Back in Durham we were able to pay a visit to Cam's place of work and meet with his work colleagues. His office is in the redeveloped American Tobacco Campus. It was so good to meet his colleagues, and there was a real advantage for us as well - on Cam's return to the office after our lunch he was called into his boss's office. Together Bill and Cam then planned our six week trip north and by the time Cam came home I had links to five maps of stages and printed out directions. Certainly can't get better than a local traveler planning our exploring.

Tuesday morning we said good-bye to Cam and commenced heading West - our destination for the next days being the Great Smoky Mountains, initially in North Carolina and then in Tennessee. With the car and caravan travelling well we traveled about 200 miles via freeway to the city of Boone for our first overnight stop. It is surprising how far ten miles is - we are so used to thinking in metric. Walking a couple of miles seems a really long way! We had our first experience of free camping in the U.S. Here there is an app which lists all the Walmart shops that allows RV's (caravans, motor homes etc) to overnight park in their car parks free of charge. This is a popular service to travellers. Our caravan is completely self contained, holds all it's waste grey and black water, is battery and electricity powered, gas cooking, water heating and furnace heating. It does not have some of the luxuries of our Australian caravan, but has comfortable beds plus toilet and shower and usual cooking appliances etc.

We headed to Blowing Rock which is a small town in the lower Smoky Mountains near Boone. The town is delightful and would have been really enjoyable to stay for a few days. No wonder it is a popular holiday and week-end destination. We then went to the actual "Blowing Rock" which is North Carolina's oldest tourist spot. There is an Indian Chickasaw legend of love associated with the rock that became known as Blowing Rock. We were surprised at how small the rock and the lookout actually were and also that we had to pay to wander the surrounds. In both NZ and Australia I am sure that this would be a free to see natural area.

From here we made our way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a National Park road running along the ridge of the Great Smoky Mountains. This parkway road runs over 400 miles along the ridge crossing Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. We joined in North Carolina and eventually came off the parkway in Tennessee. There are many "overlooks" which are points to stop and see the view. The view is mainly of rolling hills covered in forest. There are over 800 miles of walking tracks accessed off the parkway. We stopped at lots of these overlooks and eventually at the end of the day arrived at Linville Falls and walked, in the light rain that continually got heavier, for the next hour and a half for the return walk to see the falls. It was worth it though. We camped overnight in one of the parking areas on our own completely surrounded by nature. Interestingly there are numerous rhododendron bushes, some huge, that are all through the forest. The flowers are all a soft pink. We have since found out that there is no freedom parking in any National Park!

We continued our trail along the Parkway, stopping often. We walked the track to beneath the Linn Cove Viaduct. This viaduct was was commenced in 1979 and was necessary because of damage that building a traditional road would have caused to the environment. It is a 379 metre segmented concrete bridge that winds around Grandfather Mountain and was built segment by segment which was then glued together.

Grandfather Mountain at 1812 metres is one of the highest mountains in that section of the parkway. Again they charge to drive the mountain road ($US20 per person) which takes you to the Mile High Swinging Bridge - being one mile above sea level and is so tied down with steel ropes wouldn't have a hope of swinging we thought. However we were surprised at the lack of fencing or signage to warn of the huge drops from the rocks. Perhaps we have got used to Australia and New Zealand with the strong influence on health and safety.

There is also wild animal viewing at Grandfather Mountain however the animals are actually fenced in. We did see a brown bear up close though so that was interesting. Not too sure we want to see one in the actual wild.

Continuing along the parkway we came to Little Switzerland - the few houses and restaurant certainly did look a little like Switzerland.

Black Mountain certainly sounded interesting until we asked at the visitors centre the actual directions to see the mountain - there is no such mountain but they do have a couple of lakes! At Montreat there were crowds of people of all ages all with name tags - apparently a Christian music conference for the Independence Day week-end. We had known we were travelling in the American Bible Belt and this was evidenced by the number of churches we saw and how many times we had been extended God's blessing.

