this is the view from the Hodge's back yard, looking northwest, toward the famous Peaks of Otter, that form high points along the Blue Ridge Mountains. What a sight!

After an overnight stop on Thursday, April 28, in Conover, North Carolina, we made our final run through Winston-Salem and Greensboro, NC on Friday morning and then up US 29 into southern Virginia by way of Danville, turning at Lynchburg, west into Bedford, arriving at about 5 p.m.

This is the home of our dear friends, Elmer and Sue Hodge, in Bedford, where we will stay while in Virginia. It was a beautiful drive! And it was great to greet them once again. We look forward to our time in Bedford, to be with the members of the Bedford Branch and spend time with the Hodges.

These Smoky Mountains are worth seeing, if you ever come this way, into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, you should take a drive into these beautiful mountains. It was worth our entire trip just to stand on this mountain crest and look off, east, into North Carolina's portion of these wonderful mountains.

We met this young couple and their 2 yr -old daughter, Cloie. The husband told us he had walked the entire trail (over 2,000 miles, a couple of years ago), but, today, they were going as a family, just a few miles up the trail and camp overnite, and then return. He said this is the highest and roughest portion of the entire trail, here, through this part of the Smoky's.

At this scenic overlook, high in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee we realized we were looking at a portion of the Applalachian Trail, which extends on into Georgia. It was impressive to note that we were at a point on the trail, 1,972 miles from its starting point at Mount Katahdin in Northern Maine. I was in Northern Maine as a young, 20-yr-old missionary, and took pictures of this famous mountain, as it's upper slopes are the first place each morning where the sun touches the continental United States.