MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME

 North Carolina to Kentucky

May 22, 2012 

I love KY from the far eastern reaches of the Appalachians bordering VA and WVA coal mining area (Hazard and Harlan) to the far western blue grass region of Bill Munroe to the  Mammouth Caves down to KY Lakes to watch the “Loopers” (circumnavigators of the eastern US) coming down the Tennessee River through Barkley Dam to the vast and exquisitely beautiful horse farms of Lexington and all the bourbon distilleries in between!  I just love KY. 

Not to slight Tennessee.  I love Tennessee.  Coming through the Smokie Mountains, across Cumberland Gap, country music area of Nashville.  Yes I truly love Tennessee.

Not to slight North Carolina with her multiple mountains ranges, Pisgah, Nantahala, and Cherokee, Smokies and her crocked roads and beautiful vistas. 

Yes I love it all!!!  My heart is in the south.

We finally got off I-75 at Mt Vernon and headed across Kentucky on SR 150 to My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown.  The day is overcast, grey with spits of rain now and then.  Billy is securely wedged between the wall of the slide and the driver’s back seat.  He backs out when he thinks the MH is stopped but will scurry back into his safe spot as soon as it starts moving again.  He’s so attuned to the MH, all Dave has to do is put it in gear and he heads for his safe spot.

Left Moonshiine Creek at about 9:15 am.  Car got on the dolly with little fuss and bother.  Billy headed up to Hucks for a last goodbye but Huck was still inside his RV.  The night before we left Billy and Huck had a big play date and boy did they play.   If we were spending the summer at Moonshine, Huck and Billy would have been in their glory together.  

Passed Corbin KY, home of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  We took Alex there one year, had dinner in the original building and musuem of Col Saunders motel and restaurant.  It was really cool.  Across the street was a sign advertising  “Coal Minning School”.  We told Alex we were going to send him to that school to learn a skill. 

As we drove down through that area I got to thinking about my favorite TV show, “JUSTIFIED” which takes place in Harlan KY.  Not sure if it’s Timothy Olymphant or Kentucky heritage that intrigues me about the show. 

We arrived My Old Kentucky Home State Park around 4PM.

We are staying at “My Old Kentucky Home State Park” which is located on Judge John Rowan’s plantation.  Their mansion “Federal Hill” is allegedly inspired his cousin Stephen Foster to write the song “My Old Kentucky Home”.  Federal Hill is depicted on the reverse side of the Kentucky state quarter minted in 2002.

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME

My golfing friends can tell me who Kenny Rapier is!

The campground is small.  About 36 sites and is surrounded by a golf course.  The only issue is that the sites are not level and what took 10 minutes to back up the car on the dolly earlier in the day took almost 90 minutes to level the MH in the campsite.  We finally put it across the campsite and got it close to where it need to be.  Unfortunately the front door is in front of a slope so that first step up the steps is a killer!

Behind the bushes is the golf course.  We took Billy for a walk in that direction and were able to stoll down the golf cart paths since the course was closed for the day. 

A lovely walk through our very own park after hours!

BARDSTOWN KY

Bardstown, the Bourbon Captial, is one of the oldest cities in Kentucky settled in 1780s.  Kentucky was part of the westward exploration including notables as Daniel Boone.  Abraham Lincoln was born here but after the family lost the farm in a law suit they moved to Illinois.  The Old Talbott Tavern was built in 1779.

Drove into historic Bardstown in search of food.  Opted for a Mexican restaurant that was pretty good.  Then took a drive to scope out some distilleries.  

Thrills of thrills, Hevenly Hills is with eyesight of our campground!  You can see the barrel houses from the golf course.  Dave spent the evening on the internet identifying distilleries in the area.

 The weather is getting warmer although still pleasant here.  Not as cool as 3200’ elevation!  What concerns me is the forecast in Ohio for Memorial Day Weekend.  It’s 95, 100, 105.  Why me!  I travel out of FLA to beat the heat and drive right into it!  Fortunately VJ has a swimming lake we’ll be camped next to so I think I’ll be floating most of the weekend.

LIFE IS GOOD!