tall, skinny trees that are all around cemeteries or they were something like an oak tree. Nope – they are lacy evergreens.

Picture from web:

Cedar of Lebanon

When we left Cedars, we moved on to Jackson Tennessee. I had several goals in mind when I headed this direction. First on the list was the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson. It is located in a store front on a side street downtown. The door was locked so I rang the bell and met the proprietor and founder of the museum – Henry Harrison. Who? Henry Harrison is in his late seventies and first achieved fame as a Golden Globes boxing champ. Said he was in the same competitions with Cassius Clay. He also went to Elvis' high school in Memphis although he was a year behind Elvis. He was close personal friends with Carl Perkins, W.S. Holland (only drummer for Johnny Cash), D.J. Fontana (drummer for Elvis), Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee and a host of others. This museum was basically a lot of Henry's memorabilia from his associations with these guys. Henry has tried to preserve history and has interviewed thirty five of the Rockabilly greats. For the ones who were no longer alive, he recorded their band members. So he has an oral history library. When I asked him if he ever shared any of these interviews with researchers, he was a little hesitant. He said that he really wanted to present these artists' human side and did not want to have others capitalize in any way on his heroes' fame.

We wandered around the several rooms, with Henry telling stories. He would interject little videos of some of his interviews. One was of Wanda Jackson – another was a patriotic commercial from around 1988 that had General Westmoreland and Johnny Cash drumming up support for Freedom Train – a Vietnam Veterans organization.

Carl Perkin's Jacket and boots (he had big feet). The chair on the left is from Carl Perkin's tour bus

Glad All Over  written by Carl Perkins with a foreign royalty check below.  $1,265 in 1958

He then got me up on stage, behind D.J. Fontana's drum set and started teaching me how to play drums with W.S. Holland's actual autographed drum sticks. I sort of got into it – there is something very satisfying with wailing on a drum kit. Bam, Bam, Bam. I must say I rocked it.

 

 

 

My stage and my audience

 

After an hour and a half, I told Henry I really had to go. I think his feeling were a little hurt that we didn't get all the way through his collection. But I had places to go, things to see.

I was heading for the Blair Chapel CME Church Cemetery for a very special task. I had heard that there was one grave that I needed to find. Of course the guy I was looking for had died in 1944 and the church had moved it's location so it was a little difficult actually finding the grave. I finally found the old road that the church had moved from and started down it. Tiny little gravel road, not much around. Oh, did I mention it was starting to get a little dark? I found a graveyard and got out of the car. As I'm tooling around, a car drives past and stops. I ask if I'm in the right place and the man says – no, you need to go further down the road. Ok, I get to the next cemetery, get out and look at the graves. Nothing. Then, off in the distance, I see in the middle of a bunch of gloomy trees, some very old gravestones. I climb up into this area and find the grave I'm looking for. I hadn't told Tony I was going to do this, I wanted to surprise him. So....Surprise!!!!!!

 

The road to the grave

The spooky woods

 

On the way back to the RV, I stopped at a little market looking for bread. This market had hardly anything in it except for beer, chewing tobacco, cigars and some fried cheese sticks. I decided to try them. Deep fried, when you bite into them they are tough and chewy and hollow. It is like the cheese in middle all disappeared and sort of melted into the husk. They were oddly compelling.

The Proverbial Catch Up Post...again

It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness;
to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask himself
"Who am I, and where have I been and where am I going?"
                                            Carl Sandburg

Today was the finish of my Revolutionary War Trifecta. We had Guilford Courthouse yesterday and today was King's Mountain and Cowpens, all three tolling the bell of defeat for the British.

King's Mountain National Military Park, North Carolina – The Loyalist militias under Ferguson took the top of the hill, the Colonial militias surrounded the hill and crunched out a victory. Miko and I walked the mountain. According to the storyboards on the trail, the trees covering the mountain were huge and there was no underbrush. Then the giant trees were logged so now it doesn't look like it did during the battle.

 

Miko sitting in one of the old trees that the Colonials hid behind

 

Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina – Cowpens, named because this is where the frontier folk kept their cows before sending them to market. Colonial Daniel Morgan vs. British badboy Tarleton. Tarleton was the guy who several months previously had beat a bunch of Colonial militia and when the Colonials waved the white flag and tried to surrender, Tarleton slaughtered them all. Nice guy.

