For those of you who haven’t driven through Utah, it’s a most spectacular State. Even the drive from Salt Lake City south is well worth staying awake for, especially if you are driving

The drive through the Rockies, along the Colorado River, and then yesterdays drive up to Salt Lake from I 70 were wonderful. After driving across country twice in the past 3 weeks I can now say with some conviction “I love the West”. No insult intended to any other place on the globe.

Sad to now be so close to ending the trip, but I’m tired after long days on the road, and the uncertainty of where I’ll be stopping each day. Tomorrow I’ll be at home with my family and will sleep in my own bed.

When I think of Colorado my mind fills with images of the Rocky Mountains, year round snow covered peaks, thick evergreen forests and golden Aspens. Driving into Colorado from Kansas is a little unsettling.

It looks just like Kansas, flat plains, fields of corn, the occasional oil well pumping away, and you listen to radio stations from Platte Nebraska. A road side sign lets you know if you climb a tower at the following exit you’ll be able to see six States. I figure this must be Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New Mexico, but by now I’m really not sure.

It’s not until you reach Limon that the Rockies start to appear through the distance haze, and you feel confident you are in the correct State. By the time you reach the outskirts of Denver the Rockies are making a clear statement, and right outside the city Interstate 70 starts it’s hectic climb along with the temperature gauge of the vehicle.

Lots of history along the road, signs of tailings and mines, butted up against new rafting companies and homes. Over the Peak and the long slope down, past world famous ski resorts, they give the appearance that the recession hasn’t effected them. Lots of people on the golf courses and practicing their swings on the driving range, huge resort complexes draped in Tyvek under construction, and sailboats on Dillon Lake. But it could all be a sham, or maybe they know something we don’t.

Having lived most of my life in ski resorts I drive past the Vail’s, Beaver Creeks, and Copper Mountain’s and I wonder where all the workers live, and how far they have to drive to work every morning.

Then the long decent through the canyon, follow the Colorado and exit the Rockies. It seems so short and breathtaking, the type of road you travel on with the radio off to fully appreciate the surroundings.

We seem to take a lot of pictures of our trailers in spectacular locations, so I thought I’d take one of the trailer on the Plains.

Lots of rolling plains, the feeling that the road goes on for every. The excitement of the drive seems to be choosing which gas station to stop at.

Graham’s Cave State Park was situated at just the right spot for breaking the journey. Close to the Freeway and heavily wooded, hot showers, it’s about all you can ask for on the road. Plus it was $11.00

Driving along I64 and I70 it’s easy to get confused which State your in. Yesterday I was in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.

What I’ve seen a lot of are shrines and shredded tires.

The shrines are mainly impromptu gathering of flowers, some are more organized and ornate with a cross or a name. All remind me that life is tenuous at best and a moments lost concentration or carelessness isn’t always forgiving.

The shrines are a reminder to stay vigilant, and drive carefully.

Most of the tires I see are shredded along the road. They look like truck tires. I see trailers with shredded tires wrapped around the rim. One rim had no tire on it, and the rim had been grinded down to less than it’s original diameter.

Today a car weaved through rush hour traffic in St Louis, as it went by I saw the drivers side rear tire was bulging at about half full. The car weaved on before I could do anything to inform the driver of the problem.

I was surprise some twenty miles further on to see the car off to the side of the road. The tire completely shredded on the rim, the driver searching for a spare in the trunk.

I was surprised he’d got this far, and surprised he hadn’t realized anything was amiss before running the tire on empty.

Drive safe, stay alert, and check your tires, and call your mother.

The journey West begins, Maryland, to West Virginia and almost into Kentucky. A whole day driving through The Appalachians, lovely country. When I studied Geology they said the Appalachians and the Scottish Highlands were once all one mountain chain, long since broken apart by continental drift. Maybe that’s why it has an old feeling to me.

I stopped at the West Virginia welcome center and picked up a map of the State. There were quite a few symbols for camping near Huntington with a few that look inviting along the Ohio River.

As we all know maps can be deceiving and the campgrounds turned out to be for long term RV’s not one night camper like myself.

After driving up the WV side of the river I hopped over to the Ohio side as I saw a large chunk of National Forest close to where I was, and thought some primitive camping might be in order.

After buying fuel in Gallopolis I recognized how tired I was and started to think about a hotel, when a WalMart came into view.  So tonight I will attempt my first overnight at in a WalMart parking lot.

Sort of quaint, I’m off by the gardening section, tucked in next to the mulch. Canada Geese are flying overhead looking for a quite spot on the river to roost for the night.

Apart from the diesel trucks in the parking lot a mildly restful night.

Nice cool evening and night time air up on the BRP. Drove out of the mountains and on to the Interstate to make up some time and gain some miles.

Big Meadow camping ground had been recommended to me, and it would put me in striking distance Maryland the following day so I had that as my goal.

I didn’t realize that the campground was in the Shenandoah National Park, but the whole area was really beautiful. I think it was my favorite section of the BRP.

When I registered at the campground I had to sign a statement saying that I understood about food storage and wouldn’t hold the park liable for any damage done by animals trying to get to it.  As I was reading this a large adult bear walked by and headed up to the lodge for dinner.

