Saturday, 26 October 2019
I woke up worrying that, with all the rain, our muddy spot had gotten even muddier and might be hard for me to get out of. The RV had been listing to the side anyway, because of the uneven ground, and it seemed to be listing even more. After I walked the dogs, I stayed outside with the flashlight to check, but the tires didn't seem to be particularly mired, so I stopped worrying so much.
Still, it was absolutely pouring while we were walking - Gracie's coat especially soaks up water so much I couldn't get her dry with a towel - and I decided we needed to leave relatively soon to avoid trouble.
Unfortunately, I'd found that when the next-door guys came home last night, they parked their truck half on the narrow road that was our way out of the camp. And I found that the rain had created mud all through the campground. Apparently this place doesn't bother with things like gravel very often. So I was left to choose whether I wanted to try to wake them up (it's a Saturday!) to move their pickup or whether I wanted to try to go around them by going partly off the road into mud puddles.
I finally decided to try the mud puddles and made it through okay but I sure was glad to see the last of that campground. And they'd charged me $32 for that miserable situation.
We went through Lancaster - "A Small Town with Great Pride."
We passed a Corgi breeder.
I saw a farmyard with 4 black cats lying around in various "we belong here" poses.
I passed fields with cows and their calves, and with sheep and goats.
I found yet again that the highway signs telling what roads are branching off didn't match the ones in the online directions - or on the AAA map, for that matter. I drove back and forth for a bit, trying to find Rt. 25 and never did. So I went on the interstate that took me up to Mt. Vernon. On the way, I found the other end of Rt. 25, so I know it exists, but I have no idea where I could have picked it up farther south.
In Mt. Vernon, I went to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. First I walked the dogs, and while we were out I decided not to go. The signs I was seeing told me this establishment would be celebrating lots of people I'd never heard of. People who were undoubtedly important in the development of Kentucky music and bluegrass music and Appalachian folk music and so forth. But not people I wanted to pay $8 or whatever the entrance fee was. Next time I'm in Kentucky, I'll want to make more time for things like this and develop my appreciation for what they've got. Just not this trip.
I continued down the interstate about 15 miles to Berea (pronounced beh-REE-a), well known as a center for folk arts and crafts. A pamphlet I had showed I could spend days wandering around town and visiting all the many different crafts shops they have there. But with my time short (I still had quite a drive to my campground), I settled on the Kentucky Artisan Center, because it's a semi-official government entity (so I thought it would be representative).
I don't know how it's decided which artisans can display their works, but what I saw was an amazing variety. I took photos of just a few.
 |
| beaded vessels |
 |
| explains beaded vessels (left) |
 |
| bird calls - that's a crow call, carved of dark wood, in the center |
 |
| willow baskets |
 |
| explains willow baskets (left) |
 |
| quite a hand |
 |
| about Berea crafts |
From Berea I went another 10 miles or so up the interstate and took a shortcut over to the Mountain Parkway. Except I didn't get there. Or, at least, not that way.
I had just passed by the town of Waco (and I thought the only Waco was in Texas), when all highway traffic came to a dead stop. And we sat there and we sat there. We moved a bit now and then, but it seemed we were moving because people ahead of me were pulling out of line and turning around. Since I was only about 10 miles or so from the interstate, I turned around too and went back and took a more roundabout route to the Mountain Parkway.
I drove through some beautiful high hills, with trees all the way to the top, all with leaves changing colors. Very pretty and Octoberish.
I passed an enormous bull in a pasture. I don't know how much they usually weigh, but this guy looked like he weighed twice as much as an average cow. Big and black all over and very imposing.
I passed a sign advertising Kentucky Hoop Barns. I couldn't find any online photos that weren't copyright protected, but basically they seem to be Quonset-type buildings - half-circles that look just right to store today's round hay bales.
Just before the turnoff to the Natural Bridge State Park, I saw a very large homemade sign that said, "The Democrat Party is America's worst enemy of Christianity."
For something called a "state resort park," which several of the campgrounds I've stayed in are called, I keep expecting something fairly fancy - like a resort. And presumably the lodge facilities, which I rarely see, are plenty comfortable. But the campgrounds at these places are usually uncomfortable. And this one was no exception.
It's a very small campground, for one thing. My section had only 40 or so campsites, split by a stream running through the campground. The road to get to the sites required a sharp turn at a very difficult angle (took me some back-and-forth) and then a very steep grade down. At the bottom there was a sign saying, "Warning - During periods of heavy rain, area subject to Flash Floods." Not something to made me sleep better, since it was drizzling when we arrived.
I don't know how they envisioned I'd get into my site, but I finally found a way to turn around and back up quite a distance. Even though that put my electric outlet on the wrong side of my RV, I didn't want to put off the backing up until tomorrow morning, and I didn't want to have my rear end - aka the bed - pointed toward the rest of the campers. So I decided this would be one night where I'd operate on 20 amps instead of 30, and hauled out my converter plug and my 20 amp extension cord, which was the only reason I was able to have any electricity at all. My brother helped me buy both of those, and they sure do come in handy from time to time.
Like last night, we listed a bit but at least they'd used gravel on the pad. Not a very comfortable night but it was shelter.
No comments:
Post a Comment