After two long days in the car, we are here, at last in what serves as home turf for my itinerant family.

The trip down included many highlights, including dinner at Sweet Betty�s in Berea, Kentucky, which advertised, �Come for the food, stay for the pie.� The restaurant looked like a VFW hall (we dined underneath a photo portrait of Sweet Betty�s granddaughter in a very frilly dress), but featured an incredible buffet of heavy southern food � all meats were fried, all vegetables were cooked within an inch of their lives and all pies were at least 4 inches thick. But it was all excellent; and we rolled out of there stuffed to the gills for just over $20 including tip.

Yesterday, in the interest of bypassing some construction, we made a detour off the main road that took us by the Cumberland Gap National Park. We stopped to explore a little and drove up to the promontory overlook that allowed us to see Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia all at the same time. On our way up the hill, we crossed the Virginia state line. The three of us held hands and leaped over the state line, which was painted on the sidewalk, together. Now AJ has another state to add to his list.

AJ, although not a saint, has nevertheless been a good traveler. He was most anxious to arrive and while we had originally planned to take one more day to get here, we decided to press on. We drove onto the island around suppertime last night. Despite the heat, I rolled down the window to get a whiff of the salt marshes, which have that distinct and wonderful smell that is something like ocean, grass, hot dogs and feet all mixed together. It is a smell that triggers instant vacation mode for me. All concerns disappear.

AJ is less certain about the smells of the marsh. He held his nose briefly until he forgot about it, choosing instead to admire the tunnel of live oaks that seemed to be melting together over our heads, dripping with Spanish moss. It must be the Southern heat.

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