THE CUMBERLAND GAP - It’s the big “V” behind me, a natural gap in the mountains.
Now this is more like it! Nice big campsites with actual forest between neighbours! Even the sound of nearby traffic that carried in from the highway was more soothing than screaming kids high on sugar! :-)
This was our second time at this park (located where Kentucky, Tennessee & Virginia intersect), we enjoyed it so much in March 2009 (see old blog) that we had to come back. Plus the scenery in the fall was so much different with leaves on the trees, temperatures were warmer too. We actually lucked out with the weather, it was gorgeous almost the entire week. Sunny and warm, highs averaging in the 70s F and a few afternoons, it made it up to 81F.
There was one warm and scary afternoon....about 20 tornado warnings in the surrounding area. Believe me, the last place you really want to be when that’s going on is in a trailer. The brick and concrete bathroom was looking pretty good but thankfully it never got bad enough that we had to make the mad dash to it, but I was ready! The closest city to us, Middlesboro, KY (10 minutes away) did see a small F1 tornado touch down briefly and damage some buildings including the local mall. The next day, a ranger was telling us about his scary experience seeing it all happen. He thought it was going to come across to the store he, his girlfriend and many other people had taken cover in, when it just lifted up and took off again. He shared that for a brief moment, he was almost more worried about his new truck than his girlfriend! What a good southern boy! :-)
So we took full advantage of the ideal hiking weather and got in some great workouts. The fall scenery and the views were incredible.
On one of our planned down days (the legs demanded it) we had to deal with truck problems. It wouldn’t start. Made use of the CAA membership and got a boost so Dave could go into town and figure out why the batteries were dead. Turns out the alternator was toast and it had drained both batteries and they couldn’t be recharged. So add about $600 to our list of expenses to replace them all. Luckily Dave was able to do all the labour himself.
Another hilight of this week of camping was our neighbours, Timmi and Dean, a retired couple from Tennessee. They were a blast! Had many interesting conversations with them. The last night we were there, Timmi (a retired nurse and motorcycle mama) asked to borrow some sugar, which I luckily had. Lucky, because later that evening, we got to feast on one of the best, made from scratch apple pies we’ve ever had. So glad that Dean finally caved in and bought her that new toaster oven. Who knew pie from a toaster oven could be so good??? We do now....thanks again Timmi!
Check out our pictures!
Next stop, the Smoky Mountains!