To Plan or Not to Plan

When we started planning this trip, we wanted to be flexible and be able to change plans on a whim so we didn’t want to book our stops in advance. Since Florida gets really booked up for the winter months, I knew that we had to book months in advance for the winter but thought the rest of the time would be easy to find campsites last minute. It was a good approach when we were delayed leaving Pennsylvania. We had no reservations that needed to be canceled.

Campgrounds in Pennsylvania typically close mid to late October and most are not busy after the middle of the month. So we thought traveling from mid October through November would be easy to find places to stay. Wrong! I had to call multiple campgrounds to find one with availability at our first stop in Kentucky. My assumption was that it was because it was early October and later in the month it would be easier to find places to stay. Wrong again!

We knew that we wanted to go to the Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg area in Tennessee and found that no place had availability to stay for 2 weeks until the end of October. So I booked that and had to fill another week or so in Kentucky. We were enjoying the Bluegrass area and the Bourbon Trail, so thought we could move over to Bardstown and visit the distilleries in that area. We could not find any place with the weekend available, There was a festival in the area and everything was booked solid. On to Plan B.

Our route to Pigeon Forge would take us down I-75 through the Daniel Boone National Forest so we thought we could stay near the forest and get in some hiking. It is Fall and again we could find spots for weekdays but not the weekends. We ended up with a campground in Berea, KY, south of Lexington and north of the national forest. Since they had availability, we booked 12 nights and were finally set with reservations through the second week of November.

Berea has been pleasant surprise. It is a beautiful college town and considered the arts and crafts capital of Kentucky. The campground is right off of the interstate so there are many that just stop for one night here and the sites are close together. It is the first campground that I had stayed at that has no activities or events happening on the weekends. That is ok though, we spent a little time exploring the area and then just relaxing some days at the RV. I have enjoyed browsing the artisan shops in town and eating at the Historic Boone Tavern in town. We found some state parks, museums, waterfalls and historical villages to visit. There are some great hiking spots in the area so we spent one morning hiking up to the Indian Fort Lookout at the Pinnacles. A strenuous hike for us but the view at the top was worth it. We found a barn theater at the next exit down the interstate and bought tickets to see Tanya Tucker on Saturday night. It was definitely worth the stop in this area. Here are a few pictures to highlight this past week:

Historic Boone Tavern at Berea College

Historic log cabin village in Renfro Valley. The cabins are in some disrepair and they are working on them. It was interesting to wander through them.

Fort Boonesborough State Park - learning about Daniel Boone and the settlement of Kentucky.

A little roadside history

Starting to see some fall colors

Beautiful day to drive through the national forest

Rainbow at Cumberland Falls

Cumberland Falls State Park

Stopped at the original KFC in Corbin, KY

Entrance to the trail to the Indian Fort Lookout

Beautiful fall colors are starting in this area. Great week to be here.

Almost to the top of the trail.

View from the top. Great vista of Berea and the surrounding countryside.

We have a few more days in this area and then we are off to Tennessee. Thanks for reading and following our journey.