The final leg of our beach trip included a stop in Asheville before two additional days of driving to get home.  We enjoyed an evening dinner picnic at a rest stop in western North Carolina before pulling into Asheville:
Upon arrival in Asheville, Lula was quick to find a little treasure in the woods on Oak Lane:

Visiting (and meeting new) family down the road: 

Thanks to Paul and Jenny, rather than getting trapped in holiday weekend bumper-to-bumper traffic in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, which was our original thinking, we instead took a brief detour into Pisgah National Forest the morning we left Asheville.  Specifically, our destination was a peak along the Appalacian Trail:  Max Patch: 

The 15-20 minute hike up was just the ticket for some restless legs.  The view from the top was unparalleled on this trip:

Standing on the USGS marker at the top: 

For a lunchtime break, we stopped at Cumberland Mountain State Park in central Tennessee for a picnic:

We stumbled upon a park ranger giving a presentation to several other kids about snakes native to the region: 

The last overnight stay of our trip was at a hotel in Paducah Kentucky — and one last chance for a swim before getting home:

Day 10 of our trip took us through southern Illinois — including a lunchtime stop at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Preserve in south-central Illinois.  What a gem!  We took a great hike through the woods to a spectacular waterfall along an underutilized and overgrown trail — just the kind we love!  It was a great midday stop to help the trip last just a little longer before the last leg of driving brought us home.