Flight planning at 6:45 AM local. Arrived at M04 by 9:10 AM local. Flight plan filed at 9:30 AM local. Dick and Ruth taxied out first. Bob and the 9BA Crew had the engine started second! Maybe hussling can get 9BA in close third? Well, no one's going anywhere. Bill Hughes walked over. "Starter's gone." Bob signaled to cut the engine off. Donna thought she had screwed something up royally. Fumbled her way through shutting down the engine. Dick and Ruth got the word and taxied back. There's no maintenance here. Just a private one for the ag planes. So Bill [View Full Entry]

---

---

Left home yesterday and spent the afternoon in Rochester, NY with our daughter and her family. Never too much of the grandchildren. Finished off our re-supply boxes and took the first one to the Post Office myself. The clerk remarked about the address being AT hikers and the young woman who mailed her parents out boxes last year. The parents were supposed to stop in and say hello after their hike last year, but they never made it in. I asked her forgiveness and pleaded no knowledge of the promise. She was tickled to hear about how last year went and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tennessee is very green at this time of the year as opposed to the still leafless New Jersey and Virginia. Plus, it's a beautiful long State to get through! It was lovely to camp at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and wonder around cycling, trying to spot bears (not yet this time), finding hidden gems in the woods such as flowers, butterflies and a small waterfall... The van is coping well with the trip so far and I'm getting used to my new routine which is quite different from when I travelled Europe on the VFR... I can carry water [View Full Entry]

---

---

Obfuscator writes: We woke up in the morning and headed out to see a bit more of the town of Vicksburg. Walking around the previous evening, we had seen some very pretty looking buildings in the historic town. We found in the morning that we actually had some really great views of these buildings from the floor of our motel that our room was on, so we took some shots from there. When we were satisfied, we drove on down to the waterfront to see that a little bit. There's a big wall of murals all along the river, and a [View Full Entry]

---

---

We have had a wonderful few days here with family and friends. My mom surprised me with a visit from Aunt Suzie! She told some whoppers to get us to the airport (we had some suspicions, believe me!), where Aunt Suzie was waiting to be picked up. What a treat to see her (thanks so much for coming!!). The graduation party was so much fun! My mom put tons of work into making a lovely graduation party/sendoff to Kenya. The party had a Kenya theme to it and yummy food. Tony's Dad and his family were there (along with Tony's little [View Full Entry]

---

---

On my drive back to Atlanta and my week of meetings, I stopped at LookOut Mountain home to Ruby Falls and Rock City (located in Chattanooga, TN_. You can't miss it because there are signs about every other mile for about a 200 miles in every direction telling you that you must stop! They did their work and I decided to stop and take a look. Ruby Falls was quite the surprise...its motto is "200 million years in the making". Ruby Falls is an indoor 145 foot waterfall located about 1120 feet below the top of LookOut Mountain. Pretty dramatic and [View Full Entry]

---

---

I had a few hours to kill after leaving the Biltmore so decided to drive to the Smoky Mountain National Park since it was so close and see a little of it. Did not have a lot of time so mainly stuck to the road. Stopped at the observations points along the way for some photos and headed back shortly after crossing the state line sign halfway through the Park. Unfortunately, the Park wasn't as green yet this time of year as I was hoping so that dampered my photo taking a bit. It was also suprisingly clear so didn't get [View Full Entry]

---

---

I wanted to post an update that we have arrived back in Nashville (our final leg of the US journey before Kenya). We left Knoxville yeterday and said goodbye to little Tucker *sniff*. Thanks ever so much to my mom-in-law Cheryl, who is caring for him and our little garden seedlings which we hope will have sprouted when we come back from Kenya. We have started taking our malaria pills, which as Tony says, means "there's no turning back":). We still have a few things to do before we leave for Kenya on Monday, and are busy getting things done and [View Full Entry]

---

---

I just wanted to post a quick update: The court threw out my ticket yesterday! Apparently, the policemen in TN require insurance coverage for the SPECIFIC VEHICLE the person is driving, whereas the court does not care. For example, my insurance covers me in any car I may be driving, but if I were to be pulled over by a cop in another vehicle, they would give me a ticket which would be immediately dismissed by the courts. It's a big hole in the system, and such a hassle! However, the main thing is that the ticket was dismissed. I have [View Full Entry]

---

---

Birmingham to Nashville Crossing from Florida to Alabama we picked up giant Gulf shrimp and other goodies at Shrimpy’s, a wonderful fresh fish market near Santa Rosa Beach. It was miles and miles before we caught I-65. Love being off the interstate. We passed incredibly simple homesteads all ablaze (just about gaudy) with gorgeous azalea and wisteria. Wisteria climbs almost 20 ft up trees and grows wild along the county roads Alabama. Using our Magellan, we found Oak Mountain State Park near Birmingham and set up camp. This is Alabama’s largest State Park and even has boar [View Full Entry]

---

---