Category: Drives
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Driving to New Orleans
April 28, 2022 Next week I am doing a 5-day photography/cultural workshop with Mark Zablotsky Photography in New Orleans. Mark lived in New Orleans for two years while doing his Periodontics residency in the 80’s, and he has been back many times for continuing education. I could have flown down, but didn’t want to, or…
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Tomoka State Park, Florida
We drove east across Florida from Manatee Springs State Park to Tomoka State Park, passing near beautiful Ocala. It’s like Lexington, Kentucky, with gorgeous horse farms. This is the height of show season, and big horse trailers were traveling to events. Tomoka sits between Orlando and Jacksonville, just north of Daytona Beach and south of…
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Driving to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Tuesday, September 21, 2021 It’s a 7-8-hour drive to the Smokies from Charlottesville, depending on how you go and where you are going, but Martha wanted me to break it up, so I booked a night in Highland Haven Campground outside Roanoke. I went down 29, which is pleasant enough. You just have to be…
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Hike Little River Trail, Cucumber Gap

We went on the Loop Drive in the morning, now the fifth time we’ve done it. We saw lots of turkeys early, but the highlight was finding a “bear jam” with a ranger present. There was a mother and three babies in a wild black cherry tree….all on one branch! We relaxed and hung out,…
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Burke’s Garden

“God’s Thumbprint”, “Vanderbilt’s first choice”, “Garden Spot of the World”, or as the locals call it, simply “The Garden” are impressive titles for an area I have wanted to visit for a long time. As the story goes, James Burke camped here with James Patton in 1750, burying some potato peels. Another party camping in…
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Natchez Trace From Meriwether Lewis to Nashville
Tuesday, March 23, 2021 We left Fall Hollow Campground and followed the trace north. It was now rolling hills and a curved road. We stopped at a tobacco farm not far from where President James Polk grew up, then a beautiful series of waterfalls. There was an easy hike up to a bluff overlooking the…
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Natchez Trace From Jeff Busby to Tishomingo State Park
We first drove south on the Trace to French Camp. “Louis LeFleur first traded with the Choctaw Indians at a bluff now part of Jackson, Mississippi. About 1812, he established his stand 900 feet to the northeast on the Natchez Trace. Because of the storekeeper’s nationality the area was often called “French Camp”, a name…
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Drive Natchez Trace to Jeff Busby Campground
Thursday, March 18, 2021 It was 10:00 before we got onto the Natchez Trace. We said our goodbyes to Bev and Willow, exchanged contact information and gave her a big hug. I hope we cross paths again. We left a lot undone in Natchez, but maybe that just leaves more to do when we return.…
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Drive From Casper, Wyoming to Hall County Park in Grand Island, Nebraska

Friday, July 24, 2020 I left the gravel, Casper KOA at 9:00, late for me, got on I25 south, later turning east on Rt. 26 for Fort Laramie and zig-zagged to I80. I have heard people complain about Nebraska being a boring drive, but I think it is very pretty with the beautiful Platte River,…
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Following The Salmon River

Thursday, July 16, 2020 45 degrees this morning, 92 in the afternoon I enjoyed a drive down Rt. 75, taking pictures along the way. It is one of the prettiest roads I have ever driven, following the Salmon River downstream. I will let the pictures do the talking. I stopped at one spot to do…