Dateline: Panther Creek State Park Campground, Morristown, Tennessee

Somewhere along the line, I lost the post for Roanoke. Sorry, Steve!

It’s been a long time since I went camping. I actually got settled a lot faster than I expected, and there was more sunlight than I expected when I was done, but I still would not have liked to go further. The next camping opportunity we would have had would have been past Knoxville, and I am pretty sure I would have run out of daylight by the time I got settled there.

This is fine. This is a nice park, a bit out of the way, but that is OK too. Peace and quiet -- and did I mention peace? -- is good.

Oscar and I went on a little hike after we arrived, and he got to smell a new smell: deer! He was all for tracking the loping creature through the woods, but I didn’t think that was wise. Of course, it’s not nice to harass wildlife, but it is getting dark and there are people (and park rangers) lurking about. Oscar always comes when I call him at home, even if he is on a scent, but no. We’re not chasing deer in the state park tonight. Sorry, boy.

Once again, the driving today was all interstate. I didn’t leave Roanoke until about 10:45, which was perfect since I was up late last night talking to Steve. I met my friend, Sherrie, in Blacksburg. Sherrie worked with me at UGA, and we had lunch together. That was really a special treat. Seeing Sherrie was a treat, indeed, but she works at the Maryland Virginia College of Veterinary Medicine, which is on Virginia Tech’s campus, so Oscar and I got a tour of their (pretty incredible) facility there.

We also met Terry (I think that was her name), a veterinary toxicologist at the school. She told us about a discovery made at the school recently showing that common household cleaners cause damage to reproductive systems in mice. That’s pretty big news. One thing I have enjoyed about working at a university is access there is such a diversity of cutting edge information.

Unfortunately, my friends in Asheville are currently in Seattle, so it didn’t make sense for me to drive down to North Carolina. I have seen the Blue Ridge Parkway many times, and it was trying to rain for a while today, so I just stayed on I-81 and went straight to Tennessee.

When I did my Southeast USA road trip in March, I went through the Smoky Mountain National Park. Plus, my friend, Rusty, has a cabin just outside Gatlinburg – it’s for sale, if anyone is interested! – and I have been to the cabin with him many, many times. For all those reasons, I’m not too sad about moving quickly through this part of the country or staying on the interstate.

I am not sure when I will run into any more friends. Maybe not until I get out west. This part of the country still feels very familiar, so I am sure the full effects of hitting the road won’t sink in until at least Friday or later.

It’s 9 pm here and the crickets are singing in harmony. The sun is completely down, and I am sure it will wake me when it rises, so…until tomorrow, good night.