18 Jun 2011 - Kentucky Rain

After a lovely visit with my nephew Andy and his wife and two-year-old son, in Pleasant View, Tennessee, I drove The Trace, the "scenic route" on the Land Between the Lakes. It is designated as a scenic route, but I was imagining views of the lakes along the route. Not a one. It's a nice little drive, but I don't think it qualifies as a scenic route.


Then I drove to the Jefferson Davis memorial [photo left] near Fairview, Kentucky, on Friday. A monument has been built at his birth place that looks uncannily like a famous momument in Washington,DC. I had just missed the tour - you can ride to the top in an elevator - and decided not to hang around for a half hour till the next one.

Kentucky should maybe be called "The Vice State". I mean, if you are into whiskey, or smoking cigarettes, or gambling at the horse races, this is the state for you. I see a lot of corn (for whiskey?) and grain in the fields. And lots of old, abandoned, falling-down tobacco barns.

It's been raining most of the time I've been in Kentucky so far. I'm enjoying the rain and the cooler weather.

I've driven some of Kentucky's scenic routes, past rolling green hills, streams, and ponds. The wild flowers grow in profusion where they are allowed, but Kentuckians like their great green lawns, so that is what you see most. I see Amish in their carts and carriages on the roads, or shopping in the stores. I've seen several different types of plain dress, but don't know enough about them to know if there is a reason for the differences.


I updated my National Parks list today, as I was in Mammoth Cave National Park on Saturday for the first time. I got to the visitor center at 10 AM, but most of the tours were already booked for the day. So I took the self-guided tour, which was fine with me. [entrance photo right] I've been to a number of caves in my day, and so, they pretty much all start to look alike anyway. This cave is the longest in the world - almost 400 miles long, on three levels. I got to see part of the cave that is typical - huge, cavernous limestone rooms, where an underground stream used to flow. One of the things I enjoyed most about the experience was listening to one of the guides; he reminded me of the great Kentucky storytelling tradition. Not that he was telling fibs, but that he made it all come alive through his storytelling skill. The thing I liked least was that there was no diagram in the visitor center, showing exactly where the cave is. And, of course, I didn't like it that most of the tours sold out by 10 AM. And, they weren't the best-organized visitor center to which I've been. If I go back again, I will make sure to check out the tours (and buy my ticket?) a day in advance. Or not show up on a weekend. :-)


On my way out of the park, I stopped for a moderately strenuous two-mile hike to and through Cedar Sink, which was excellent. It went a long way toward starting to fill the "green deficit" that grows inside my soul the months I am in the western desert in the wintertime. It was a quiet walk through a lush green forest, with lots of ferns and mosses along the way. It started to rain slowly, and I was pretty wet by the time I got back to my rig. I kept humming "Kentucky Rain" to myself on the way out. :-)