This turned out to be another travel day. We are now posed for a second try at seeing Smoky Mountain National Park tomorrow (our last visit was a total fog out) then we are heading to Raleigh for a few days with Michelle and her family, before we return to Florida. We left Ft. Wayne, Indiana at 8:15 and 72 degrees and headed south for Knoxville, TN. And what was the weather like? Yep. Overcast skies. To the east, the sky was a now familiar gray, and to the west it was dark threatening clouds…and we met them head on. We were rained on pretty hard for about an hour before it cleared a bit. We did see a little blue sky around noon time, I guess to be sure we didn't forget what blue skies look like. But gray skies certainly have ruled the past couple of weeks.

Today is a four-state day, and we actually visited one twice! We drove south thru Indiana, then east into Ohio, around Cleveland and back into Indiana, south across the Ohio River into Kentucky, crossed that state from north to south, then entered Tennessee. And that was the most direct route. Honest.

In Indiana we saw golden fields of wheat alternating with dark green fields of knee-high corn stalks, a lot more mature than any we had seen yet. It appears that farming in Indiana is a lucrative business. Some of the farmers’ homes are mansions, sitting right in the middle of their acreage…beautiful, large brick homes. As we drove further south, the terrain turned into rocky hills. Although they were covered with thick, tall green trees, and had shrubs and ivy growing out of them, we could see beyond the greenery where the road had been cut through….layers of brown and golden stone which provided a picturesque roadside scene.

Kentucky gave us horses and horse farms with large fields of Kentucky blue grass parceled off by traditional white slat horse fencing. In southern Kentucky, we drove into the hills and the elevation got higher and higher until we were looking down at fertile green valleys, and on the other side were more hills wearing a thin white haze. And the air got more humid than it has been for us for two weeks and I knew we were getting closer to Florida. But not yet. We saw vineyards on the hillsides with rows and rows of young grape vines held up by fences and signs pointing us to the wineries. But we drove on. And we parked for the night in Knoxville. We’re coming tomorrow, kids. Get ready.