A foggy drive, Kentucky
September 9, 2009

Pulling up stakes from our home of the past ten nights, we drive into pretty heavy fog or mist or whatever they call the lack of visibility in these parts. It’s been an interesting stay; I would love to spend a summer here, especially if the weather was like it has been this time. It’s 66 degrees at 9:30 a.m. Every day has been most pleasant.

I put too many pictures in yesterday’s blog and wrote it in too much of a hurry. Most of them are written hurriedly; I’m finding it a little frustrating not to be able to put more thought and energy into them. And I don’t understand why the blog site doesn’t allow users to scooch things around to where they want them on the page. Oh, to be a programmer (or whatever they now call people who put these things together). I set up each blog with photos placed just where I want them and then when I post it, everything scurries off into a different place. Even the preview it allows me bears no resemblance to either what I started with or what I end up with, so what’s the point of a preview? Ah well, the trials and tribulations. I put in all the photos because they were so fun, even if it did look dorky for them to line up that way. I hope folks know to click on them to get a decent look at them.

Somehow in the rush of getting it written, I left out one of the highlights of our stay here: we got ring-necked pheasants late yesterday while heading home. I had wondered aloud at one point why we hadn’t seen any in our travels across the Midwest. This flock was grazing the mowed area between a corn field and the road. We were traveling much too fast to be sure of their identity, so we had to turn around and go back, hoping for enough of a break in traffic to slow in the road and eyeball them. When we approached, they scuttled into the corn, but were near the edge where I could see them.

I really will miss this area. Never did get to any fishing, darn it, and not near as much casual exploring as I’d like. I love the wood lots that are throughout this region. No continuous forests like we’re accustomed to, but there is a wooded appearance anyway because every farm has one of more of the dense wood lots, abundant with diverse hardwoods. Thus the horizon is marked in every direction by handsome stands of mature trees.

This is a long driving day - 350 miles - to our stopover in Kentucky. We will remain there two nights, then bolt for North Carolina.

I’ve gone and joined Facebook, but now am bumfoozled about how to do anything on it. I got a cute note from Quinton and Loren greeting me and reminding me that they’re my slave children. An inside joke, but I sure could use my slave children here right now to show me how to reply to them. I shall stick with email and snail mail for my correspondence. Just thought Facebook would be another good link for the Goat Hill Music website. Now I need to get Chris to record more cds.

We were zooming along on one of Indiana’s bumpy, exceptionally narrow, winding state highways all morning, but got detoured here, there and the next place until it landed us in Ohio, the border we had been skirting along. The result was that we missed some Indiana territory we’ve never seen and enjoyed Ohio’s byway views instead. Our route was thus transformed so that we had to regroup, finally jumping onto the Interstate for the purpose of hightailing it through Cincinnati.

The East Ohio River was enticing and the Ohio was hugely impressive as it delivered us into Kentucky, our destination state. Later we were wowed by the Kentucky River.

We’ve finally gotten into hilly, forested country, beyond the reach of the glaciers, according to my E.P. (encyclopedic partner), some very prosperous historic small towns that make me want to get some local history of the area. It’s very attractive here, and I loved the campus of Miami of Ohio University, which we drove right through. The problem with living in many of these otherwise nice little communities throughout the Midwest is that they lack educational institutes and the many cultural opportunities that accompany them.

Via email, Katie reminds me of the remainder of the Sarah Prine (“These Is My Words”) trilogy. Actually, I didn’t know it was part of a trilogy. She highly recommends the other books, explaining, “The second one in particular, “Sarah's Quilt”, is where author Nancy Turner really hits her stride. There were thrills aplenty as well as laughs, sighs, tears, and so much with which to identify being a mother. The third and final book, “The Star Garden”, wraps it all up neatly . . .”.

Katie invited us to stay at their late 1800s house on Lake Maxinkuckee in northern Indiana while we were out here. It was tempting but didn’t fit in with our activities this time. We definitely want to get up there, hopefully while they are in residence. There are just so many things to see and do and learn (and very importantly, to fish).

At 3 p.m., we’re an hour out from our next home, traversing the wonderful rocky forested Kentucky mountains. Last year when we drove this stretch in late October, we were at a loss for words at the autumn beauty. What an experience that timing happened to be: we followed the fall leaf change for weeks from Wisconsin to North Carolina - it was way beyond awesome, something that couldn’t have been planned better, even though we didn’t plan it at all. Now, seeing this earlier in the season, it is equally gorgeous in a different way, with faint blushes on the mountainsides of red and yellow.

Since Cincinnati (try saying that three times fast), we’ve been driving the Interstate, efficient for getting somewhere but so much more boring than wandering through each and every small town, getting a much better idea of the lifestyles as they change from one spot to the next.

This mountainous region is so much wilder than anything we’ve seen since Colorado. Where there is agriculture, it is mostly hay, pasture and livestock, although we’ve noticed some tobacco still standing in the fields. This region makes the recently left behind sections of Indiana with miles and miles of crops and neatly mowed grass everywhere seem very civilized. I find the wild to be very appealing and intriguing.

After driving through dense fog for much of the day, we’ve now come out under light blue skies with towering thunderhead cloud formations reminiscent of Arizona. It has rained here today and may yet again.

And guess what - it did rain again, but not until the second we finished setting up, so all was good. A nice steady drizzle for a bit and then clearing. We are highly impressed with this RV park; it’s really well done and in a beautiful forested setting with a lovely pool that I won't be using. I like it better than most we’ve been at. This one’s a KOA also, in the town of Corbin, which I had never heard of, our abode for two nights with the day in between set aside for going to Cumberland Gap.