I think I'm done with the Revolutionary War for this trip.....finally. Interesting, but I think I need to space out this battle stuff a little bit more.

Headed north up toward the Asheville area.

 

South Carolina likes to make sure you stop when you should

 

 

 I had picked out a couple of campgrounds to stay at in the area. The first campground was sort of a mom/pop operation called Red Gates RV Park. In fact, as I checked in, I had quite a lengthy conversation about ham hocks and collard greens, neither of which I know anything about. Got myself a pull through site but when I tried to hook up the electricity, my surge protector went nuts and I couldn't get any power. Mr. Camp Host said “well gee, it works fine for everybody else”. Moved to a second back in site. Super narrow and very unlevel. When I put my leveling jacks down, three of the four tires were off of the ground. This would not do. So, I had to hook up my car again and try to find another RV park. It was getting late in the day and I was worried about finding a place and then having to get set up possibly in the dark. Ended up in Park Place RV Park in Flat Rock which although it had no charm, was very close to my next destination.

Carl Sandburg National Historic Site – this is where Carl Sandburg ( poet, Lincoln biographer, Pulitzer award winner and married to one of the premier goat breeders in the country) lived. Tied Miko up outside the visitor center, watched the movie and then we walked around the property. I could not tour the house because it was being renovated but we got to go into the goat barn and meet the goats and feel the space as Carl Sandburg must have felt. 

 

Carl Sandburg's House

Carl Sandburg's Pond

After getting a little culture with Carl, we headed up into Tennessee and I mean up. We had to cross a mountain range. I have a book called Eastern Mountain driving. It tells me what type of hills I am  going to encounter on a certain road. Well, in my giant RV, I seem to have lost it. How is it that in this small space I lose things? I don't get it. Anyway, there are nine miles of up, up, up followed by forever miles of down, down, down. I need to find that damn book.

I ended up in Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park in Tennessee. Yes, it is that Davy Crockett – the Alamo Davy Crockett. The campground is laid out like an RV park – we are all lined up, row after row. But, we are right on the Nolichucky River and the sound of the rapids really made me want to keep my windows open. Unfortunately, it got down into the thirties at night – I get the feeling that there will be no more open window sleeping.  I'm thinking I am going to need electric hookups for the rest of the trip just so I can run my space heater and not use up my propane.
 

Nolichucky River cascades right outside my door

Morning

We got a couple of good little hikes in before we headed over to my friends in Knoxville.

Anytime I am in the Knoxville area, I have to stop in and see two of my most favorite peeps ever – Bill and Kathy. We checked out some real estate in the mountains, I rode my first Paso Fino and my old favorite Icelandic Logi, went out for our traditional Mexican dinner and ate a whole lot of junk food. I really enjoyed my weekend in Knoxville.

Kathy and Tux

Bill

Virginia, North Carolina and a little dip into South Carolina

Lots of catchup since I've been off of the mountain.

 

Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia– I always thought that this is where the Civil War ended when General Lee surrendered to General Grant. Wrong – Lee only surrendered the Northern Army of Virginia. Yes, it was the start of all of the other Confederate armies surrendering, but I was always taught in school that this particular surrender was the very end. I was surprised. I actually found being in this spot where this happened to be very moving. Both sides treated each other with respect and civility and brought an end to the most horrific time in American history.

 

Museum of the Confederacy - I was rather disappointed in this museum. It was a well done museum, but I think I was expecting more of a overview of the Civil War. This museum was mostly pictures of combatants along with their personal letters and diaries. A lot of reading. Too much for me at the end of the day. One cool thing was that they had General Lee's uniform and his sword so you could really get a feel of the stature of the man

 

Stayed at Parkview Mobile Home and RV park in Appomattox. I had electricity, water, Wi-Fi, TV – I felt absolutely decadent having all these services. Although, it was no where as nice an atmosphere as Shenandoah. It was basically a big parking lot.

 

Booker T. Washington Birthplace, Virginia – Everybody has heard Booker T. Washington's name, but I'm sure that most people really have no idea what this man accomplished in his short life. He was born a slave, once freed he walked 500 miles to put himself though school and at the tender age of 25, established Tuskegee Institute and became recognized as the nation's foremost black educator. I watched the movie and then Miko and I wandered around the grounds. A lovely day meandering along a creek.

