Road Trip

Wandered around some of the back roads until we got to the Lincoln Museum at the Lincoln University in Harrogate, TN. The museum is on the campus and run by the university.  The museum has some unique Lincoln items, but they were setting up a new exhibit on the second floor which meant that half of the museum was closed so it only took about 40 minutes to see the first floor.

The Lincoln Museum, brought to you by Col. Sanders, that's right the KFC guy.

After leaving here we drove up Pinnacle Drive which is part of the Cumberland Gap Nation Park. Vehicles over 20 ft long are NOT allowed on the drive and after about the second hairpin turn you understand why. I think we counted 3017 turns to reach the top, maybe we miss counted but there were a lot. The last few hundred feet you have to walk to get to the Pinnacle Lookout. From up here you get a pretty good view of the countryside.

The City of Middlesboro, KY.  Notice how nice and flat it is, this is because of a meteor strike millions of years ago.  The city was built in the three mile wide crater, one of the few crater cities in the USA.  This also helped form the approach to the Cumberland Gap which allowed settlers to past west.

View of the city of Cumberland from the Pinnacle Lookout.

While walking to the lookout you pass from Kentucky into Virginia.

One foot in Virginia and one in Kentucky, or as John Denver would say, "One foot in Heaven and one foot in Hell"

Click to enlarge- View of Virginia and Tennessee, Kentucky was on the other side.

We found out the what ever goes up must come down, and it was just as exciting coming down the road as it was going up. We drove over to the city of Cumberland and walked around the downtown area.

Remains of an old Iron Furnace, 

Inside looking out.

Small stream behind the Furnace.

Enlarge picture on the right and the little grey speck in the middle of the ridge is Pinnacle Point.

Downtown Cumberland.

After that it was a nice easy drive on back roads back to camp.