Cumberland Gap, etc

We visited the Andrew Johnson home in Greeneville, NC. He was the president who took over when Abe was murdered. He also was impeached but found innocent by 1 vote. Anyway, I wasn't too excited about visiting his historical site. After viewing the film I discovered he was the almost done in by really dirty politics and just for defending the constitution. Anyway, the ranger was really good at explaining it. The ranger was happy to hear we were headed to the Cumberland Gap. He asked to say hi to the ranger there. So, after giving us directions out of town, we drove to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. It is located on the corner of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. We camped there in the Virginia part of the park. Hard to believe the national park system has such beautiful camping at such a cheap price, Because the colors are peaking in the Smokies and Cumberland Mountains, we were treated with a beautiful site. The ranger at Cumberland was also pretty gung ho. When I asked him if he was Butch Davis, he couldn't do enough for us. He even drove Beth and I up to the top of the mountain and gave us a personal tour. So then we drove across Kentucky today and into Indiana. We have found that most campgrounds have closed as of Nov. 1st. We found one that was open just south of Indianapolis. We should be home in 2 or 3 days. We are stopping to see our friends, Merv & Kay Schlesinger in Mendota, Ill tomorrow night. By the way, gas was $1.949 per gallon in Tennessee. Bill

Trip Home (Early part) Nov. 3, 2008

After we left Disney World, we headed north. We stopped at a national monument named Fort Matanza. It is just south of St. Augustine, FL. We tried to see the spanish fort in St. Augustine but their parking was for cars only. We couldn't find a place for the motorhome. So, after driving very narrow streets in St. Augustine, we headed north again. We had to drive past Jacksonville, FL because the Florida gator fans and Georgia bulldog fans were coming together in their annual bash of football at the Jaguar Stadium. We drove into South Carolina and stopped at the Congeree National Park. Its 11,000 acres comprise the tallest deciduous tree forest in the world. Many were over 130 feet in the air. We walked a two mile boardwalk through the swamp. We stayed at a state park just up the road and near Columbia ,SC. The park is named Sequicentenial State Park. There were very few campers. We stayed an extra day so we could watch some NFL football. The Packer game was on because the Pack was playing the Tennessee Titans. On Monday, Nov. 3rd. We drove through a part of southwestern North Carolina into Tennessee. The colors are great. We stopped at Carl Sandburg's home in Flat Rock, NC. Then we drove through the Smoky Mountains Nat. Park. We saw snow along the side of the road leftover from last week. The Blue Ridge Parkway is still closed because of ice. Again the tree colors are really outstanding especially at the lower elevations. We are camping in Gatlinburg, TN tonight at a campground we stayed in 10 years ago, Our next stop is the Cumberland Gap. The cheapest gas I saw was $2.079 in Columbia, SC, today (11/3). Gas is higher in Tennessee.