West Virginia and Kentucky - STR-2021-3

We spent the weekend of June 5/6 at Deep Creek Yacht Club doing many of our typical lake activities. We helped Melanie launch her powerboat, and rig and launch her Flying Scot. This enabled the new owners of our Flying Scot, Todd and Tami, to get some familiarization with a nearly identical boat. Tami crewed for Melanie in the first race on Saturday, which they won. Between the scheduled races, Darrell used Melanie's boat to take Todd for a sail. Saturday evening, the club had a farewell social for us and Tom and Heidi. On Sunday, Kris and Darrell were the race committee for the day running the sailing races. Tom and Heidi joined us on the race committee boat which made the afternoon more enjoyable and memorable. We ran two races that afternoon. After the races, Darrell tried Melanie's standup paddle board (SUP). Although his first tip on a SUP, he managed to disappoint the many onlookers by not falling off. Maybe a SUP is a future toy?

Monday, 7 June

Although we still had use of our room at the yacht club for Sunday night, we chose to spend our final night at Deep Creek Lake sleeping in Sprinty. Besides being a comfortable bed, we did not want to bring our stuff into the room only to have to pack it out in the morning. A reminder of the convenience of RV travel over staying in a hotel, although if we had been staying in a hotel, we would have had a suitcase and might could have taken our stuff to the room in one trip instead of several.

We both woke at first light, which is typical on a departure morning. After our morning routine, we set off for Colorado Springs, via West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas, before 8am. Our first activity was golf at Bel Meadow Public Golf Course in Mt Clare, WV. Google Maps wanted to route us on I-68 and I-79 - Sprinty chose the more scenic route via US 50 and some other blue highways in West Virginia. Most of the drive was hilly, twisty roads. As we neared the golf course, Kris expressed concern it was a mountain course. We were surprised to see the course was laid out in a fairly flat valley.

We arrived about an hour before our 10:30 tee time, and the tee box was open. After a few minutes chipping and putting, we headed for the first tee. Darrell hit his drive into the left rough, and Kris put her drive almost in the center of the fairway. We both made bogey. Tied. We remained tied until the 5th hole when Kris gained a stroke. We tied the next three holes, then Darrell gave up two more strokes. Kris led by three at the turn.

Kris picked up a couple more strokes on the 10th hole, then Darrell started picking up strokes and had it tied up by the 16th hole. Darrell picked up a stroke on the 17th to briefly lead for the first time all day only to give two strokes back on the final hole for Kris to have honors on the day.

In planning where Sprinty might spend the night, Darrell had a list of five options ranging in distance from 1 hour to 2.5 hours depending on when we finished golf. Starting an hour early enabled us to finish an hour earlier than expected, so we picked Plan D as our destination, a free roadside city park in St Albans, WX, 2 hours away. Enroute, Sprinty stopped at a McDonalds so Kris could pay up with a caramel frappe.

The roadside city park in St Albans is situated between the main road through town, US 60, and the Kanawha River. It had four pull through sites and is free to overnight. We pulled into a nice paved pull through site between trees providing shade.

As we were getting out of Sprinty, a guy drove by to let us know that a deer had crashed through a vacant store window in the shopping center across the road. The injured deer had apparently run across the highway, perhaps only minutes before we arrived. We saw the city police looking for the injured deer.

While the roadside park was okay for the night (we confirmed it's safety with the policeman looking for the deer), it was only 4pm. Although the weather forecast for tomorrow is rain likely, we still had hopes to bike ride in Lexington, 2.5 hours west. So we decided to continue on for another 45 minutes to Barboursville, WV to stay at a Cracker Barrel - which was not one of the original 5 options in today's plan. Executed Plan F.

Tonight is Sprinty's first overnight at a Cracker Barrel. He had planned to stay at one a couple of weeks ago until rain caused a route change. This Cracker Barrel is not immediately adjacent to I-64, and is set back from US 60, which meant less road noise. The reviews were pretty positive for previous RV stays, although Darrell just skimmed them and missed the comment about being next to the train tracks.

The Cracker Barrel has five RV sites for overnighting. When Sprinty arrived, four were taken up by cars, including one of the employee's cars. Sprinty chose to park in the back of the parking lot to allow RVs who needed the long sites to use the five RV sites.

Tuesday, 8 June

Sprinty's first Cracker-docking was a success. Neither of us heard any road noise from I-64 or US 60Over the fans. Based on the passing train noise, we concluded the track behind the Cracker Barrel must have a grade to it as we heard train engine noise on east bound trains, and west bound ones were nearly silent. At 6 AM Darrell heard the garbage truck picking up dumpsters next-door at the Hampton Inn.

As you're supposed to do when overnighting at Cracker Barrel, we decided to order breakfast using the Cracker Barrel app. We enjoyed the "Old timer's Breakfast", which we ordered in the Cracker Barrel app as takeout, and ate in Sprinty.

