Preparations and the route

It's the very last days of August, Tropical Storm Fay has just left Central Florida flooded and humid, and Gustav is due to pass on Sunday. Then there's Hanna brewing in the Atlantic. Time to travel North, I guess.

We have been planning a 5-6 week tour in our old open-topped Mercedes SL500, just because we love traveling and seeing new places. Our route was decided by a number of factors - friends in Niagara, timeshare availability, the desire to visit Canada and the National Geographic book "Scenic Highways and Byways". Our route so far is loose (see map in the sidebar) but leaving Central Florida, we will head North West through Georgia to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. After a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and hopefully straying over to Asheville and the Blue Ridge Parkway, we will travel North again into Kentucky. This is unbroken territory for us, but horse country is bound to be pretty. On through Ohio then along Lake Erie to the Town of Erie in Pennsylvania. Up through New York State and over the border into Canada. Our destination is Collingwood on the shores of Lake Huron for a week. After that we turn South to Niagara Falls, still on the Canadian side, then to Buffalo, New York State again. We will head SE to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, down through West Virginia to Colonial Williamsburg for a week exploring Virginia. Then home via North Carolina, South Carolina (staying at pretty Charleston) and back into Florida.

I guess we will need to pack for tropical and temperate, rain and sunshine, and we don't have a lot of luggage space - not once we have packed the case of wine, a bag of shoes, a tea kettle and other similar necessities anyway!
Posted by Your travel girl at 7:47 AM 0 comments
Labels: Blue Ridge Parkway, Canada, Eastern United States, Gatlinburg, Georgia, Great Smoky mountains, Gustav, Hanna, Mercedes SL500, national park, Tennessee, touring USA, Tropical Storm Fay