3 days, 4 states (August 23-25)

Kentucky August 22 additional note for previous day...

This morning after dropping off John at his starting point, I saw something interesting.  In Iowa this would really surprise me, but nothing is that surprising in KY anymore.  As I was pulling out of the gas station a women in her large SUV pulled in past me.  Her young son was on her lap in the driver's seat.  He looked to be just a little younger than Graham.  I didn't see anyone else in the vehicle nor did it appear to be an emergency.  There are some things that just wouldn't fly where I am from and this is one of them!  Deep down I was angry, but I had to laugh at the cultural differences within one country.

Virginia August 23: Traveled from Sheltowee Trace Outfitters to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park Campground in VA.  We spent most of the day driving in KY and ended the drive with a long tunnel into TN, then 1 mile stretch in TN before reaching our campground just barely into VA.  We escaped KY!!!

We drove around the National Historic park area and up to the overlook where you can see 3 states.  KY, TN, VA

VA (rainbow), TN, KY

Selfie failure 

Better

Deer on our drive

There was a heavy down pour while we were out driving around.  The bathroom ceiling vent was open on the camper and Charlotte thought that someone had peed all over the toilet seat.  Haha!!  Just rain water.

In this site we were unable to get the camper level from front to back because of the size of the incline, so we are nose down...so much so that John and I slept the "wrong" way on our bed so that our feet wouldn't be higher than our heads.  It was an awkward night of sleep.

Happy to be out of KY!!

Tennessee August 24: From Cumberland Gap to Kingsport, TN KOA.  Once again we have a pool and we can do laundry!!  This is the longest we have gone without doing laundry...a week.  Doesn't sound like much, but we packed light for the summer, so laundry is necessary at least every 4-5 days.

Getting into the site was "fun."  You would expect that a KOA would have easy to access sites and so forth, but this place has some really steep driveways...the sites are mostly level, but the roads around them were not.  The trailer once again ate ground on the way into the pull thru site, however no damage done.  Also, I discovered that I had forgotten the spring bar tool for the new hitch at the last campground...boo!!  I found the old one, which worked just as well.  I couldn't make the camper level because the hitch would not come off once again.  I really wish that we had locked the old hitch.  There were several times before it was stolen that I thought maybe we should get a lock for it, but we had gone through most of our trip without an issue, so I figured we were in the clear.  Now I KNOW!!

Swimming was great!! 

Biking today was a mix. The first 40 miles were excellent as I rode on a multi divided highway out of the gap and there was a huge shoulder! I stopped at a great little diner for breakfast customer and spent a long time talking with the lady who owned it. I met up with Rebecca and the kids just at the right time. My huge highway had become a very narrow very busy 2 Lane Rd. with no shoulder. I decided to take a break in the middle of the ride and hop in the truck until the road conditions got better. About 20 miles from our campsite the road was supposed to break off to a small country road so I decided it would be worth a try. This road was absolutely gorgeous for about 3 miles until it turned into gravel and very hilly. The last 10 miles of the trip was probably the heaviest hardest urban riding I've ever done. I was super happy to get to the KOA!

North Carolina August 25:  From Kingsport KOA to Boone, NC also a KOA.  It turns out that Boone is a college town and looks like it.  Today we spend way too much time traveling.  We were in and out of the truck from 11 am - 5 pm.  We did stop for lunch and shopping, but it was just a long day of traveling.  The kids don't do very well on those days.  This was John's last mountain climbing day of the trip.  It is all down hill from here.

The KOA was at about 3600 ft elevation and Boone was at about 3000 ft.  Those last 4 miles were up, up, up.  Once again the KOA was very interesting to maneuver.  This time in addition to steep driveways, they were also narrow and full of trees.  It was a lovely spot to camp, but not easy to get into or out of.  This time I did have to level the camper from left to right...it was necessary.  So...to do this I took off the stabilizer bars and then put it up on blocks.  Not the order of operations that I'm used to, but it worked.  As I was getting set up I also noticed how difficult it was going to be to get out of the site in the manor that they would suggest.  I ended up asking the KOA staff to hold the spot directly in front of us so that we can go through that one to leave in the morning.  They agreed.

The temp here was only 72F sounds nice, but it actually felt a little cold at the pool.  They also had roosters, goats and donkeys to see.  The kids enjoyed that.  The animals actually came running to us because they are so used to being fed by people.

John ended up stopping before Boone because of the traffic and people honking at him.  This was one of the least hospitable biking roads and coincidentally one of the few that I saw signs for "share the road."  I guess they don't really want to share.

John found this outside of our campsite while looking for a stick.

We are getting really close to the end.  John has only 5 days ir so of biking left!!