07 May - New York

The BIG APPLE....we managed a campsite in Jersey City, just a stones throw from the downtown New York skyline...wow, what a wonderful city.  We had a small walk to the water Taxi from the campsite that took us over to the base of new World Trade Center.  Lots of construction going on but we managed to get to the Hop On-Hop Off bus area where we did New York for the day.  Needless to say, one day is NOT enough, but it was enough to convince us that it was worthy of another visit.... probably a fly in in the future for a show or something!  It was a great visit, but I did manage to LOSE my cell phone here...believe it or not, but a local found it and put it in the mail to Bar Harbour where we were reunited.....what a great fellow!
We have a great impression from this visit and this action!

This was the view from across the water where we stayed, and the Statue of Liberty could be seen from here as well!

Did you know that the fellow that designed the Eifel Tower in Paris also designed the framework for this wonderful piece!  Pretty majestic presence in the harbour!

04 May - Millsboro

Well, we arrived in Millsboro, Delaware and booked in to this beautiful resort right on the canal and experienced a beautiful sunset from the campground (first picture).

Some great houses across the canal.....I digress....we used this area to visit a number of places along the coast with the first being Lewes Harbour.  We discovered that this was the FIRST city in the FIRST State of the nation.  A very lovely seaside village with beautiful beaches and very little commercialism.  Some interesting "critters" discovered on our beach walk and having never seen a "Skate" shell, this was pretty impressive.....forgive the almost-worn-out sandal placed for perspective!

From here we traveled down the coast to Ocean City, Maryland and found yet another area packed with tourists and commercialism....much like any other seaside "carnival" atmosphere.  Maye did find a yarn shop there called  "Salty Yarns" so all was not lost!

The weather was warm and the beach very inviting, but now we are far enough North that the water temp in the Atlantic is getting quite cool.

30 April - Cape Hatteras, South Carolina

Now things are starting to get bit more exciting.....here we are driving down the highway just minding our own business and over the radio, we get this strange "alarm" sound....."What could that Be?" we ask amongst us.  We find out shortly that this is a Tornado warning system.  I guess the conditions were right for tornados and here we are!  The winds were howling and at times, we almost had to pull over to the side of the road due to the amount of rain that was falling! Incredible forces at work.....

We stopped at the visitor center as soon as we got over the bridges to the outer banks and spoke with a fellow who seemed a little nonchalant about the whole deal....he actually commented that over the water, the tornados are waterspouts and they are "really cool to watch".  We did not see any over the next few days on the Cape, but we were NOT sorry to leave the wind behind.  It blew hard for three days here as evidenced by the number of Kite Boarders we saw at times!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was great, however we could not climb and go out at the top as the winds were too strong and the Park would not allow it.....starting to sound like a broken record, but, "We may have to come back....".

The little hut behind the trailer is on the beach....what a great location and beautiful view as we opened the window blind every morning!

We took a little ferry off this part of the Cape to another island and had a fun little day exploring more sand dunes and incedible beaches.  There is some thing about being by the water!!! We had decided years ago that any holiday had to have a "water" component and this location certainly checked a lot of boxes!

Now the really cool departure from here took us to Kill Hill....mean anything to anyone?  That is where the Wright brothers conquered flight.  Now this National Park was REALLY great!  We saw a life size model of the Kitty Hawk and the hangers where they built the "bird".  Pretty good for two preacher's kids that were running a bicycle repair shop!

This was taken from the top of "Kill Hill" where they first launched their gliders in the early days! They have erected a monument here now and if you look to the right of the long walkway at the end of the field, you can see the hanger where Kitty Hawk was built and the building beside where they lived on site during the project.....a really interesting study!

April 29 - Cave City, Kentucky

OK... so we arrived at Diamond Cave and our intent was to compare this area to the Cave we visited in Nevada.  No comparison.  This area is a National Park as well and is known as the Mamouth Cave National Park.  Our tour took place at a private Cave across from our campsite and was fascinating!  I think the consensus was we were more a "part" of this cave as we walked through and it was every bit as interesting.

We got so involved in this tour that we actually missed any tours offered by the National Park Service....I guess that means we have to come back!?!?!  The Park visitors center was great and we learned so much about their 350+ mile network of caves.....all this time, none of us had really given much thought to "caves or cavers", but our thoughts are shifting!

26 April - Nashville, TN

We made it over (back inland) to a little campground called "Made in the Shade"...this was the most "Rustic" campground yet, but afforded our jump off to Nashville......what a great City!  We toured the Grand Ol Oprey and got our pictures taken on stage with Maye singing.....quite a hoot!  A very well laid out City and there had just been a Marathon run this date, so the streets were alive with people.  The walk about town was very interesting .... lots of music being pumped from all the bars on the main drag!

This last picture is the Ryman Theatre downtown where it all began....the next picture is the "new" venue built in the early '70's.

April 25th - Waynesville

We travelled in to an area around the Smokey Mountains and were to use this as a jumping off point to Dollywood....discovered its just a theme park with rides and the like so opted not to participate!  We did however take a trip around the Smokey Mountains and visited some great places...again, lots of commercialism and saw where everyone flocks to for their holidays.  Beautiful country side and incredible roads to drive.  One area called "Tail of the Dragon" boasts 363 curves over an 11 mile stretch....it was great!  Would be even better with the top down in our Miata!  Somehow the GMC- HD  does not perform that well in this environment, but it was adequate!  The road ends in a little town of Fontana with lots of lakes and dams in the area.  Very picturesque.

April 23 - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Well, we have been plagued with poor or no internet for awhile now and it has been hard keeping things up to date....we spent one night in Myrtle Beach on our way North and can see what the people in the East see when they come to this area.....it is very built up and the commercial presence seems akin to Miami/Fort Lauderdale in Florida.....jst not quite as far away!  The beaches are great, but not our cup of tea with all the shops and mini golf setups along the strip....I think we counted about 27 of these "golf" courses along the main drag!

The campground was great and had good facilities, but not likely to come back this far in the future!