Massachusetts & Cape Cod

We we are a little behind on our posts, but have been enjoying our trip and we have pretty much exhausted ourselves by the time we get back to the camper.

The drive through Jersey and New York was pretty hairy and expensive.....jeez you'd think with the amount they charge for tolls they would be able to repair their roads.  Here is my very quick view of New York City:

We made it into Whitinsville, MA and are  in the campground that Trey's family spent their summers while visiting family.  He says it hasn't changed since he was here last over 25 years ago.

Headed over to visit Aunt Debbie & Uncle Jim on Sunday for pizza, beer and the Patriots.  Enjoyed watching the game then playing cards later.

Their neighbor has his own honeybees, they came by to have a drink out of Aunt Debbie's bird bath.

Took a trip down to Gloucester to see the Fisherman's Memorial and the light house, then we met Jonathan & Brenda for dinner.

Thanks Debbie & Jim for a wonderful time! Now on to Cape Cod.  This was a short stop and unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well, took a short walk on the beach in Provincetown.  Trey said it was pretty evident I wasn't feeling well since I didn't even realize we wandered on to a clothing optional beach! :-)

Skyline Drive & Washington DC

Headed to Washington DC from Tennessee via the Skyline Drive through Virginia.  Our first stop on the drive was at this quaint little cottage that belonged to Orelena Hawks Puckett who lived here in the latter part of her 102 years.  She started midwifery in her 50's and delivered over 1,000 babies her last being in 1939.  Ironically none of her own 24 children ever lived beyond infancy.  When she started her practice in 1890 her fee was $1 and when times were good it was $6, sometimes she even took food or other goods in lieu of money. "Aunt" Orelena is remembered in this area for her witty, cheerful personality.

Onward we drove and came across another area that had a wonderful display of the types of fences that the early farmers in the area used and some are still using today

 This picture shows a buck fence (on the left) and  snake rail fence (in the background)

 This one is a post and rail fence

They also had an observation tower which we climbed and as you can see another very cloudy day in the mountains.

Needless to say after taking this drive we were both exhausted and decided to stop for the night in Roanoke only to find that there was no where to park the camper for the night other than in the County Inn & Suites parking lot.  Alas this was the first night since we started that we didn't spend the night in the camper.

Made it to DC....found a nice campground and headed into the city the next morning.  My first ever ride on a subway pretty interesting.  Walked the entire city from Lincoln Memorial to the Capital Building.  Here are some photos:

Exhausted and sunburned we headed back to camp to get ready for our trip to Massachusetts

Blue Ridge Parkway & Tennessee

We headed out of Asheville via the Blue Ridge Parkway headed north to Tennessee.

 As you can see the first part of our trip was very rainy

 This is a picture of us driving through a rain cloud

 The accommodations and the rig....looks pretty small next to this rock

 Morning glory

The following pictures are a mountain cabin that was moved to this area to recreate the life of a mountain farmer.  We thought this could be a perfect home for us.

The storm finally lifted and afforded us this beautiful view!

After we left the Blue Ridge we headed to Rutledge, Tennessee to see my Mom.  We had a nice few days with her and Dennis. It was particularly entertaining watching Dennis & Trey install cabinets in my Mom's kitchen.  Went to Lowe's to help my Mom pick out a more appropriate light fixture for her kitchen and on the way home we stopped to take a picture of one of the many Quilt squares on a barn.  As we drove further up the drive to turn around we met up with the farmer and he invited us in to see his amazing Tennessee walking horses.  I called him Farmer Jones, before I found out his real name was Farmer Pace.  

He actually moved here from Kentucky to raise these beautiful horses.

Afterwards we headed into Knoxville to enjoy a few beers and a wonderful pizza! Knoxville is another downtown that has remained semi-quaint but very trendy, enjoyed walking around looking at the old buildings.

Here are a few of the quilt squares on the sides of barns in the area that we could find, supposedly they mark parts of the Appalachian Trail, but we thought it was fun to look for them. The third one is on Farmer Pace's barn and you can see him standing in the doorway.


The next day we spent the day touring the area around my Mom's that is very rich in Civil War History.  We stopped at Lincoln Memorial University and walked through a very interesting exhibit on Abraham Lincoln. After we finished there we headed to a lookout point that allows you to stand in and view Tennessee, Kentucky & Virginia.  Unfortunately we left our camera in the camper so we don't have any pictures. :-(