Knoxville to Harrisburg, PA

I'm already at the end of my 2nd day and I can't believe it! Last night I camped at Beaver Brook Campground in Mount Rogers Recreation Area. It was a nice campground - but somehow I managed to be the only tent camper. I was a little nervous for my first solo camping trip to be in an area where I was all alone - just me and the woods! It was getting late and i wanted to get my tent up before dark - and within a few minutes there was this little old man walking toward my car. Being wary on my first trip alone I pretened to be busy on the other side of the car- but it was clear he was coming to my site. I was looking for my pepper spray and sizing up the perp when i realized - oh yea, he's the campground host! I felt a little paranoid after that.. he was super sweet - he lived there with his little wife. I told him I was alone and he said "nobody will bother you -- and if they do -- you come get me. I was thinking....whats this 90 lbs 80 year old man gonna do?

But it seemed pretty safe here and so I set up camp and made my first camp dinner - beanie weenies! I fed Oreo, popped open a cold cider and settle down in my camp chair (I mean Debbi's camp chair---Debs you might find this chair familiar...). he said I could let Oreo run around, too, so long as I kept her under control. sweet deal. thank you cute little old man : ) you made the first night of my adventure even more special with your kindness -- and finding out you weren't going to try to kill me...

I didn't sleep much but I felt good in the morning and after making some coffee, eating breakfast, and drying out the gear a little - I hit the road! I realized I had made a gross error and overestimated my drive time to PA. what i thought was going to be over 8 hours was really only 5. So...I checked the map and realized Hwy 11 (Lee Highway - same one in Knoxville) goes all the way up to Harrisburg! So I took this route 90% of the way! It was so cool! I saw SO MANY cool old houses and farmsteads, civil war sites, parks, awesome little towns, a boy getting a whippin', an Ugg boot that had been tossed into the middle of the road, a big giant bald man with one leg drinking coffee on the porch of a cool coffee shop, my first Amish wagon, and NO WALMARTS!! Definitely a better tour of Virginia and PA then Interstate 81! And i still got to Carlsile by 6pm. My hotel has no wi-fi : ( And its really not the greatest hotel in the world, but for $45 and pets stay for free?? Its perfect! There is a field behind the hotel I could let oreo free to run wild.

I drove around Harrisburg for an hour looking for a Thai restaurant. I got lost in downtown Harrisburg - incidently this is not a very dog friendly town...no dog friendly restaurants. So when i decided to turn around, i found that I had already passed a thai restaurant...so i picked up some pad thai to go and headed back to the Motel 6.