 

The Evil Tobacco Plant

Replica of the cabin Booker lived in with his mother, brother and sister until he was nine years old.  It was very very small inside

Miko had fun with the farm animals - ducks, turkeys - but the pigs really intrigued her - their grunts drove her nuts because she wasn't tall enough to look over the fence and see what was making that noise

 

 

Stayed at Owl Hollow Campground in High Point, North Carolina. Four sections in this campground, two of which are in woods butted up to a beautiful, tranquil lake. Guess which one I was in? The gravel parking lot section (although with blazing fast wifi). Turns out that twice a year, in this area of North Carolina, it is Furniture Mart time. This is when all the furniture buyers come to the furniture capital of America for their giant furniture convergence.

 

Guilford Courthouse Military Park, North Carolina – There are lots of national sites that commemorate battles. What was unique about this one is that this commemorates a battle that the British actually won. What's up with that? Cornwallis and Greene. Greene was known for fighting guerilla style warfare. Cornwallis had been chasing Greene all around the south. Cornwallis won this particular battle, but he lost a fourth of his troops and it directly led to his surrender seven months later at Yorktown, thus ending the Revolutionary War. Again, I watched the movie – it was a little different than the normal – it was like a Hollywood movie. This park was an urban park – in the middle of Greensboro – lots of woods, lots of monuments and lots of people walking, biking and enjoying the park.

Nathaniel Greene, commander extraordinaire.....and Miko

 

 

The night was spent in Blacksburg, South Carolina. Full Hookups, great Wifi. I was able to get my propane filled – bring on those cold spells. I'm ready. Mostly seasonal people here – not transients like me. A lot of trailers here are all displaying the American flag, along with the Confederate flag right next to it. I would love to talk to these people and listen to what they have to say about this, but I think I am just going to keep my head low. It is a quiet park as long as you don't count the train that seems to run right next to the campground. Oh, and the coyotes are going crazy tonight also.

 

Goodbye Shenandoah

It is funny – every morning we start out on our daily hike and I get out there and look around me and the air is fresh, the scenery is incredible, I feel invincible. Who would believe, ol' sedentary me - loving this outdoor life. Of course after I've been hiking for about three or four hours, I'm thinking – what the hell – you've seen one tree, you've seen them all – enough of this outdoor experience. But then the next morning I am ready to get out there again and start all over.

 

Today's View

 

Today I drive about ten miles north from the campground to South River Falls. My plan is just to do the short loop – see the top of the falls and then head back. Again – a lovely day. The hike goes downhill and then wanders along a creek that feeds the falls. I get to the observation post and you hardly see the falls because of the trees. So, I decide to go another couple of miles down to get to the base of the falls. Down, down, down I go and I get to what I think is the base which is just sort of a small cascade into a pool. What a disappointment. Then I see that there is a little path off on the side, a rocky steep little trail. Miko really has to scramble over the rocks to get down the trail. And then we saw the base of the falls. Best falls of the park so far. I almost wish it could have been a hot August day so we could have played in the water.

 

 

 

Top of the Falls

The Bottom of the Falls

 

Sat down next to a ranger and ate some lunch, just watching the water cascading. There was a boy scout troop at the base of the falls and they were scrambling around on the rocks, probably falling into the water more than they were staying dry.

Because I felt so good, I decided to take the long way back. Probably should have remembered how I felt about long hikes. As I'm slowly making my way up, up, up the trail, the ranger passes me by. She is probably thirty years younger than me and a hiker. I start talking to her which means I have to step up my game and keep up with her. After a while, she took pity on me and stopped to rest. I am dripping sweat – no glowing – whoa – it was intense. I'm so glad that she was there – I really got pushed to my edge.

But enough of this hiking. I think it is finally time to come down off of the mountain. I had four wonderful hikes in the Central part of Shenandoah, when I come back I will do the southern and northern parts. That is the joy of this lifestyle, I can always come back.

