Virginia
After a drive through Missouri we headed to Kentucky (via Tennessee due to a missed turn) and stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park. Nothing could possibly compare to Carlsbad, though, so we recommend giving Mammoth Cave a miss if you can make it to New Mexico instead.

We also drove for a while on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 300+ mile drive along the crests of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina & Virginia. Unfortunately it was so cloudy that day that we couldn't see more than 30 feet ahead of us so I can't tell you about the spectacular views that I'm sure were lurking just below that thick cloud cover. It was cool, though, to drive through clouds, so I'm not complaining...much.

The following day we drove Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The weather had cleared and it was a lovely day, so we were able to see numerous expansive vistas that all looked much the same, i.e. bluish mountains in the distance and LOTS of trees in the foreground. We did hike down to one waterfall that turned out to be nothing more than a trickle over a rock-face - the drought is apparent. 
Lots of trees

Vista from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

The exciting part of the drive was the bears! Yes, after visiting the most famous bear territory in the nation (Yosemite and Yellowstone) and seeing nothing, we found bears when we weren't looking. The first come crashing down the hillside by the road right next to the car and the noise it made scared Dan (he was driving) -- it was a small bear, but not a cub. It ran directly behind our car, jumped up on the rock wall at the outer edge of the road, paused and looked both ways (apparently traffic was worse on the forest side of the fence than on the roadway side) then jumped down into the trees and disappeared.

The second one we saw was a small cub, which was boldly walking up the roadway, wholly unconcerned that we were driving a 3000 pound vehicle toward it. It scooted off into the trees before we hit it, then stood there warily inspecting us as we inspected it.
spot the bear

Bear Cub at Shenandoah National Park

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Florida Road trip, American Road trip, touring the USA, American National Parks, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Lake Tahoe, Redwood Forest, Boston, Washington State, Mount Rainer, Yellowstone, Lake Powell, Las Vegas, New York, Montana, Road Trip America.

Shanendoah National Park , American Road trip, touring the USA, American National Parks, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Lake Tahoe, Redwood Forest, Boston, Washington State, Mount Rainer, Yellowstone, Lake Powell, Las Vegas, New York, Montana, Road Trip America.