Bluegrass Capital

 

A friend of mine told me about an exhibition at the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky that sounded interesting. “Promise Witness Remembrance reflects on the life of Breonna Taylor, her killing in 2020, and the year of protests that followed”.

Artist Nari Ward
These are shoelaces.  

One of the art pieces consisted of two flags, which were draped from the ceiling to the floor. Each star in the flags represent a life lost to gun violence. The artist thinks of these lives as “fallen stars”. 15,433 were killed by gun violence in 2019. 15,433 people, including Breonna Taylor were killed by gun violence in 2020. As you move through the galleries, a portrait by Amy Sherald (she did the official portrait of Michelle Obama) of Breonna dominates the last wall – it was quite moving.

This is the 2020 flag

There was another exhibit by Isabelle de Borchgrove – life-size clothes made out of paper. The amount of detail and craftsmanship was stunning.

Sometimes there were portraits behind the dresses
which were the ones that inspired the artist for a particular dress

I am vehemently opposed to the racing of two and three year old horses. These are baby horses – their bones haven't even finished growing yet. I have to say, though, that when I walked on the grounds of Churchill Downs I got a little weak in the knees. There is so much history and tradition here.

The grandstand

The Track

The horse when he has finished the race

I am a sucker for factory tours – automation, machines whipping out hundreds, thousands, millions of the same article in a matter of minutes. So, I jumped at the chance to tour the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. I have to say, I was surprised at how small and intimate the assembly line was. The Louisville Slugger bat has been manufactured since the late 1800's. The wood for the bats all come from a forest on the PA/NY border. Bats are made from maple, ash and birch – each type of wood has different characteristics. For example, birch gets harder the more it gets hit.

This is how the factory gets the wood from the lumber mills.  
They call them billets.

All colors that are to be used in professional baseball must be approved by the MLB

A maxi bat

Everybody got to take home a mini bat. 
I'm thinking another self protection item in my arsenal.

There is a new type of hotel that is beginning to pop up called Museum Hotels. There is one in Louisville, the 21C. They have exhibitions just like a regular art museum, but you can also sleep with the art. They tend to specialize in more contemporary art.

A limo outside of the 21C

This was carved out of books

More book art

Just a small portion of what they call Finn's Flock

Look!! Up In The Sky!!! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's Superman!!!!

I was sort of working on heading back north, I'm missing parts of my life there. I thought I might get back home sometime next week but then I checked the weather for Minnesota. One day the low is going to be 7 degrees, another day 10 degrees. I'm sorry – I just can't do it – I'm not coming back until the Robins are guaranteed not to get frostbite. Hopefully I will get back there before July.

These last couple of days were culture filled days – culture at both ends of the art world spectrum and some in between. I think I will start with the high end culture and work my way down into the low end – the clever end perhaps?

In Paducah Kentucky (sidebar: I would love to live in Paducah, just so I could say the name – coolest sounding city name ever), there is the National Quilt Museum. I thought I would go see it, thinking it would be mildly interesting. Boy, was I wrong – this place blew my socks off. These were not your grandma's quilts. It is a contemporary quilt museum, for one thing. These were absolutely beautiful works of art and so creative, sometimes humorous, and many times it made you wonder “how did they do that?

I actually spent a whole two hours in this museum, believe it or not. One quilt was titled Beatles 1962-1970. There was a fabric square for each band member. There were album squares. For example – Sergeant Pepper had it's own square. Inside the square, the individual songs were portrayed. Lovely Rita standing next to her meter, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Fixing a Hole. There was so much to see just in this one quilt. While I'm studying it, one of the docents came up and whipped out his cell phone and started playing Beatle songs for me so that I could appreciate the quilt more.  Nice touch.

They don't let you take pictures so I'm just going to include a couple of pictures from the web. This museum is highly recommended.

Paducah is right across the river from the great city of Metropolis. We all know what Metropolis is famous for, right? Superman!!!!! In the center of town they have a giant statue and then there is the Super Museum. I paid my $5 and went into the museum. There was a ton of Superman/Supergirl/Superboy toys and memorabilia but the museum itself was a little short of substance. I did have, for me, rather a little brilliant flash. The first Superman I remember was named George Reeves. Later generations' Superman was Christopher Reeve. Both Reeves and Reeve came to unfortunate ends. Coincidence? The best part of the museum was a documentary that they had playing and I could watch 'my' Superman again.  I also found it interesting that the Massac County Law Enforcement and Detention Center was located right next door to the museum and the Superman statute.  Coincidence again?

Downtown Metropolis - Super Museum on the right

TRUTH - JUSTICE - THE AMERICAN WAY

And then there is me in my SuperGirl outfit

At the other end of the street, all by herself is Noel Neill who was the original Lois Lane.

Side note: She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

My campground was in Metropolis.  It was the Fort Massac State Park(first state park in Illinois) where they had a replica of a fort from about 1803.  Good place to walk the dog, but nothing much to see. All the buildings were boarded up.

