US Road Trip Day 22 - Shenandoah Skyline, Virginia

"More long hours driving the slow route up through the Smoky Mountains. Some more deer and a few turkey and even a wild vulture along the way, and more stops on mountain overlooks. Along through Virginia and on to the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, with a stop necessitated by a leaking jar of Tabasco olives. Another strange little campsite for the evening, with more rice and oddities cooked over coals and a bit of dried twig. An owl swooped through the trees as the dusk was falling, then we bedded down once more in the back of the car under the trees." (MM)

State count - 15

California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

US Road Trip Day 21 - Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

Dinner and a movie in the strange little town of Ashevile, North Carolina, then up to run around on Easter Morn to do laundry and prepare for a long day's driving. North on to the Blue Ridge Parkway (by way of getting briefly lost), and then along past deer and mountain views until we found a little town called Fancy Gap to camp for the night. A quick lesson in making rice in little tin takeout trays over smoking coals, then an early (and, for the larger of us, uncomfortable) night in the "boot" of the car. (MM)