Peter just loved driving the mountain roads with the caravan! They are windy, and being summer and with the holiday weekend approaching, there was lots of traffic. We continued on to Clingmans Dome Lookout. Clingsmans Dome at 6643 feet is the highest point in Tennessee (this section of the Smoky Mountains is in Tennessee). There is a very steep trail way up to an observation tower at the summit and this gives 360 degree views. We did walk the trail but unfortunately it was quite cloudy so our views were certainly limited.

We stayed overnight in Robbinsville which is close to the most westerly point in North Carolina. Next morning another heavy windy pull up the mountains and we entered Tennessee, this time with a welcome sign so we knew we had crossed the state line. We were following "Bill's" planned itinerary and the GPS and this time it planned on taking the shortest route - the road became a four wheel drive only gravel road, with very limited turning and so was not the road for us towing a caravan. Fortunately Peter was able to turn, we backtracked on to another mountain road and made our way into Marysville. A lunch stop and Peter saw that the mountain road had taken it's toll by piercing a small hole into the side wall of one of the caravan tyres and it was deflating. Fortunately we were able to drive the short distance to Sears Autocare and have the tyre replaced. At least we were not having to do it on the side of a mountain road.

The Great Smoky Mountains and the Parkway continues in Tennessee. We wanted to see Cades Cove as it is particularly picturesque and it is the season to see some of the wildlife including the black bears and the deer. Unfortunately for us it is Independence Day long week-end, and today was a public holiday, and there were crowds of people everywhere. We had to join a traffic queue to drive up the loop road, the camping grounds all had out "no vacancy signs" and freedom camping is not allowed. In the end we gave up - did a u-turn and made our way down the mountain. We did see a deer on the way so that was some consolation. We maybe back in Tennessee later in the year and if so will try again.

So north we headed, out of the mountains and via the freeway overnighting in Johnson City in Tennessee. We continued north on Saturday driving some 300 miles, crossing into Virginia, and camped in Waynesboro. The camp here is big - nearly 300 sites and mostly large caravans, fifth wheelers and bus like motorhomes. Our van looks really small. People are fascinated by our accents and always ask where we are from. The Independence Day celebrations were just about to begin and as we were setting up the decorated golf cart competition did a lap of the camping ground. This was followed by a motorised train giving free rides for all and in the evening a live band played well into the night to a good sized crowd with many dancing along. Fireworks seemed to be the entertainment of choice once it got dark. It was a fun evening and seemed much like New Year's Eve celebrations. This morning, Sunday, breakfast of free donuts and coffee was provided for all campers.

We explored nearby Charlottesville today - the home of Thomas Jefferson (18011809) and two other U.S. Presidents, James Madison (1809-1817) and James Monroe (1817-1825). The home of Thomas Jefferson is open to the public and is in beautiful grounds called Monticello. It was here that Thomas Jefferson wrote the original Declaration of Independence (so you can imagine the crowds there today). We also visited the Jefferson Winery (but weren't impressed with the wines), and the home of James Monroe which is just a small farm house in comparison to the size of Monticello.

We had heard that there was an aboriginal art gallery in Charlottesville and thought this very unusual. The gallery is part of the University of Virginia called the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. There were about thirty different pieces on display providing a diverse cross section of Aboriginal art and there are visiting artists and research facilities. The collection was a gift from an American businessman who had compiled one of the finest private collections in the world.

We had planned to go to the recommended Michie Tavern for dinner which is famous for serving southern food like Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork Barbecue, Southern Fried Chicken, Marinated Baked Chicken, recipes all circa 1784, but no one told us that they only serve at lunch times so we missed out.

We finished the day with a visit to downtown Charlottesville, reasonably quiet as it was about 6 pm and only the food shops were open. We enjoyed a snack, settling instead on a barbecue back at the camp using our new Weber BBQ that hasn't had many uses yet.

We have now visited three States - North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. We continue travelling north through Virginia this week heading eventually to Niagara Falls but not sure when we will get there. It has been a lot cooler since we left Durham with daily temperatures in the mid 70's and we have had reasonable days with quite a bit of drizzly rain in patches.