Coming down the mountain is a little hairy. The first three miles is at an 8-9% grade, followed by another three miles of a 6% grade – we are talking a long steep drop. My mentors have told me, take it slow, do not sit on the brakes. Put the RV in a lower gear, let the engine help hold you back. If you need to use the brakes, stab them – get down to a low speed and then get off of the brakes so they don't burn up. It is a single lane road, cars are piling up behind me, but I'm taking it slow. The road goes on and on and I'm being really concious of what I'm supposed to do. Then I smell something - not exactly a burning smell, but sort of an acrid type smell. What is this? Luckily, there was the one and only (besides the runaway truck ramp) place to pull over. I pull over and try to figure out what happened. Not a clue – I know I wasn't hanging on the brakes at all – maybe something wrong with the transmission. When the smell lessons, I continue on. I made it to the bottom of the hill, but that smell stayed with me for a couple of hours. I still don't know what it was.

Oh Shenandoah

Shenandoah National Park – what a jewel of the National Park Service.

Shenandoah is a park that runs 105 miles north-south in the northern Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. Besides getting my solar installed, this has been my major destination for this trip. I've been hearing about Shenandoah for years and I've finally made it here.

The park itself is not very wide, but it sits on top of the mountain so it is a long climb to get up here. There are several campgrounds here – I ended up in Big Meadow which is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the Skyline Drive – the drive which takes you from one end of the park to another. I lucked out, getting here on Tuesday – there were plenty of first-come, first-serve campsites left. That changed quickly as the week went on – this is Columbus Day weekend, a three day weekend when everybody wants to spend it here in Shenandoah.  I'm one of the few RVs in the park, most people are here in tents and pop-up trailers - I sort of feel like I'm RV ostentatious.   

My campsite has no hook-ups – no electricity, no water. It will be another good test of my solar system. As I write this, I've been here for four days and haven't had to use my generator once. Again, I feel so green. There is very limited phone/internet service here. Rumors run rampant – if you go to the center picnic table in the picnic area, you should get a few bars. In the lodge, there is supposed to be WIFI.

About the only thing to do is Ranger Programs and hiking. And more hiking. I did go to one Ranger Programs – Shenandoah Wildlife at night. The ranger played recordings of various wildlife – frogs, coyotes, barred owls. Not five minutes after she played the barred owl call, an actual barred owl flew across in front of us. Wowzer.

Because we are in the mountains, there is a lot of climbing up the hills and going down the hills. I always thought going up was more difficult, but I've since changed my mind. Going down a hill is much more stress on the old body. I am trying out my new hiking pole and I don't think I will ever hike again without a pole – they really make it a lot easier to hike on uneven terrain. Let me say at this point, I have got to be the world's slowest hiker. That is not counting my sister-in-law, Barb, who is much slower, but at least she stops every five feet to take a picture.

So far, the best hike for me has been the Rose River Trail. This trail goes down to the Rose River Falls. You are following the river for most of the way and because of all the rains we have had lately, the river is flowing. Cascades, Falls – we had to cross one of the streams on rocks– Miko's favorite thing(not) – again she misjudged and ended up in the drink. According to my FITBIT, I walked about 14,000 steps and climbed 74 flights of stairs.

 

The Actual Rose River Falls

 

 

The second day we walked about 12,000 steps but climbed 89 flights of stairs. I wonder how FITBIT measures flights of stairs when there aren't any stairs. We did the Lewis Falls Trail which goes to Lewis Falls (go figure), a falls that is 83 feet high. Of course I only saw the very top of the falls – to see the whole thing you would have to climb out on some rocks and hang over the edge. Not for height phobic me.

 

This all I saw of 83 foot Lewis Falls

 Today we went to Hawksbill Summit, the highest peak in the park at 4050 ft. Only 10,000 steps and 70 flights of stairs. It was a great day to do this – it seems like overnight the colors have changed. When we got here, everything was green, now it is the proverbial riot of colors. I'm so lucky. The views were great – I really wish my little point and shoot camera could capture what the eye sees.

 

Before

Taken through the car window, hence the foggy look

 

 

One of the coolest things though is that I have now officially walked on the Appalachian Trail. I've been wanting to do this for years. The Trail goes from Georgia to Maine and while I would like to walk the entire thing in one shot and be an official Thru Hiker, I think I am going to have to settle on being a Segment Hiker. I have now officially completed almost two miles of the Appalachian Trail. I only have 2,198 more miles to go. How exciting is that? 

Lows tonight are going to be low forties. Since I'm really low on propane, it will be interesting to see how it goes without heat. I have enough for the furnace, but I'm trying to save the propane until I get back into civilization. I've plenty of warm clothes – all will be fine.