As I drove into find my campsite the first vehicle I saw was a 6X6 Pinzgauer. After I’d set up camp I walked over to talk with the owners and give them a copy of the most recent Overland Journal.

Claudia + Richard had just completed an expedition of North America. You can read about it here www.tripbook.ch/users/901/ Spend part of the afternoon with them exchanging stories of Namibia, we found out we all love that country.

Later I went back to the Teardrop and made dinner giving tours of the trailer as I did so.

I was invited to share the campfire with four families from York PA. A really enjoyable evening talking and watching the kids eat Somemores. I was also introduced to “Mountain Pies”. Made in a waffle iron type of set up you place two pieces of bread, one in each half, put a filling in the middle, close the iron and heat it over the fire.

That evening we had savory cherry and apple Mountain Pies, cut into 4th’s and sprinkled with powder sugar. I was told that an egg and bacon could be used to make a breakfast sandwich.

I don’t know how friendly the bears were, but the deer were almost tame, as you can see from the pictures.

Onto Maryland and the family reunion.

You wouldn’t image that it was possible given all the navigation equipment I now have, but I did manage to go the wrong way. GPS, compass, and map and I still go wrong.

I’ve decided to use the map as the main source of information and back it up with the GPS, rather than the other way around.

Camped next to another Teardrop at the Crabtree Meadows campground off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Super nice people, aren’t all Teardrop owners?

It didn’t look open, but there was a guy on the covered patio with a computer open one of the tables. I parked the Jeep and Trailer, grabbed my computer bag and headed over to join him.

He confirmed the place was closed but the Internet was up and running, so I started to update the blog, download E mail, and do my daily visit to Expedition Portal.

I struck up a conversation with my Internet poaching friend Reggie. He was born and raised in Lebanon and his family still lived there. He moved away and gone to school, and lived in Nashville working as a graphic artist.

Reggie had returned to Lebanon after the economy slowed down, and he looked after his Grandmother who had Alzheimer’s, and picking up some work locally.

Reggie was an easy person to talk to. He was intelligent, articulate, funny, self confident, and he had a good grasp of world politics. All positives in my book.

I asked him what life was like in Lebanon, and he said he couldn’t wait to move back to Nashville, and was even considering Portland. Exciting changes I told him, I hope it works out.

Reggie hoped so too. He’d been fired from his job for being too “cocky”, we both knew what he meant. After all he’s living in a town out in the sticks, he’s educated, he’s articulate, he’s intelligent, and he’s African American.

As a white guy who lives in Northern California, I guess I’m naive, but I thought that racial tolerance had moved further ahead than this. My point of reference was a long way from Reggie’s.

Segregation still exists, it seems, the black people live in one part of town and the white people live in an other. Reggie twisted the perspective a little when he said that he ran into a person he’d been to high school with and they had said he talked like a white person.

He didn’t expand on this, but I thought does that mean if you’re self confident and articulate you can’t be black? Or flipping that, if you’re self confident and articulate you must be white? I’m uncomfortable with both those statements. Reggie’s point was in addition to the oppressive attitudes of the whites, some of the black population had type cast themselves (or made to believe) that they fit into certain constraints, and he couldn’t get along with either.

Wow. I’d dropped into this place for a cup of coffee and an Internet connection. What I ended up getting was a slice of Reggie’s life.

Best of luck to you Reggie

Up early and hit the road by 6.00 am. Sort of magical to backtrack the path I’d taken the night before and now see it in the daylight. There was a mist in the air, I was definitely in the land of big rivers.

Today was the first day since leaving the West Coast that I saw clouds in any concentration, I don’t know the prevalent weather systems but maybe I’d moved out of a westerly air flow and was getting into a more Southerly Gulf influenced weather system.

The land is now arable rather than grazing land, there are hills, rivers and lakes. Radio stations are now more varied than Western and Christian, there is Rock, Classic, Hip Hop, and NPR.

I stop in Memphis to walk along the banks of the Mississippi River and share some words with Mark Twain, but it’s a fully grown city and getting to the rivers edge is next to impossible. Oh well, next time Mark.

I’ve overcome my limited internet access by calling my wife Rosy and asking her to look things up for me on her computer at home and then relay the information to me. State Parks near Nashville TN. Coffee shops with internet connection in Lebanon TN. Never mind, my AT&T phone has started to show signs of an imminent death, I think I see an iPhone in my future.

Pull into Cedars of Lebanon State Park. I know what day it is now, but I’m still confused by the time zones, am I two or three hours later than PST? Does it matter?

Nice little park. People actually tent camp here, I love it. Texas was definitely the 5th wheel and large trailer crowed with full kitchen, pop outs, and AC. Here in Tennessee people don’t mind getting dirty and sweating a little bit.

Do you think the early settlers had similar conversations? Those people in Conestoga Wagons are a bunch of wimps in comparison to us people on horseback ????

The people are different here. Along the route people have just come up to me and said “What the heck is that?” and then demanded a tour of the Teardrop. Here they look, wave and don’t say much. It’s dark now and I have the LED lights on over the wheel wells. Families are heading to the bathroom to take their showers and I hear them say “Wow, that’s cool”. They are right; it’s cool.