Middlesboro, Kentucky, is the largest town within an hour of where Tom and I are living this summer.  Fortunately, it has about 10,000 residents, so it has three grocery stores including a Walmart and a Kroger.  Although I consider 10,000 people to be a good-sized small city, Middlesboro has more of a village or small-town …

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We started hearing about Buc-ees a few years ago when we were on our way to Canaveral National Seashore in 2022.  There were Buc-ees signs along the interstate for miles on either side of the new Buc-ees.  We did not stop – we didn’t need gas – but I did look up what it was. …

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On one of our recent days off, Tom and I traveled the hour to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee.  We stopped by there last year, but went too late in the day to make it worth paying the admission, so we just looked around at the wonderful gift shop.  When we returned we …

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Tom and I are going without television for the summer.  There are so many trees here at Wilderness Road Campground that we can’t get any kind of a satellite signal for our Dish TV system.  We have been other places where it was difficult to get the signal, but here in Virginia it is impossible. …

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Crockett Tavern in Morristown, Tennessee is a reproduction of the boyhood home of Davy Crockett.  Tom and I visited there when we had to make a trip to the big box stores in Morristown.  Because Fess Parker played both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett in series on television, people often get the two historical figures …

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The town of Cumberland Gap has a Small Farmers Market every first Friday of the month.  I’m not sure why they call it it small – does it describe the size of the market, the size of the farmers, or the size of the space in town?  Tom and I found out about it the …

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The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate was the final thing we did together when our friends were visiting in June.  The week they visited we had lots of hikes planned.  But, because it rained most days, we had to adjust our plans a little.  Thursday afternoon, their last one …

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The closest town to where Tom and I are living is Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.  It is a tiny little place, surrounded by Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.  If it were a little more touristy, it would remind me of Ohiopyle in the Laurel Highlands.  But the town hasn’t bought in to being a tourist destination …

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Last week Tom and I drove to the Thomas Walker State Historic Site.  Dr. Thomas Walker is the most famous guy you never heard of, as Tom likes to say.  He was the first non-Native American to explore, map, and name places in the Cumberland Gap.  He is the one who named Cumberland Gap and …

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Last week, Tom and I carefully planned our days off.  We would get all our domestic stuff done one day – laundry, cooking, cleaning, blog posts.  The next day we would take a longer hike to see some of the park.  The third day we would head east on US 58 and check out historical …

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