It is hard to believe that already we have been on the road for four days and this is the first opportunity that I have had to take a moment to sit down and reach out to all y'all. So for days of relaxinf summer days and lazy campground nights with time to read and write...who did I think I was fooling?

Anyway, we are oof to a grand start and have already been having an amazing time with great sights, cool peeps and neat experiences.

It started as a comedy of errors as we were readying ourselves for take-off on Monday morning. Sure, more could have gone wrong, but still we sere two hours late in taking off due, in part, to technical difficulties. Turns out it was the blonde us all along....

Typically known for my navigation skills, it wasn't half an hour into our trip when I made the first wrong turn. Technically, we were never lost. I always knew where we were...just wound up adding about an hour to our first days driving by making a bone head error...209 to 17 instead of 84. Allison, who said she wouldn't even have known if I hadn't told her (perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut) and I decided that perhaps I had started to take my skills for granted and thereby was slacking...something to work on.

We did get to Kentucky without another hitch, however and set up cam like champs whose heads likely hadn't even hit camp pillows before dreams of cherry plums and kentucky hills were in our heads.

The morning brought even more excitement that didn't allow me to sleep past 5:30. The dew was in the air and the sun was on the rise. I was eager to make coffee and enjoy the sunrise as I read about American history and thought about what the next few days might hold for us. In my head, our trip was taking shape and I was hoping that Allison would be keen on my travel and lodging ideas.

When Allison rolled out of the tent much earlier than she tend to arise, we headed off to the office to seek local counsel. Caves and Country music points of interest were on the menu. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for our livers, the bourbon trail was out of the question logistically speaking.

The highlight of the day turned out to be the visiting the birthplace of Loretta Lyn, Crystal Gayle and chatting with their brother Herman Webb about the old mining days in Butcher Holler way off the beaten track in the gorgeous hills of Kentucky where us Catskill girls felt right at home...well, mostly.

Turns out, we were in need of a couple of chivalrous Virginia boyz to turn us onto a safe and timely path to our destination in NorthCarolina where we would be staying with my adopted Mexican family and enjoying Sam's mom's incomparable Mexican home cooking. The next day would bring travels through the beatiful blue ridge mountains visiting quaint little towns, reminiscent of New York's won Adirondacks and particularly Lake Placid, a favorite town of mine. In the evening we were treated to pozole, a Mexican traditional favorite of mine, followed by flour tortilla making lessons from "mi ama' mexicana." Even Allison tried her hand at rolling the masa. It seemed mine were gettting further and further from round and so I passed her the roller.

And then, it was....on the road again...more to follow. Thanks for reading!