Nashville, Tennessee - Day 2

by jlivella

Nashville, Tennessee

This place was Poor

Our first national park- New River Gorge, WV

As we awoke, the rain was coming down very steady. We packed up the camper (no fun in the rain!) and drove a few miles to our first National Park, the New River Gorge. The visitor center was wonderful. We picked up some post cards and the kids bought their National Park Passports. Each National Park has a stamp that you can stamp your passport with. (For $8, this turned out to be a great investment.)

Since it was raining, we took the Junior Ranger booklets with us. We walked down the three million steps- (first time that I realized how out of shape I was... fearful visions of hiking down the Grand Canyon and climbing the Rockies about 400 paces behind the rest of my clan!)- that led to the lookout platform. It was worth the trek. We got some great photos.

We got on the road around 11:30. The kids completed their Junior Ranger booklets in the car and we ate chicken cutlets and fruit cups for lunch. The rain never stopped all day. Our next destination was the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee. The weather report on the radio was calling for severe thunderstorms, so we decided to drive as long as we could, bypassing the Great Smokey Mountains. We studied bears this year and found out that the Great Smokey Mountain National Park had the greatest Black Bear population in the United States. Needless to say, we were disappointed. But our desire to be warm and dry was greater.

We drove 440 miles that day, for 7 hours. That was one of our longest days of driving. We made it to a motel just outside of Nashville. We ate at 'The Peking Buffet', not as good as the 'Hong Kong Buffet', in Johnstown. The motel we stayed at was inexpensive, but nice. There was even an indoor pool. The kids were thrilled. They were well-deserving of a treat, after being in the car for 7 hours. NJL