Check of weather apps found conflicting forecasts for when rain would start. We decided to chance it and drive to Lexington to ride the Legacy Trail. Sprinty jumped on I-64 and headed west. One of the first things we noticed on crossing into Kentucky was how much smoother the interstate pavement was compared to West Virginia. The crossing was uneventful, unlike Sprinty's last foray into Kentucky in August 2020 (see blog post "Welcome to Kentucky", https://2015sprinty.blogspot.com/2020/08/welcome-to-kentucky.html). Maybe the treatment Sprinty got in August was the newbie treatment, and he got a nicer welcome being a veteran?

The Legacy Trail runs north-south through Lexington among green spaces, neighborhoods and parks. Two highlights of the popular pathway are the Lexington YMCA and Kentucky Horse Park, which features a 1,200-acre working farm, museums and horse shows.

We parked Sprinty at the Coldstream Park at McGrathiana Boulevard, which is about the mid-point of the trail.

We chose to ride north first to the Kentucky Horse Park. Some of the trail was close to I-75, making for some road noise, but most of it was through thoroughbred horse farms. The trail was slightly hilly and had twists and turns to make it interesting. Along the trail were many remembrances for African-American Jockeys in the form of flag poles.

One of the trail information displays shared the history of the Coldstream, Maine Chance, and McGrathiana thoroughbred farms.

Another interesting tidbit was the origin of the Spindletop Stables by Miles Franklin "Frank" Yount who was one of the partners in a new and deeper Spindletop oil well, McFaddin No. 2, near Beaumont, Texas.

Sprinty visited Spindletop in November 2019 (blog post: "Museum District, Beaumont, TX", https://2015sprinty.blogspot.com/2018/11/museum-district-beaumont-tx.html)

As we neared the Kentucky Horse Park, we rode through the Kentucky Horse Park campground. There was an event at the Horse Park, so we watched the horses being walked from a distance as eBikes can spook horses. So we've been told.

We reached the northern end of the trail, then headed south. After a brief stop for lunch near where we started, we then rode to the southern end. The section from Coldstream Park to the southern end is more urban with more riding adjacent to surface streets.

About a mile from Sprinty on the return trip, it started to sprinkle. We almost made it before the rain started, but as we were both soaked from sweat front the ride, the sprinkle was refreshing. We packed up the bikes and started planning where to overnight. One of the points of interest on our list was the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY. As they were a Harvest Host, we decided that was our stop for the day. We called to confirm our stay, and drove the Bluegrass Parkway most of the way to New Haven. We could see and drove through thunderstorms with gully washer downpours, making us very glad our bike ride before the rain.

While one of the expectations of overnighting at a Harvest Host is to support their business, Kris and Darrell both were interested in visiting the museum. We got Sprinty settled on the edge of the parking area as instructed and headed for the museum. The listing for the museum in the Harvest Host app said they closed at 4pm, which we quickly learned was incorrect as they close at 5pm.

The Kentucky Railway Museum runs train rides at 1pm on Tuesdays and Saturdays. And Sprinty arrived at 2:25pm. Admission was only $5/each which was was a surprise - we thought it would be at least double that. The museum was smallish, and focused on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N Railroad) that had a major impact on the economic development of Kentucky.

The Kentucky Railway Museum purchased 17 miles of abandoned line from CSX Transportation (who acquired L&N in the 1980s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville_and_Nashville_Railroad). The Museum uses the track to run their train rides, and store cars for CSX, which produces income for the museum.

After viewing the inside exhibits, we walked outside to look at the train engines and cars awaiting restoration. We were surprised at the amount of deterioration in the line of engines and cars. As we walked down the line of engines and cars, we heard a yard engine operating on the other side, so we made our way across the tracks. We watched the yard engine move the Santa Fe 2546 engine down the track, moving it from one track to another. Then we watched a railway crane pick up a wheel assembly. One of the staff invited us to come closer and explained that the SF 2546 engine had a wheel with a flat spot that needed to have the wheels replaced. As the engine weighs over 250 tons, a crane is coming in tomorrow to lift the engine to replace the wheels. Watching the yard operations was fascinating and for us, the highlight of the museum visit.

The museum also has L&N 152 engine, the oldest Pacific type steam engine in the world. It pulled the presidential campaign train of Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt from Atlanta to Louisville on this very route in 1912. L&N 152 engine reportedly pulled the first leg of the train from Atlanta to New Orleans that took the gangster, Al Capone, to federal prison in the 1930s. Alas, the engine is currently out of service for renovations.

As we reviewed the plan for tomorrow, it looked like it was going to have to be inside activities. The weather app was forecasting 1.45" of rain for the day.

Wednesday, 9 June

Unlike the last night, sleeping at a train museum was very quiet. The train operations of the train museum cease at the end of working hours. As we were making breakfast, the heavy lift crane arrived. We briefly thought about sticking around to watch them lift the locomotive, but we figured that it would likely take half a day or more just to set up the crane.

