May 13 - Jen and Ken and Simon

Simon has succumbed to our charms.  :-)  He jumps on the loveseat and cuddles with Galen and he has let me hold him since we we were in Berea.  He even fell asleep while I was holding him so I'm glad he's little.  We found dogfood that he likes,  too!

Jen, Ken and Simon left this morning before 10am!  Not much before though.  :-)  They have been with us the last couple of days waiting out a 95% chance of rain that never happened.  We'll meet up with them in Chester, IL in about a week.  Chester is the home of Popeye, Olive Oil, Wimpie, and Bluto.

May 10 - Clothesline Quilts

There are 50 of these "Clothesline Quilts" around Grayson County, KY, mostly on the 700 miles of back roads.  These were all in Leitchfield.

This is not a back road.  It is Rt 259 and it goes to our home in Laurel Branch Campground, a Corps of Engineers Campground on Rough River Lake.  Except for the hosts, we've had the campground to ourselves since Monday but that will change on Saturday.  No problem.  We are leaving for Marion, IL on Saturday.

May 9 - McDaniels, KY

We are staying at a Corps of Engineers Park on Rough River Lake outside of McDaniels.  This is some of the traffic we encountered on the way to the campground.

I don't know what it is with us and flooded campgrounds lately, but half of the Laurel Branch campground is closed due to flooding.  Our half is pretty, peaceful and quiet.

 Is this sign really necessary?  It is expected the road will remain underwater for several more weeks.

May 3, After the Rain

This is how "home" looked the morning after.

May 2, Rain

Kentucky has been experiencing drought conditions for some time, but now the problem is too much rain - as much as 8" of rain in the last two days.  We saw two vehicles in the ditch on the way to Richmond this afternoon and three more on the way home.  The road at exit 77 was closed because it is completely covered by water.

 Our campground is at exit 76 and this is what we came home to tonight.  The water outside our front door is literally over my ankles.  Galen was so sweet and waded into the house to get my Crocs so I wouldn't ruin my Birkenstocks.

There are RV sites hiding under all this water making a lighthouse in Kentucky seem perfectly natural.

April 24, Quilt Barns

A woman in Ohio painted a quilt square on her barn in memory of her mother and the that was the beginning of the Quilt Trail that extends into Kentucky. There are three of these barns between Berea and Richmond.

Why are the barns black? Because black paint is cheaper than red.  There are a lot of black fences around too because the black paint is cheaper than white.

There is a book on the Quilt Trail for any quilters who may be interested in more information.

April 21, Shaker critters

The Shakers were pretty self-sufficient so of course had gardens, cows, horses, goats, sheep, and a few kitties around. The little red goat is only three days old.

April 21, Shaker Bath house

The teeny building on the right is the bath house. It isn't very fancy inside. :-)

April 21, Shaker Stairs

Lunch is available in the Village. Good food in a photogenic place.

April 21, Shaker Walls

There are 30 miles of these walls just on the grounds and many more miles in the Harrodsburg area. We thought we'd made a wrong turn and were in Rhode Island when we saw all these wonderful walls.

April 21, Shaker Home

About 100 brothers and sisters lived in the huge Central House - women on the left and men on the right. The building was completed in 1825.

April 21, Shaker Meeting House

We went to Pleasant Hill Shaker Village today and these photos are of the meeting house. Men entered in one door and sat on that side of the building. Women entered and sat on the other side. Services started with nice little songs that progressed into wilder songs, dancing, speaking in tongues, and even rolling on the floor. This elevated level of activity was known as "promiscuous dancing." The center line could be crossed during the dancing, but no touching allowed. Celibacy was the law which explains why the number of Shakers left today can be counted on one hand. Guests were allowed to sit on benches around the edge of the room and watch but could not participate. What did the ministers do? There were two male and two female ministers who lived on the second floor on their own sides of the building, of course. During the service it was their job to watch the guests from the little windows way up in the corner and then swoop down on any guest who appeared interested in becoming a Shaker. Outside of the Sunday service everyone lived by very rigid rules, i.e. - hands had to be folded with the right thumb on top, no hat bands were allowed on men's hats in the summer, etc. There were over 400 of these laws.

April 18, Jinney Adams

Jinney was killed by an Indian Chief named Thunder and was the first person to be buried in Fort Paint Lick. Interesting name, isn't it? The Fort was and and now the village is named for the creek, along whose banks the Indians painted symbols on the rocks and trees in bright colors to indicate the most likely places where animals could be hunted when they came to lick the salt.

April 6, Visitor Center

This handsome building that houses the Visitor Center sits in the center of a two-lane roundabout. There is a geocache near the door - one of two we found today.

April 6, Soda Fountain

Here is another photo of Galen bellied up to a bar but this bar is an old fashioned soda fountain bar in the historic Hurst Drugstore in downtown Bardstown.

April 6, Abby

The Trappist Monks who live here, mostly in silence, make and sell cheese, fruitcakes, and fudge with bourbon and without. There is also a great selection of books in their new gift shop.

April 6, Trains

We went to the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY, about 15 miles from Bardstown. They have some interesting railway trivia in the museum, quite a few model trains in a second building, and a few real trains out on the tracks.

April 5, Bardstown Library

We added Kentucky to our map today. This is the first addition in a long time.

Galen is not sitting in a church - he's in the very nice Bardstown Library. Bardstown has been named as a great place to live by a number of publications. We've been impressed with what we've seen so far.

April 4 - Nashville to Bardstown

After going to church this morning we left for Bardsville, KY. We were only 13 miles from our exit when the tire blew and so we sat for 3.5 hours on the shoulder of I-65. As a friend said, "That is so not fun." She was right, but it could have been worse and we are safe in Bardstown.