New River Gorge, Great Smoky Mountains, Congaree, and the beginning of Florida

On May 19th, Wednesday, we drove to New River Gorge National Park.  It was mid-afternoon so it was mildly busy.  The ranger at the visitor's center recommended hiking a shorter, less traveled path first and then moving on to the path with the most famous view in the park, the view of the bridge.

After those hikes, I drove most of the way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.

In the morning, we drove through the park and took a steep hike up to the tallest point in the park.  The park was very busy so we didn't do another hike because there wasn't parking at the trailhead.

Then I drove to just outside Congaree National Park in South Carolina where we stayed for the night.

The next day, we walked a boardwalk through Congaree.  It was very swampy, unlike any of the other parks we've been to yet.  Then I drove to Sarasota, FL for the night.  I checked on the fruit trees in the morning; some had fruit.

Today we went to Kennedy Space Center.  They have one of the old space shuttles there and lots of other cool stuff too.