Catching Up to Date...

After we left the Clinton Library in Little Rock we drove to Dickson, Tennessee and stayed the night. Next day we continued east to Crossville, Tennessee. This area of Tennessee is known as the plateau area. That night the wind came up and blew like crazy. It rained also so we kept indoors. We did go to the Waffle House nearby. We love the Waffle House! We got waffles for dinner and enjoyed every bite of the syrupy goodness. Can't do this often, though, as we'll grow too big around the middle!

We arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee on Wednesday, March 25th and just stayed, once again, at their local WalMart. We had planned to meet some friends for dinner that night. While we waited for the appointed hour, I got busy with some work on my cousin's photo album I'm preparing for her. It rained most of the day so it was good to just stay indoors.

At 6:00 our friends, John and Linda, arrived to drive us over to the restaurant they had selected for our dinner. We met John and Linda in 2006 while we were all touring Alaska that summer. They are a great couple and we really hit it off with them. We found ourselves camping at the same RV parks in different towns in Alaska by sheer coincidence. The live in a really big Airstream trailer while they are traveling. We have kept in contact via e-mail since that summer of 2006. When they learned we were coming thru Tennessee this year they asked us to stop off in their hometown of Knoxville.

John and Linda went back up to Alaska last summer and we were interested to learn about their trip. We went to a restaurant, by the Tennessee River in the heart of Knoxville, called Calhoun's. We all enjoyed a 1/2 rack of BBQ ribs, creamed spinach and corn pudding. You can't get much more southern than that! You get really good BBQ in the south. We spent about 3 hours with them and had a wonderful visit.

In Knoxville we saw the stadium where University of Tennessee football team play their games. It is one of the largest college stadiums in the country. John told us that during football season many, many houseboats pull up to dock there on the river. He said that they are all crammed in and go out across at least 5 deep. Folks just walk from one to the other to get to their own boat. That is a new way of doing your tailgate parties.

The next morning we left Knoxville and headed to the state of Virginia. We enjoyed scenery of green rolling hills along the way. We connected with I-81 from I-40 and drove toward our destination of Salem, Virginia.

We will be staying here in Salem, for a month. My cousins live here and we haven't seen them in 4 years. We've never had the opportunity to stay for a lengthy visit and so we are doing that now. My cousin, Gail, has recovered from recent breast cancer surgery and is now undergoing 6 weeks of radiation treatments. I'm glad we are here at this time in case she needs any help during this period of treatments.

We won't be doing a ton of sight-seeing while here in Salem since this is mainly for a family visiting time. But we will be doing some things, so I'll keep blogging about our experiences here in the Roanoke Valley.