Virginia

Day one was spent in Tennessee. After camping out in Warrior's Path State Park near Bristol, TN, we woke up bright and early and hit the road for Virginia. Our plan was to have lunch in Roanoke and then check out the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'd driven through once before in my college days during the fall when it is at its most beautiful, but it was still a sight to see in the summertime.

It was only after Warren took this photo of me and the boys that I realized we were all basically wearing the same exact outfit.

Obviously Warren shares our fashion sense as well, but look at those views!

Another bonus of following the Blue Ridge Parkway is getting to see a bit of the Appalachian Trail. This of course got Warren dreaming. As I mentioned in my column, I had to talk him down from trying to get us all to take a year off to walk the entire 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine!

The pictures on the descriptive signs are awesome and feature some fine seventies style.

There was plenty to explore. We only got to take in a fraction of it.

In Judy Moody fashion, I decided to assign thrill points along our journey to encourage the kids to really "take it." Jiro earned a few for crossing a stream on one of our stops. It required an outfit change, but that was fine.

I highly recommend taking the scenic route whenever possible.