We decided to drive our pick-up truck cross-country to Pennsylvania on our semiannual trip to Freeland, PA to spend some time with Joy’s mom. The intent of driving the truck to PA was once we in PA, we wanted to do some camping in the Canadian Maritime Proveniences; New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

The trip plan was to go east from Tucson, through New Mexico, Texas to St. Martinville, LA, whose residents maintain is the original settlement of the “Acadians (Acadiana)”. The southern adjacent parish, New Iberia, is in our opinion, is the home of the best crawfish (Mudbugs) in Louisiana, and the reason for taking the southern route, and was to get our “crawdad” fix.

From Acadiana we headed north along (near) the Mississippi River following US 61, stopping to see a couple of antebellum mansions along the way. The grounds and the restored mansions are reminiscent of a long ago opulent time. We continued north in Mississippi to Natchez, Vicksburg, Jackson and Tupelo, stopping at a number of National Park sites to read about the horrors and tragedies of the American Civil War. Before this trip, I was unaware of the severity of the Civil War battles in MS and TN.

Thence north into Tennessee via Shiloh and Murfreesboro and on to Kentucky, arriving in Cave City, near Mammoth Cave National Park. After spending a couple of days “spelunking” (not by a strict definition), we visited the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln near Hodgenville, KY, finding out he was not born in Illinois as I had always believed.

From Mammoth Cave NP we headed east to the Cumberland Gap NHP. The Park is partly in KY; partly in VA and a smaller portion in Tennessee. Cumberland Gap, was the first great gateway to the west, (Kentucky). The Boone Trail, also known as the Wilderness Road, (which originated in Philadelphia, PA as the Great Valley Road), were some of the names associated with the trails leading to the “Gap”.

After leaving Cumberland GAP NP, we changed our goal from visiting NPS elements to finding and listening to traditional Appalachian music Appalachian music is defined as music that has been passed down for generations and lives on today in many small towns and areas in southwest Virginia. Last year we discovered where much of the music is played. It is roughly from the coalfields in western VA to the Blue Ridge Mountains, called, The Virginia Heritage Music Trail or ”THE CROOKED ROAD”. It starts in Rocky Mount, VA; heads west winding its way along US 58, through Bristol (VA), through Big Stone Gap, to Breaks, VA, on the Kentucky border, a distance of about 300 miles. We researched the dates we would be in VA and then picked out where we wanted to be. The village of Floyd was going to have music the entire weekend we would be in southwestern VA.
After the music, we continued north along I-81 to Lexington, VA to have lunch with a dear friend. We missed visiting my son Richard and his wife in their future home near Harrisonburg, VA, since they were in the process of moving from PA.

Continuing north on I-81, we left VA and passed through WVA and MD on our way to the Bedford, PA area to resume our quest of NPS elements. Here we visited: Flight 93 NMS; Johnstown Flood NM and the Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS. We then continued north until we got on I-80, then east to Freeland, PA. A distance of about 3500 miles and 19 days.