Day 17: Harrisonburg VA to Kingsport, Tennessee

Today we drove----again, a leisurely 350 miles----through Virginia to just across the northern border of Tennessee. While we don't plan to visit Sewannee, TN, it is my birthplace. But Tennessee is said to be a beautiful state. We did find Virginia very much so; we drove through the Shenandoah National Park today. It being Sunday, there were no road repair crews to take pictures of.....but we did get some pretty good scenery photos and also took pictures of our campsite, here at Rocky Top campground & RV camp, near Kingsport, TN. Tomorrow we should see the Great Smoky Mountains National Park-----another park I've wanted to visit for a long time. After that we should proceed pretty much west. But first, there's the matter of the Cracker Barrel restaurant, which we've heard much about from friends of ours. Apparently they're a big chain here in the south so, as luck would have it, there's one right at the on-ramp to the Interstate we'll take in the morning. So we'll just see for ourselves.

 This is the second really big cross we've seen; both were set up by Baptist churches, who sank a lot of money into this effort. Impressive, and to my way of thinking, a good use of their money. The size of these make them impossible to 'not see' as you drive on the interstate. It has been very interesting to see the relative presence or absence of various denominations as we've traveled around through Canada & the New England states and now through the upper South.

A sample of the scenery of the views from the Shenandoah National Park ridgetop drive. Overlooking the wide Shenandoah Valley. A number of important Civil War battles took place here.