Corvette - Who wouldn't like to have a shiny new sexy Corvette. One would look great towing along behind our Dutch Star. In 1953 when the Corvette was introduced the price was in the $3,000 range - now they start at $50,000. All Corvettes are made in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We toured the plant, but were not allowed to make any pictures. The chassis is partly assembled by robots, but the rest of the car is hand made by workers adding one part at a time. Our guided tour took us just feet away from the assembly line workers and they were eager to answer our questions. Each day 135 Corvettes are manufactured and a few are taken to the test track behind the plant where they are put through a grueling test for forty miles. That would be a great job - test driving new Corvettes. 

Across the highway from the plant is the National Corvette Museum. It is a private museum and is not funded by Chevrolet, but they do support it. The very first Corvette produced is on display at the entrance. It is actually serial number 003 but the first two numbers do not exist. They have the one millionth Corvette and the first Corvette to roll off the line for each of the last several years. There was only one Corvette made in 1983 and the museum has it. Corvette production was moved from St. Louis to Bowling Green and it took months to get production rolling again with a redesigned "Vette." They made several Corvettes and then decided to tag future Corvettes 1984 models. Of the 1983 models, they were all used for testing and were destroyed except this one. Every few years Chevrolet designs concept Corvettes and tests them. Most don't make it into production and the museum has them on display. All together the museum has many one-of-a- kind Corvettes and over 60 all together, many setting in period displays. The museum is a "must see."

We chose Levi Jackson State Park in London, Kentucky as a base to tour the southeastern part of the state. Just down the road in Corbin we visited the restaurant where Colonel Harland Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken. His old restaurant is mated to a modern KFC restaurant and it contains a museum and the Colonel's old office. For more information on Col. Sanders click here. Just down the road we stopped at Cumberland Falls, the largest falls east of the Mississippi River and south of Niagra Falls. The falls is 115 feet wide and 68 feet high. We had a pleasant walk down the river looking at the beautiful trees.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is located where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet and the park contains more than 20,000 acres. The gap is a natural pass through the Appalachian Mountains. In 1775, Daniel Boone and twenty companions marked out the Wilderness Road from Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and the migration began. Between 1780 and 1810 between 200,000 and 300,000 people, plus animals, crossed through the gap and the Wilderness Road. When the gap became a National Park in 1940, a paved road, U.S. 25E, covered much of the old trail. In 1996 a tunnel under the mountain opened, the paved road was removed and the old trail is being restored. Cumberland Gap is a special place for Norm as his great-great grandfather, Robert Payne, as a young man rode his horse through the gap and settled in the new frontier of Kentucky. Then six times he returned to Virginia and brought family and friends to the new state. The weekend we visited the park the trees were in a full display of colors. It couldn't have been more beautiful.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina) has ten million visitors a year, more than twice as many as any other national park. The park contains 521,621 acres, more tree species than northern Europe, 1,500 flowering plants, dozens of native fish, more than 200 species of birds and 60 mammals. The park has been designated an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site. The foliage was at peak colors during our visit and words or pictures can not describe its beauty. We spent two full days driving in the park, awestruck at the sights. A hike took us to Clingmans Dome, the highest place in Tennessee at 6,643 feet.