We left the Blue Ridge Parkway at Ashville, NC, and after driving around Ashville a little, we headed west on I-40 toward Knoxville, Tennessee. (We did stop at the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, but we decided that we didn't really have the time to tour it since it was already mid-afternoon. We did, however, stop at their gift shop/tasting room where we sample the local fruit of the vine and bought a couple bottles for the ride back home.)

We spent the night near Sevierville at the Riverside RV Park and Resort. OK, what makes it a "Resort"? You can see for yourself by clicking http://www.riversidecamp.com/ and checking it out.

The next day we stopped by the University of Tennessee campus just to see what this Neyland Stadium looked like. I have to admit, it was somewhat impressive but I guess I still like Beaver Stadium, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, better. There is actually a street on campus named "Peyton Manning Pass". I couldn't pass up taking a photo of it.

Here is where we stayed at Natchez Trace State Park, about halfway between Nashville and Memphis.

On Wednesday, November 1, we had a date to meet Elvis for lunch in Memphis. First we went to his house, Graceland, (http://www.elvis.com/) and despite seeing his grave marker there, I was fairly confident that he would be at BB King's Blues Club to join us for a brewski and maybe some BBQ.

Alas, he didn't show up but I know if he could have, he would have.

Here are some shots of Beale Street, Birthplace of the Blues, where Elvis didn't show up. We also visited the nearby Gibson Guitar factory but Elvis wasn't there either.

We spent that night in a motel near Little Rock, Arkansas and the following night at Lake Mineral Wells State Park, just west of Fort Worth Texas

On down I-20 for endless miles of not very interesting topography or scenery, we finally made our way to Balmorhea State Park, built around a fresh spring in the 1930's and 40's by the CCC. It was a nice place and the huge, deep, clear pool is used to give scuba lessons to all those aspiring deep-sea divers living in the middle of nowhere, Texas.

We finally got out of Texas, passed through southern New Mexico and found Roper Lake State Park, near Safford, AZ. It was pretty cool. It even had a hot spring that fed a hot tub of sorts, where I soaked for a while in the 100 degree water. It did not have any of the sulphur smell I usually associate with hot springs.

We visited Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, AZ, (http://www.nps.gov/sagu) and then made our way up to Molino Canyon Campground in the Coronado National Forest, just northeast of Tucson.

We had one more night to go before hitting home. We had planned to camp somewhere out on the Imperial Sand Dunes but when we got there, we got stuck in the sand! It's a long story, but whne we finally extricated ourselves we decided a cool motel room in El Centro sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, every motel room in El Centro was booked. We still don't know why there were no rooms, but we found a nice place to camp at Desert Trails RV Park (http://www.deserttrailsrv.com/).

It was a great trip, but it was good to get home!!!!