This year we made a major effort to slow down and make a virtue of necessity by stopping to enjoy some things along the way. If we get out of Columbus, Ohio early we can make it to Franklin on the south Kenturcky border in a day and then to Shreveport, Louisiana the next day. Before retirement we actually rented a car that could handle the constant 70+ and made it in about 24 hours for right about 1000 miles door to door. Now that we are older and wiser we take at least three days and this year sometimes more than a week.
We searched mostly for Barn Quilts with a little over two weeks here in Georgetown where the old jail has been converted to the Arts and Culture Center displaying one of the barn quilts and the harvest display at the county courthouse. I think later I will have enough photographs to make a Georgetown page on its own but not yet.
Searching Scott County for the 118 quilts listed by the Buffalo Gals sponsoring them we found this nice park in Stamping Grounds, Kentucky surrounding Buffalo Springs. This large bowl shaped depression was formed at the intersection of several migration trails by bison milling about the spring that still bubbles up in the park. After Georgetown and Scott County we spent just under two weeks back at Cave Run, Kentucky searching the Foothills Quilt Trail in Rowan County which listed another 95 quilts.
Illinois claims to be the land of Lincoln but he was actually born here at Sinking Springs in a little cabin similar to this reproduction housed in the memorial on the top of the hill. From the top of the hill it was a long trudge to collect water from the bottom of this pit. Think either February or August both of which can be miserable.
The Lincoln's were forced out of Sinking Springs when he was two and he lived at Knob Hill where this rustic visitors center is probably much more elaborate than he lived until at eight they moved to Indiana.
And yes Kentuckeds do have a nice sense of humor getting ready for Halloween when I will be back in Columbus, Ohio setting up my own spiders.
These are the remains of the historic Bell's Tavern built in 1830 for visitors to the nearby Mammoth Caves. It burnt in 1860 and was never replaced due to the Civil War.
Looking at old things is the remains of the Bourbon Iron Furnace near Owingsville. For a lot more details on Old Industry this site is my olderst's thing.
I really am just randomly jumping about Kentucky with a sunset over Baren River Lake we considered as a overnight stop between Columbus, Ohio and Shreveport, Louisiana. While just a little too far off our track to be really useful overnight it was a nice bsse for exploring. Since we were mostly taking this trip along US 31E which parallels the east side of I-65 to see the Lincoln Homes we also stopped at the Kentucky Railway Museum which is quite nice.
In our many wanderings searching for Barn Quilts we tried to also enjoyed the sights.
Finishing up this year's visits to Kentucky I was fascinated with this simple road cut and then just had to capture this sign as a tribute to the fine lady who inspired this whole account. This year we really did wander the backroads, some a little more back than I wanted, but also had a lot of fun in Kentucky.
This year Kentucky almost ended up being a cris-cross state coming up from Atlanta, Georgia and Knoxville, Tennessee in February and then back through Louisville, Elizabethtown, and Franklin in March on the way to the Nachez Trace and dad in Shreveport, Louisiana. After giving up on finding good fall colors in the east we spent a week at Cave Run as a base for visiting the Red River Gorge and discovering the wonders of Barn Quilts. Then in late November we passed through Louisville and Elizabethtown to take the Western Kentucky Parkway again back through Arkansas to end the year with dad in Shreveport, Louisiana.
In 2009 Kentucky started as just a route to the south in March and a route back north at the end of June. In August we decided to take a longer look with a short visit to Grayson Lake State Park that we had used as a kayaking campground but never explored and then a month long stay in Louisville with this link leading to several other attractions in the area.
Before leaving Louisville we drove down Rt 31E which basically parallels I-65 through Glasgow to check out camping at Barren River Lake which has a state park and several federal Corp of Engineer's campgrounds that are cheaper and could offer a quick stop as we passed on I-65.
Leaving Bailey's Point I got a good picture of tobacco almost ready to be harvested and here gleaning a harvested corn field is a small herd of white tail dear with the buck on the right,
After our stay in Louisville we made a small loop to the southwest and back into Indiana heading to St. Louis, Missouri for the rest of September. The end of November after seeing doctors and friends again in Columbus, Ohio Kentucky was again a pass through state as we made our way back to dad in Shreveport, Louisiana.
In 2008 Kentucky returned to being just someplace to get through on the way to someplace else. In March we stayed overnight in Elizabethtown and then took the Western Kentucky Parkway as an alternate route which turned out to be even more booooooooring than the interstate. Designed as a limited access tollway it has much the same lack of interest as the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes except in this case the tolls have gone away. I promise reports on Kentucky do get better.
In March Kentucky was again one of those pass through states with us using I-75 north back to Columbus, Ohio with an overnight in Lexington and then in using I-71 and I-65 going back south with an overnight in Franklin with barely time to take a breath much less a picture. Finally in October we stopped for a week in Lexington, Kentucky which was sunny, nice, and covered on this other page.
Heading east to the Cave Run Lake campground near Morehead our primary concern was the fire hazard from a long hot dry summer. Not to worry, it turned into a thoroughly miserable rainy sloppy muddy week. Our primary concern became where to find someplace warm and dry for the day.
One of our excursions was to the Kentucky Red River Gorge which was a major logging area in the early 1900s. The photograph here is one entry to the Nada Tunnel created in 1910 for a narrow gauge railroad to carry logs to Cary and the largest eastern sawmill at the time. In the good 'ol days the logs were so large the first load got stuck in the tunnel and it had to be enlarged. Large parts of the gorge are now protected as part of the Daniel Boone National Forest and are slowly recovering. There are a lot of natural areas to explore when rain is not dripping down the back of your neck. Our focus was exploring the various campgrounds for a potential future stay. Unfortunately, most of them offer only primitive, very primitive, camping or spaces way too small for us to park the trailer and setup the tent. We have tried some of the local state parks but Cave Run is still the best choice for us.
This early in our travels, Kentucky was just another one of those pass through states. Leaving Columbus, Ohio and barreling south through Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville and Franklin we were heading to see John's dad in Shreveport, Louisiana. In later years we have spent a lot of time in Kentucky primarily chasing barn quilts which I've added later.