My final visit was a little place outside of Paducah called Apple Valley Hillbilly Garden and Toyland. This was probably one of the more unique places I've visited. Keith, the owner collected lots and lots of all sorts of castoff items and then created pieces of 'art'. His neighbors call it an eyesore and as you drive up, you think it looks like a junk yard. The sheriff has actually been by quite a bit to write his property up as a public eyesore but then Keith decided that he should call himself a folk artist and affiliated himself with the Paducah Art Council, so the public eyesore charge didn't stick.   Keith is an interesting man who seems to live for puns. My pictures don't even come close to all that he has scattered around his yard. When you finish the tour, he takes you into Toyland. Keith collects toys, mainly action figures. He had one building that was crammed full. He said that what was displayed was only a tiny bit of what he had collected. The rest of his collection is stored in the semi trailer that was on the property.

Keith - picture from web

The Reality TV section

The Potty Mouth Tree

Texas has Cadillacs stuck in the dirt - Kentucky has lawn mowers

Sink Holes

The ReTIREment Home

The semi trailer with the rest of the Toyland toys. The portraits were done by Keith. 

Keith said that he doesn't know how to draw so somehow every portrait he does turns out to be a clown

Here are a couple of pictures of Toyland - rather mind-boggling.  Keep in mind, these pictures are just two small corners of the building.  The building is packed with just a small walkway in the center.

I just thought he was pretty

Travel Rambles

Saturday

The thing about travel days is that there just isn't that much to write about. It is just a matter of putting one wheel in front of the other, trudgin' down the highway.

Woke up feeling really rocky. Didn't think I could get Miko out for a morning walk. I decided I would try to get around the lake, I could always turn back if it was too much. Last night, it took me about 35 minutes to walk the 2.5 mile loop. This morning it took me an hour and a half. We made it though – yay us!!!!

 

I took a pretty cool video - the frogs were going crazy but I guess I still need to figure out how to get that done in this blog.  Seems to me frogs have pretty much disappeared in Minnesota, it was a real treat to hear so much robust croaking going on.

Drove out of southern Illinois, across western Kentucky (isn't Paducah a great name for a town – it is so much fun to say), down into Nashville. When I saw the Welcome to Tennessee sign, I found that I was rather elated. There is something about Tennessee that is very special. I really feel at home here.

I was also excited about this night's lodging. Yes, it was a Walmart, but I picked the Walmart on the north side of town which was supposed to have a fantastic view of the Nashville skyline. Ya gotta get your joy when ya can.

Nashville Sunset

The thing about Walmarts is that they are free to stay at and most of them are welcoming to Rvers. That said, what they don't tell you is about all the money you spend in their store. You are parked in their parking lot and it is so convenient to just hop in and pick up one or two items, except it never is one or two items. So far on the trip, my Walmart stays have been more expensive than the campgrounds.

Sunday

It was a quiet night. Woke up to a sunny beautiful day. I have put away my winter coat and gloves for good now.

Drove through Chattanooga. Pretty hilly country. There was one stretch of 6% grade that was four miles long. At the top, they tell the truckers to use a lower gear, where the truck runaway spots were and depending on your weight, what speed you should be driving at. Check, Check, Check. Instead of putting my vehicle into third gear, I dropped it down into second gear inadvertently. The good thing (I guess) is that it kept my speed down to 45 MPH without any brake use. The bad news is that when I shifted it back up, once I got on flat land, I shifted into third and it took me a while to figure out that this was what was causing the engine to make high whining noise at a high RPM. Hopefully there is no harm done.

Right before I got to Chattanooga, there was a Welcome to Georgia sign. A few miles down the road – Welcome to Tennessee. Then we were being welcomed back into Georgia again. I felt like they were fighting for my affections.

I was planning on stopping at the Georgia Welcome Center to pick up all sorts of information on “Trashy Tourist Traps” cause that is what I'm all about. Imagine my pain at the fact that it was closed. What am I supposed to do now?

I am currently in Adairsville Georgia. Tiny little park. Us overnighters are huddled around the office for our hookups. I am the third in line and it looks like I will have to wait until the two in front of me pull out before I can go.

Shorts, flipflops, robins, ice cream trucks – it is close to seventy degrees.

Tomorrow is a short driving day, but I have to go through Atlanta, one of the worse places to drive an RV.

Moutadier (Moody Deer) to General Butler

Closed up shop and headed out at a fairly decent time. I really liked the Moutadier (pronounced Moody Deer) – I liked our view, I liked our site. Didn't like one set of neighbors – they were the stereotypical redneck type of people – let's just say they used a lot of duct tape. I also like the fact that we spent two nights in one place. That was really nice. I hope that when I'm on the road in the future, I will be able to do more of that super slow travel. This trip will not have a lot of that, we are on a time schedule to get back to Minnesota. Not too sure why, but I have to work within the constraints that I have been given.

We moseyed over to Hodgenville Kentucky which was about an hour drive away. It is where the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial is. We watched the movie, toured the museum and then went t hike around the property. Lots of fallen leaves so it felt a lot like fall scrunching through the leaves. This memorial was built in the early part of the twentieth century. There are the same number of steps leading up to the door that match how many years Lincoln was alive.   What is sort of funny is that inside this memorial is a replica of the log cabin that Lincoln was born in. Sort of a strange juxtaposition.

