We left Pigeon Forge yesterday morning and drove into the Smokey Mountains National Park. Our first stop was Cade's Cove on the north west side of the park. On the way there we saw a couple of yearling black bears grazing in tall grass. You can always tell where there's a bear as the traffic grinds to a halt! In Cade's Cove we saw a number of old buildings which had belonged to people who lived in the area before it was declared a National Park. There was a grist...

We left Nashville yesterday morning and headed east towards the Smoky Mountains. After a homely lunch at a chain of restaurants called Cracker Barrel we stopped in at Knoxville to visit my friend Susan who I met online doing internet projects between our classes back in 1995. The only time we met face to face was when we came over here in 1998 or 99 when we were on a busy trip that stopped in Phoenix, Arizona. She's retired since then and she and her late husband...

We enjoyed our night at the Opry and saw 12 artists perform in a 2-hour program. While we didn't really know the names of any of them, the music was good and some of the ones that we enjoyed were Riders in the Sky who were a band of 4 and did a great rendition of Rawhide, Kalisa Ewing, Chaley Rose who sang 2 beautiful songs and The Willis Clan who are 6 (of 12) siblings who sing and play a variety of instruments. Today we drove to see Antique Archaeology that fe...

Yesterday we left Laurel and continued to drive north in our sleek, black Nissan Altima. Actually we stopped at Walmart in Laurel first and bought a few new clothes as well as an esky and some supplies. We stopped for lunch at the tourist rest area as we crossed the state line into Alabama and picked up a few brochures. We decided to visit Barber Motorsports Museum on the outskirts of Birmingham. It houses five floors of displays, mainly motorbikes but also Lotu...

Yesterday we rode the streetcars in New Orleans, firstly travelling on the garden line past all the grand houses then changing to the line that went up Canal St and stopped at City Park. Here we went to the Morning Call Cafe and again enjoyed coffee and beignets as well as gumbo and jambalaya. This filled in our last day nicely and we spent the evening eating on Bourbon St and listening to music again - a bit of traditional jazz this time! We picked up a car in ...