Special Mom’s blog

The pandemic had celebrated its one-year anniversary. Our entire family has had their vaccination. We decided to cross Pennsylvania and enjoy a weekend out. We read on CNN that West Virginia’s New River Gorge is now recognized as a national park. It looked close and outdoors. So we booked a room and decided to enjoy the summer weekend.

But my younger son had other plans. He told us we could sneak into Tennessee, which was not too far away.

My plans for Tennesse had always been the Smoky Mountains.  When we looked at the maps and directions, it looked like we could just cross into Tennessee, (not to Smoky Mountains) get ourselves a souvenir, and come back to West Virginia for our overnight stay. 

We did not spend much time at the New River Gorge. We took some quick photographs, had a picnic lunch, got a souvenier and an ice cream, and left the place for Bristol, Tennesse.

But Bristol is a city that, on one side, belongs to the state of Virginia and the other side to the state of Tennessee. We parked our car in Virginia and walked to Tennessee. 

We stood with one foot on the Virginia side and the other on the Tennessee side. 

We have crossed state borders by cars and airplanes, and it was the first time we did it by foot. It was fun. I think my pictures would show the fun we had. 

We collect mugs or shot glasses with the name of the state as a souvenir. But to our luck, we could not find one single souvenir that had Tennesse on it. It really was a bummer. But we returned home with a mug that showed a shared state symbol.

We felt we had cheated on visiting this state. So when we did make our long drive to Dallas, we did stop in Nashville for dinner and stay overnight in Jackson, Tennessee. We then successfully purchased a Tennessee sourvenier.

By the way, the Smoky Mountains are still on my bucket list. We had originally planned on going this summer but had to postpone it. Hopefully next summer. 

For A to Z Challenge in April

T is Tennessee