6/1/12 – We left Knoxville this morning at 8:45, 68 degrees, headed for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It rained during the night, the ground was saturated and the parking lot full of puddles. We saw the lowest priced gas on the road out of Knoxville…3.17. What a difference from California where it was not unusual to see 4.89. The park is not far from Knoxville. To get there we drove through Pigeon Forge. Anyone who has been to International...

5/31/12 – It was a dark and dreary day in St. Louis this morning. It was sprinkling rain and overcast when we left at 8:15, 61 degrees. But it promised to improve as we moved eastward, and it did. We pointed the car toward Knoxville, TN for a long day of driving.Almost immediately, we drove through the city of St. Louis and I took a few photos of the arch, though they are less than spectacular, given the weather and that I took them from a moving car. We...

5/30/12 –So, today was another travel day. We left Salina, MO at 8:30 AM, and the temperature was a comfortable 62 degrees. We got onto I-70 and headed for St. Louis, MO. The first part of the drive was similar to yesterday…flat golden fields of grain mixed with dark green fields of corn. As we moved eastward, the corn got taller, and I wondered if the climate was warmer here than in west Kansas. We saw a farmer harvesting his grain…no idea if ...

5/29/12 – We got up early today, but for some reason, we still didn't leave until 8:15 AM. Must have been the time we took to have breakfast. It was 54 degrees in Denver when we got on the road. This was a day for traveling. There is not much to see on I-70 through Colorado and Kansas, so we drove all the way to Salina. And we were told…it is NOT Salina (saleena), it is Sal EYE na.   Learn something every day. Anyway, there was not much to tak...

5/28/12 – We woke up this morning to clear sunny skies and 34 degrees. A beautiful day. And I am thinking, this has to be the last cold day of this trip. Tomorrow we are going to be down from the mountains. I must add, however, that 34 degrees in Colorado is not nearly as cold as 50 degrees in Florida. Seems like what they say about dry heat not being as hot as humid heat is also true about the cold. A dry cold is not nearly as cold as a humid cold, which c...