One thing I found interesting had to do with the way the cabin was built. It was logs, but in between the logs, there was a mixture of Kentucky mud and straw. The ranger guy said that in the summer, they would knock this mud out which would allow some cross ventilation and help keep the cabin cooler. Then when winter came, they would re-mud the space between the logs and bam, you would have your house winter ready.

We continued on north, passing around Louisville. Six lanes came into Louisville – I am so glad that I was driving on a Sunday afternoon and not during a work day. It was stressful enough as it was. We ended up at General Butler State Resort Park. We did not score a full hookup, so we only have water and electricity. BUT....we are sitting right underneath the WiFi antenna. It is really nice to be able to get online and see what is happening in the world.

Our site:

 

Mammouth Cave National Park

I had called and made reservations for the Frozen Niagara tour at Mammouth Caves National Park for 9:00. Supposedly, it was a half hour drive and we left at an appropriate hour. Getting better at this on-time thing or so we thought. Our GPS took us in a slightly different direction and we ended up being about ten minutes late for the tour and thus we missed it. We re booked the tour for 1:00. We had quite a bit of time to spare, so we decided to do a few surface hikes. Leaves are just starting to turn, but they still aren't as vibrant as up north. Lovely weather though, but a little chilly.

A little dog named Oliver that we met on the trail.

We also toured the museum part of the park and learned about how the caves were formed. There are a lot of interactive displays which always make for a fun time. I am a big fan of pushing buttons and seeing something spectacular happen.

We actually ate a meal out. There is a hotel/restaurant on the park grounds. Sort of diner food, but it worked out for us.

Then it was time for the tour. The Frozen Niagara tour is listed as an “Easy” tour. None of that climbing through tiny little openings or dangling from some sort of pulley system for us, nosirrebob. They loaded us in a bus and took us to one of 27 cave entrances. The Frozen Niagara tour takes you into the part of the cave that has the most decorative and impressive parts of the cave. It is only ¼ of a mile which is hardly worth mentioning in a cave system that has 400 explored miles. The tour itself only took an hour, but since I'm not all that crazy about caves, it was just about the right amount of time. I must say that what we saw was impressive. Some really beautiful formations. Our ranger (Ranger Jennifer) also pointed out some wildlife that resided in the cave – cave crickets. These things were really huge – maybe about two inches long, crawling all over the ceiling. Gross but interesting.

My phone camera isn't all that great and although I did take pictures of the inside of the cave, none of them turned out very well.  The following is about the best that came out. 

When you finish the tour, the bus takes you back to the visitors' center where once you disembark from the bus, you have to walk through a Woolite/water mixture designed to keep from spreading a deadly bat disease called White Nose Syndrome. It doesn't affect humans, but wreaks havoc among bat colonies.

On the way home, we did a little grocery shopping and then came home to the RV. We just sort of hung out there. I took Miko down to the lake where she spent a great deal of time chasing waves.

Vincennes to Bee Spring Kentucky

Busy day today so we actually set an alarm. The last few days, we have noticed that time seems to slip away, so today we decided we were going to do our best to stay on schedule.

First on the agenda was a two mile walk around the lake at the park. It was a fairly level trail, lots of boardwalks across the muddy areas. Miko enjoyed finally getting out and walking. Lots of doggy smells to check out when you are out in the woods.

We then put Miko in the RV and took the car across the street to the Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home National Historic Site. Lincoln lived in the area from the time he was seven until he was 21 so these were very formative years for him. I missed having Ranger Pam guide us through the site, so we just settled for the little movie that they show and a quick jaunt through the exhibits.

We ran back to the RV, got loaded up, hooked the car up and hit the road. As I said, we were determined to keep to our schedule and at this point we are only a half hour behind schedule. Yay us!!!

We drove a couple of hours, heading into Kentucky. We were going to stay at an Army Corps of Engineers campground. We got a little turned around – my GPS got a little confused. I stopped to ask directions in a small local cafe in the town Bee Spring. Isn't that a great name for a town?  When I walked into this cafe, I got a little bit of a shock. Everybody in the cafe was smoking. I guess I've gotten so used to smoke free environments that this took me by surprise. Everybody here is talking real Southern now and moving real Southern also (slow.......). It will take me a few days to adjust to the slower pace here but I think based on our past few days on this trip, it won't be long before we move just as slow as everybody else.

Corps of Engineer campgrounds are usually on some water of some sort and are usually very nature orientated. This one is sort of like this except the campground sites are really close to one another. It is the weekend (Friday) and the park is pretty well packed. Lots of family groups trying to get in the last camping trip of the year.

A storm came up and huge winds also. The RV was rocking. I think we are under an oak tree. The wind would blow, knocking acorns down onto the RV roof and then they would roll down the length of the RV rattling all the way. Quite the racket. I sure am glad we are not tent camping.