As we did our morning routine, we were both able to do our tradition of giving cards. Today is the 37th anniversary of each of our second marriages. Years and years ago, we fell into a tradition of hiding cards to be found during special days like anniversaries and birthdays. The tradition of "surprising" the other with cards becomes even more challenging as we are always together and living in 90 square feet. We both managed to stealthily buy the cards, hide them in a shared space for weeks, and "hide" them to be found (like Easter eggs) on the anniversary.

The weather forecast for today was vastly different, indicating only a misty rain. We changed the plan to play golf at La Rue Country Golf Club located about 20 minutes away in Hodgenville, KY. With limited info on the web and too early to call, we set off to arrive at 8:00am, our guesstimate of their opening time. We arrived at 8am to find only two cars in the parking lot. We were able to go right off.

The course is a typical small town mom-and-pop, not the sort of course one normally associates with a "country club" title. The staff was very apologetic for the condition of the grass - they had received so much rain, every day, that they were behind in their mowing. He cautioned us to really watch where our balls went as they could get lost in the clover if they were not in the unmoved fairways. We both hit good first drives, which Kris converted into a par. Darrell tried, unsuccessfully, to cut the corner on the dog-leg second hole and paid a two-stroke price. And lost two more strokes before kicking it in gear. An almost hole-in-one on a par three helped. Kris made the turn at 2 over par and leading by three strokes. Kris played the second nine almost as well to have honors on the day with a 79.

After golf, we headed for Bowling Green, KY to visit the Lost River Cave (www.lostrivercave.org), which was the second point-of-interest from our planned route to Alaska last year. Before leaving, we checked and saw there were tickets available for the 12:00 and most of the rest for the day. When we arrived about 11:30, the first tour available was 1pm.

We used the time before our tour to eat lunch and hike the nature trails. The Blue Hole Trail passed three blue holes, where water disappears into an underground river.

A fairly easy walk, it was warm and humid. Along the way, we also passed Lost River Spring where some of the river surfaced as a spring. As the river flows 90 feet per second near the entrance to the cave, this spring is but a trickle of the water flowing in the river.

Our tour formed up at 1pm and was led by a Western Kentucky University student. Western Kentucky University assumed ownership of the Lost River Cave in the 1980s.

Our guide led us towards the cave entrance with a stop by Blue Hole No. 4 - the nicest of the four blue holes on the property. Our guide gave us some history of this blue hole:

• it was called the man-eating hole at the time of the Civil War
• the depth was sounded at over 400 feet deep, although it is actually only 17 feet deep
• the flow at the bottom of the hole was 90 feet per second

Our guide said Lost River Cave is the late test natural entry cave east of the Mississippi. At the entrance of the cave, our guide shared more history.

The river had been used for grist mills several times

The cave entrance had been used as a nightclub:

The river had powered a hydroelectric generator.

And Jesse James is thought to have hidden in the cave in 1868.

Before boarding the flat bottom boats, our guide provided safety instructions. Children were fitted with life jackets and adults given flotation cushions. She said if you accidentally fall over board (no one has ever fallen overboard), they would throw you a red cushion. We were instructed to grab the cushion and immediately hold the cushion to our chest, not strap it to our backs. Once the flotation cushion was firmly in position on our chest, we were told to stand up - the depth is only 4 feet deep.

The boat ride was fairly short and the guide pointed out cave features until we got to the man-made dam in the cave. The dam ensures the cave has water for the boat tours as the river flow is affected by rainfall. She said the end of the accessible river is only about 3/4 mile past the dam where the headroom above the river gets too small.

Another POI on our list was the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY about and hour and fifteen minutes north. With the change to Central Time, we gained an hour, so we added it to the plan for the day. We enjoyed a pleasant drive up I-65, which ran through Ohio County, the Home of Bluegrass. We did find it interesting that the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum was not located in Hartford, KY or Ohio County.

When we arrived at the museum, Sprinty spied a long parallel parking opportunity by the museum. Displaying the same nimbleness as the three-point U-turn last week, we nestled into the parking spot on the first try.

The first floor of the museum has five sections that take you to the history of bluegrass music. There we learned about the origins of the bluegrass era, with many attributes to Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and other early pioneers of bluegrass music.

We also learned that Elvis Presley was part of the demise of bluegrass music as a dominant form of music in this part of the state as rock and roll gained popularity.

The timeline of Bluegrass indicates that December 1945 was the beginnings of bluegrass. Bill Monroe's lineup of the Bluegrass Boys, which included Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts, play the Grand Ole Opry for the first time, become in the prototype for future bluegrass bands.

Bill Monroe, born in Racine, KY in Ohio County, is considered the "Father of Bluegrass Music".

Having filled the day with more activities than originally planned, Sprinty headed southwest to Pennyrile Forest State Resort Campground in Dawson Springs, KY. ReserveAmerica does not allow same day reservations, so we expected to get a "walk-up site". We arrived after the office had closed, picked a fairly suitable site, and settled in for the evening. The campground was average, not quite the quality of facilities we imagined for a "Resort" campground. The equestrian sites are newer and better.